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- Jan 28, 2011
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DU is talking about player validation. In his view, a game is unbalanced when there are "useless" skills which you should never pick. It can have different difficulty curves based on what you pick but there should be moments where what you choose is validated in some way, otherwise why is it there? (This is more about classless systems than those with classes)
A good example is Deus Ex where you can finish the game by only pumping Poison Resistance and Swimming...it will be very hard, but you get the point.
According to DU in 2006, there are limits to "very hard", though: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-single-player-crpgs.13876/page-3#post-251024
There are limits. That's the balancing part. Running with your example, if a Doctor has an easier time through the game than a Gambler, that doesn't mean the game is necessarily unbalanced. The crucial issue is that it's not phenomenally hard or phenomenally easy but it's possible never-the-less within what one would be expect to be reasonable limits.