Interbellum Balance Team
Interbellum does not seek to emulate Warhammer Online – we want the freedom to make whatever changes are necessary to give the best experience to our users, and to keep the experience fresh. In order to do so, we need specialized team members who can consider the tightly-intertwined nature of class balance, and test any changes before they go live. The balance team sits in a unique position on the Interbellum staff. In order to collect feedback from and discuss changes with the community, they must be public-facing. On the other hand, they have the ability to implement many of their ideas for testing, and thus answer to both public and private team leads.
Job Responsibilities
- Collect feedback from the community about implemented changes.
- Develop and refine new changes and content for various seasons of Interbellum.
- Work with other back-facing staff to establish a coherent design direction.
- Assist in the implementation of proposed changes.
- Interact with the community in specific areas of public communication such as balance forums.
Hiring Requirements
- Must have demonstrated consistently positive interactions with and within the community.
- Must be an active member and participant in the community.
- Must be highly proficient in the English language, both written and verbal.
- Must be able to attend scheduled live staff meetings as required.
- Must have the ability to present and debate ideas from a multitude of angles without falling into logical fallacies listed at the end of this document.
- Must have a high degree of knowledge in multiple classes and specializations as well as play styles within the game.
- Must demonstrate an ability to remain respectful and calm when under direct attack.
- Must have the ability to push to implementation and test things even if you did not agree with the outcome of the discussion. As well as present to the community those ideas without dissent.
Authority and Privileges
- Balance team has zero additional privileges on the live server.
- Balance team has all additional privileges on the test server.
- Balance team members may at times be given game accounts separate from their personal game accounts with pre-leveled characters for the purpose of collecting play experience with an active discussion.
- Balance team has moderation privileges on the balance section of the forum and are held to the same standards as Game Moderators in using them.
- Balance team has access to standard team channels, as well as all game design channels.
Logical Fallacies
Balance team is held to a high standard of debate practice. We aim to avoid logical fallacies within our discussions and some are listed here. Also the balance team is not required to engage with discussion from community members who also utilize these fallacies.
- Argumentum ad hominem– Attacking the person who is providing the argument rather than the argument itself. This also includes attacking the source of information.
- Argumentum ad antiquitatem– This is making an argument to tradition. Aka there is no reason to change this because it has always been this way.
- Argumentum ad ignorantiam – This is making assumptions that something is true simply because it hasn’t been proven false. At Interbellum, the burden of proof falls to the person attempting to create a change, usually the original poster. As such, they are required to prove their statements are true, the opposition is not required to prove they are false.
- Argumentum ad nauseam – Repeating an argument over and over doesn’t make it any more true.
- Argumentum ad verecundiam – Citing people who have zero expertise in the subject matter in an attempt to prove that other people share the same opinion and therefore it should be taken as fact.
- Circulus in demonstrando – Circular arguments are when you use what you are trying to prove as proof of that thing.
- Cum hoc ergo propter hoc – Correlation does not equal causation.
- Dicto simpliciter – Sweeping generalizations.
- Non Sequitur – When describing a chain of events or causes, you must not skip steps and you must support each step with arguments.
- Red herring – Bringing up random things that have no value to the discussion as a means of derailing.
- Straw man – This is the fallacy of refuting an extreme version of somebody’s argument, rather than the actual argument they’ve made.
- Tu quoque – Just because other people have made errors, does not make your error any better. An error is an error is an error.
Miscellaneous
- Balance team reports to the Lead Designer for most matters. They report to Community Managers for any front-facing responsibilities.
- Any issue you have with a Lead Designer should be taken to a lead from another department (Currently: Director of Art, Community Manager, Lead Developer) and they will handle it according to their procedures.
- You are expected to be active in #game-design chats within the discord, balance forums, as well as actively play the game. Any prolonged absences should be communicated to the Lead Designer.
- The Balance Team collectively recruits their own members through a trial by fire process. Potential members are brought into a discussion and appraised by the entire balance team.
- Community Manager reserves the right to restrict any Balance Team member’s rights to public access.