I have read a lot of comments about how the Balance Council is flawed because of who can vote, but I think this misses the problem.
There seems to me that the purpose of the Balance Council was to make sure every cards ever created in Gwent was having an interest, and that decks created around them could be fun. With no new cards being added to the game ever again (for the moment), there is a risk otherwise that players will manage to design "optimum decks" by copying each others after each loss, and that ultimately, the meta would freeze and no new deck ideas will come out and everybody will play with a couple of decks by faction, more or less nullifying each others. The game will become boring and no more than a glorified version of rock / paper / scissors.
To try to avoid that, power was given to some players to vote to nerf or buff any of the cards. The results of the first two votes, unfortunately, tends to nullify each others, with cards reviled by some being nerfed on the first round, to be immediately buffed again on the second round. So the danger above is not avoided and the purpose of the Balance Council become void, but for a few cyclic buff/debuff on popular cards.
I think the true way to try to achieve the original purpose of the above idea is not by allowing or restricting more or less players to vote, as if some players were smarter or more experienced than others, which would make them carry a more informed decision. Because the natural tendencies become to nerf cards of the decks you are losing against, and buff some of your favourite cards for easier wins. But cards not use today will remain unused and popular cards will go through a lot of buff/nerf cycles for the foreseeable future.
It seems to me the problem is not in the choice of voters but with the choice of cards.
I think the above purpose will be achieved in a much better way if the list of cards you were allowed to vote for was restricted by statistics:
- Only the X numbers of less used cards would be open to vote for a buff, in the hope of them being more useful in decks
- Only the Y numbers of the most popular cards would be open to vote for a nerf, in the hope off them not being used as often for a time.
There still would be some cycle involved as cards being nerfed would not be used for a while until becoming so unpopular they would be eligible to be buffed again, while cards being buffed will go the opposite way.
But by basing the choices on the cards usage statistics, no matter who would be the players voting, my guess is that it would take time for new meta to appear, and cards becoming more or less popular and being open for a buff or a nerf.
I would have created a new discussion for this idea, but unfortunately, I don't have enough post count.
Cheers,
Cat
