Inevitably, after days or weeks of playing the game, players will reach corners of your game that you never reached. In the case of social games, they will amass hundreds of more friends playing the game with them than you ever tested the game. As you constantly make improvements to the game, they will find new ways that these features interact with their play patterns. You will expect players to take one change that you make one way and they may take it an entirely different way.

Sometimes these different play patterns can imbalance the game. For games that are on the Internet, some argue that if the imbalance affects only that person and they seem to be enjoying the game and are not imbalancing other players, they should be allowed to continue in that manner. I would argue that if the play pattern they are experiencing is so far removed from the intended patterns of play so as to become unrecognizable, it’s a problem. I know that once you’ve let something imbalanced release, it’s out there and it’s difficult to take back what once was given (“nerfing”). However, I feel that those who are most vocal are the most invested and they will continue to play after an exploit is fixed. They will find a new play pattern that they enjoy. There will be many more new players that deserve to have a more enjoyable, balanced game.

Imbalances, even if they don’t give one player a distinct advantage over others, can have unforeseen consequences. If you find a strategy that gets you massive income with minimal effort, eventually your own economy is so out of balance that any future monetary rewards decrease in perceived value exponentially. This can have a profound long term effect on a desire to stick with the game once you’ve (too) quickly powered through all of the content available and see any future monetary rewards as worthless. I know that even though a cheat code may exist that will give me unlimited money in a builder game, I won’t play the game that way because the fun is in the journey, not the destination. There’s a reason that builder games don’t release with an infinite amount of money at the player’s disposal (at least, by default). Once you’ve got all the money in the world and one of every piece of content, what new is there to work toward? What do you get the player who already got themselves everything?

There was a time that I was mad about trading card games. I played Magic: The Gathering from high school into college. Star Wars TCG, Overpower, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and several more, I played them, collected them and had a ton of fun. I even helped do some demo plays of the Overpower game at a couple conventions and competed in some tournaments. Since those days though, I really haven’t run in the circles of people who actually gather in person to play card games with any regularity. Perhaps that’s why then I take some time to play games that use a deck and card mechanic whenever I can.

I interviewed someone for a design position recently who shared my interest in Zynga’s (formerly Challenge Games’) Warstorm on Facebook. It takes a really interesting approach at playing a collectible card game asynchronously. He also mentioned how much he likes to play Magic. When I hopped down to my comic book store to buy my weekly haul, I grabbed a pack of the latest set of Magic and tore into the pack (after I paid for it). It was just as exciting as before, the thrill of not knowing what you’ll get, but knowing that at least one of the cards will be a rare. Reading new rules and thinking of the ways in which they will play with existing cards, starting to plan a deck is like delicious candy for me. When done right in a digital game, cards can add a fun level of planning and work as an easily understood metaphor for the luck of the draw. Still, nothing beats playing a few games in person and I’d love to have a few hours to put together a killer deck and square off with a fellow player!

Now Dad works 6 days a week and I get home by 8:00 (if I’m lucky). Most days after dinner’s over and the mess cleaned up, I just don’t have the energy to play a game. I feel so old. I have stacks of games that I want to play and feel terrible about not playing, but I just can’t muster the engagement to begin such a process. I know, I know, 1st world problems, right?

I don’t know if it’s totally energy. I think there’s a number of factors at work here. Since I spend all day working on Facebook games and studying them, I think I’ve become more attuned to the lowest common denominator, zero barrier to entry, commitment free diversions. I still play three to five games at least every day, but they’re all on Facebook. The biggest thing I miss is playing games with friends. I miss having friends over to just hang out all day and play games. Everyone I know has responsibilities and can’t get even a single day free to just hang out. I know that XBox Live is out there, but I don’t want to game with strangers and I find myself more often than not exasperated by the level of discourage offered by random people on XBox Live.

I suppose before too long I’ll get pulled back in and I’ll forsake all the work I have to do around the house, cooking and cleaning, chores, books to read, etc. Eventually I’ll find a good game that will hook me and keep me up all night. Of course, I’m getting too old for that too. Maybe the game industry as a whole is making awesome games at the rate that a college student would have time to play and I’m playing them at the rate of a man with a house and a full time job plays them. Perhaps my reach is exceeding my grasp and I need to focus more, just pick one game and attack it until I conquer it. Mass Effect 2 is a bit more complicated than Pong, but I think it’s time to get back to saving the galaxy.

Rebel.fm is fun, with a few guys who answer gaming and relationship questions (NSFW).

Weekend Confirmed, with Shacknews’ Garnett Lee and Brian Lahey and Jeff Canatta from The Totally Rad Show. Long, in-depth and passionate.

Player One Podcast with a bunch of guys from various backgrounds, lots of in-jokes abound.

A Life Well Wasted. Robert Ashley’s fusion of stories about gaming culture and remixed rad music. Very occasional, but worth it.

Brainy Gamer. Michael Abbot assembles great game designers and creators for roundtable discussions on games.