Slippery Slope?
yumcake
Join Date: 2004-04-27 Member: 28254Members
Join Date: 2004-04-27 Member: 28254Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Is this a good way to change a game?</div> This is not a bitter post, please keep that in mind, I love NS and I say these things because it's beta; it's not perfect, and my 2 cents might help improve it. I've been just playing NS since 1.04 but have only been lurking in the forums, I'm not new to NS just because I don't post.
I enjoy NS and Combat respectively in their own rights. I understand that many of the changes made were to make combat games fast and furious. Many were made to stop NS stalemates. However, what bothered me into finally posting is this concept of "slippery slopes" being used to implement and explain many of the recent changes. This is the idea where once you start down the path to losing, victory becomes increasingly harder to come by. I know, this idea was put in so that the stalemates common to earlier version of NS would be broken.
Please don't condemn this post into flamebait for mentioning it, I'm using this as a frame of reference only because it's the most common frame....Counter-strike.3-4 years ago, Counter-strike allowed money to be accumulated indefinitely. There was no compensation for losing/winning a round, cash was given only for killing. This led to 1 or 2 players purchasing the big fat rifles, while every other player in the game had pistols trying to take down the big dog...but the rich player just bought another rifle and got richer...
Yes giving an edge to those that earn it is partially a good idea for how to end stalemates in the game. <i>However</i>, you can't do this without taking something away. If one side gets more powerful, consequently the other side is relatively weaker as a result.
A fun thing to do in NS (because I'm a jerk) Is to devour helpless marines as an onos, knowing all they can do is watch in futility as they are being digested. Conversely, I also hate being <u>(any type of alien)</u> and get vaporized by 5 HAs sitting in the back of a room with level 3 hmgs...While these situations are fun for those dishing out the pain, it's boring for those who just have to endure the inevitability of failure. The losers are at fault for having allowed the enemy to reach these upgrades(though sometimes you're a late joiner that just has to deal with it). This is just how it is. NS has many situations where your ability to dish out and absorb damage within a particular period of time is incapable of leaving hope for victory. This takes the victim out of the game, turning him into a veritable pincushion for the enemy.
/*(Skim or skip this common example if you already understand what I mean)
1) He's standing halfway down a hallway as a light marine he likes this spot since he gets skulks in a nice clean chokepoint. He can even have a level 3 shotty. A healthy fade with focus, cara, and celerity blinks right into him, slaps twice and blinks away. Marine has lower mobility, and needs to hit the fade with solidly placed shotguns hits 3 times at close range to kill. Fade has wide-arc weapon, only needs 2 hits to kill(assume this fade doesn't suck).
This marine has to put out 3 difficult shots in the time the fade gets 2 easy shots out, it leaves the marine with a pretty small glimmer of hope. The fade is this powerful because he's good and earned them. However this marine could also be good but his teammates were easy prey... giving the fade levels. Now this good player's skills are almost meaningless facing these circumstances. Telling him that he should have played better EARLIER is cold comfort when all he can do is wait for a new round to rectify his mistakes.
(End example)*/
Don't get me wrong, I know both teams still get to use skill to factor into the win, because it's their early game antics that earn them this momentum. However, all too often, the losers must just sit there and be entertaining targets until the game is over. Resistance prolongs the inevitable but no hope of victory is offered in the meantime.
Now I get to my point. This observation on the slippery slope idea is the most important thing I want to say in this post. It is just not fun to wait to lose the round. It is not entertaining to keep struggling just so the victors can have a more satisfying triumph. This is why f4 junkies ARE f4 junkies. They pop up because they find themselves in hopeless situations that decided long before the round is over. Now they just gotta dance for the victors until the round finally ends and they can play again. (Yes, I know there are exceptions to this, the problem is that they ARE exceptions because they are not the norm)The losers started up NS to play and have fun, not wait and entertain other people. Changes to allow for a fighting chance each stage of the game would make people get hyped up instead of progressively more bored as their chance of winning decreases. Back and forth games are great if the stalemate is because of an intense fight rather than a lack of ways to win.
-The above is what I really want heard, the rest is a follow-up to direct the observation towards solution; rather than just a post with me unconstructively pointing out problems.
Again, accessing the counter-strike frame of reference...The massive jump in damage values in CS guns during early betas, allowed the poor boy with the pistol to headshot and kill the guy with the better gun. The rifle was still a good earned perk for having better overall killing ability. But as for the pistol boy he was disadvantaged, but still had a fighting chance.
In regards to NS, this may mean that some tweaks may have to come in another form than changed numbers, a change in the system may be necessary to deal with the problems. Honestly, I am very glad focus got nerfed by costing 2 points. It was giving aliens an early edge that helped them extend the edge even more in late game. However, now I find aliens having to bite 2-4 times, maybe more, because of both armor and resupply feeding multiple medpacks. What is the next step to balance the now overly weak bite of a skulk? 1pt focus was overpowered, 2pt focus was underpowered. Instead of changing pt costs, we need to find a middle ground that works. This means changes to damage values, or maybe even changes to the entire leveling system to allow for level 1,2, and 3 focus.
This post isn't about re-balancing focus, my suggestion is flawed and is not by itself a solution, the suggestion just demonstrates what I mean by trying smaller more precise changes rather the radical respawn changes and pt cost changes that throw balance back and forth over the fine line where the game is equally unbalanced for both sides(i.e perfect balance) <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I enjoy NS and Combat respectively in their own rights. I understand that many of the changes made were to make combat games fast and furious. Many were made to stop NS stalemates. However, what bothered me into finally posting is this concept of "slippery slopes" being used to implement and explain many of the recent changes. This is the idea where once you start down the path to losing, victory becomes increasingly harder to come by. I know, this idea was put in so that the stalemates common to earlier version of NS would be broken.
Please don't condemn this post into flamebait for mentioning it, I'm using this as a frame of reference only because it's the most common frame....Counter-strike.3-4 years ago, Counter-strike allowed money to be accumulated indefinitely. There was no compensation for losing/winning a round, cash was given only for killing. This led to 1 or 2 players purchasing the big fat rifles, while every other player in the game had pistols trying to take down the big dog...but the rich player just bought another rifle and got richer...
Yes giving an edge to those that earn it is partially a good idea for how to end stalemates in the game. <i>However</i>, you can't do this without taking something away. If one side gets more powerful, consequently the other side is relatively weaker as a result.
A fun thing to do in NS (because I'm a jerk) Is to devour helpless marines as an onos, knowing all they can do is watch in futility as they are being digested. Conversely, I also hate being <u>(any type of alien)</u> and get vaporized by 5 HAs sitting in the back of a room with level 3 hmgs...While these situations are fun for those dishing out the pain, it's boring for those who just have to endure the inevitability of failure. The losers are at fault for having allowed the enemy to reach these upgrades(though sometimes you're a late joiner that just has to deal with it). This is just how it is. NS has many situations where your ability to dish out and absorb damage within a particular period of time is incapable of leaving hope for victory. This takes the victim out of the game, turning him into a veritable pincushion for the enemy.
/*(Skim or skip this common example if you already understand what I mean)
1) He's standing halfway down a hallway as a light marine he likes this spot since he gets skulks in a nice clean chokepoint. He can even have a level 3 shotty. A healthy fade with focus, cara, and celerity blinks right into him, slaps twice and blinks away. Marine has lower mobility, and needs to hit the fade with solidly placed shotguns hits 3 times at close range to kill. Fade has wide-arc weapon, only needs 2 hits to kill(assume this fade doesn't suck).
This marine has to put out 3 difficult shots in the time the fade gets 2 easy shots out, it leaves the marine with a pretty small glimmer of hope. The fade is this powerful because he's good and earned them. However this marine could also be good but his teammates were easy prey... giving the fade levels. Now this good player's skills are almost meaningless facing these circumstances. Telling him that he should have played better EARLIER is cold comfort when all he can do is wait for a new round to rectify his mistakes.
(End example)*/
Don't get me wrong, I know both teams still get to use skill to factor into the win, because it's their early game antics that earn them this momentum. However, all too often, the losers must just sit there and be entertaining targets until the game is over. Resistance prolongs the inevitable but no hope of victory is offered in the meantime.
Now I get to my point. This observation on the slippery slope idea is the most important thing I want to say in this post. It is just not fun to wait to lose the round. It is not entertaining to keep struggling just so the victors can have a more satisfying triumph. This is why f4 junkies ARE f4 junkies. They pop up because they find themselves in hopeless situations that decided long before the round is over. Now they just gotta dance for the victors until the round finally ends and they can play again. (Yes, I know there are exceptions to this, the problem is that they ARE exceptions because they are not the norm)The losers started up NS to play and have fun, not wait and entertain other people. Changes to allow for a fighting chance each stage of the game would make people get hyped up instead of progressively more bored as their chance of winning decreases. Back and forth games are great if the stalemate is because of an intense fight rather than a lack of ways to win.
-The above is what I really want heard, the rest is a follow-up to direct the observation towards solution; rather than just a post with me unconstructively pointing out problems.
Again, accessing the counter-strike frame of reference...The massive jump in damage values in CS guns during early betas, allowed the poor boy with the pistol to headshot and kill the guy with the better gun. The rifle was still a good earned perk for having better overall killing ability. But as for the pistol boy he was disadvantaged, but still had a fighting chance.
In regards to NS, this may mean that some tweaks may have to come in another form than changed numbers, a change in the system may be necessary to deal with the problems. Honestly, I am very glad focus got nerfed by costing 2 points. It was giving aliens an early edge that helped them extend the edge even more in late game. However, now I find aliens having to bite 2-4 times, maybe more, because of both armor and resupply feeding multiple medpacks. What is the next step to balance the now overly weak bite of a skulk? 1pt focus was overpowered, 2pt focus was underpowered. Instead of changing pt costs, we need to find a middle ground that works. This means changes to damage values, or maybe even changes to the entire leveling system to allow for level 1,2, and 3 focus.
This post isn't about re-balancing focus, my suggestion is flawed and is not by itself a solution, the suggestion just demonstrates what I mean by trying smaller more precise changes rather the radical respawn changes and pt cost changes that throw balance back and forth over the fine line where the game is equally unbalanced for both sides(i.e perfect balance) <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Comments
You seem to forget that this is an RTS+FPS. The marine and fade example you gave is completetly invalid imo because the marine costs 10 res to supply whereas the fade costs 50. On equal footings it means each marine only has to get 3/5th of a hit and the fade has to swipe 10 times to kill all the marines. Clearly this isn't how it's played but serves an example to the unfair comparisson.
As far as giving the losers a fighting chance you have to look at the types of games played. Once a clan game is decided it's over in a matter of minutes, pub games drag on for an extra 20-30 mins because the com turtles. There are suggestions in the ideas thread to fix this. CS used to be about whoever had the better and quicker aim, hence players could get high kill ratios, 50-2 was common for a decent player, even giving them a powerful pistol did nothing to help head on fights it was only really for ambushes or when you faced the entire team and had to weapon switch (yes you didn't even need it for the riffles as you could very effectively shotgun with the AWP, and they think it's bad now <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
I understand what you mean about the momentum of the winning team but that just depends on how you prefer your games.
Meto
Nerfing the 'slippery slope' condition will also remove the important tech/hive system - if there was little advantage to getting the higher tech or little reason to put up another hive (higher tech or additional hives cause the slippery slope scenerio - thats why theres a tech rush or hive drive <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
I have experienced many games where one team seemed assured of victory only to suddenly find itself in trouble of defeat - a concentrated surge of teamwork vs a overly confidant team = defeat for the overly confidant. The F4 nubs actually ensure that a losing streak become a loss, if you use teamwork and cunning you always have a chance, however slight, of catching your opponents napping.
true. the problem is the slope is neither slippery enough, and it is one way
the end game for aliens having entire map + 3 hives *can* be VERY slow... marines sit in their nice little base with a res node, and some high level GL's and hmg's... i've seen this part of the game dragged out for up to 40 minutes
on all the servers I admin, once there is a 3 hive alien team and the marines have started to sit in base, i simply put a 5 minute time limit on the game. either marines break out, aliens win, or the map is changed.
The greatest games of NS I've ever had were ones that had no clear victor for 20 minutes.
Now I'm finding it common to have a clear victor by 6 minutes in to the game. A game with no hope of winning/losing after less than 10 minutes, is not fun for me. I want a hard fought 20/30 minute battle to decide who will win the match. It is <b>those</b> sort of games that keep me playing NS, those 1 in every 5 games, where a win is always in doubt, and loss is always just withing reach.
However, you see this being the case more often for the aliens than the marines...
I'm really at a loss on how to solve this problem.
IMO this is started by one team gaining a initial advantage - be it more res or hive lock down (obviously this excludes a successfull rush - thats not a slope but a cliff), or any other similiar situation.
This in turn allows the advantaged team to gain a upperhand in the tech/evo rush, which puts the other team at a greater disadvantage.
This results in the disadvantaged team using more res to offset the tech/evo advantage (dieing more often, forced to use higher lifeforms without decent chamber support, weapons and static defences instead of upgrades, etc etc) - the res of the disadvantaged team will be used to maintain a position, whereas the advantaged team can spare res to further its tech/evo advantage.
The disadvantaged team is eventually overwhelmed by the highly advantaged team.
Thats what causes the 'slippery slope', but is that not a natural progression ? If your team allows the enemy to gaina advantage would it not be expected of the enemy to take advantage to increase its advantage till your team is defeated, natural progression - keep the pressure applied till you are victorious.
OK, say we introduce systems to halt or prevent this 'slippery slope'. This will remove the need to achieve the initial advantage, and the gameplay of keeping an advantage - after all if its possible to turn the thing around no matter bad things get why bother rushing for res or tech/evo. IMO the only way to remove the 'slippery slope' is to artificially remove the one teams advantage - say a bulk res injection if the one team gets far behind or a sudden tech/evo handout for the tech/evo disadvantaged.
It is not really required to remove this 'slippery slope', as it is needed in CS as it doesn't have the same impact - yes for one NS round if you fall behind you will probably lose, but then a new round starts and both teams start again equal. In CS the profits from advantages gained in the one round are carried through to the next, so if you do bad the one round you will be disadvantaged in the next so on till map change, in CS it makes sense not in NS.
Nobody said anything about base camping, they said how is it possible for a team to pull out of an early game fiasco.
Edit: This is why you have people F4ing, they know the game is in the bag, and they can't win. This happens more often for the aliens, but I've seen some marine f4s....marines base camping is due PRECISELY because that they know they've lost, but they still want to fight, the thing is, they just fight, they don't fight to win.
You have to make it so that marines (or aliens) can still fight to win, not just fight.
The F4 problem is really centered on this issue. When you know you can't win and that there is no real way to fight back, then why fight at all?
The F4 problem is really centered on this issue. When you know you can't win and that there is no real way to fight back, then why fight at all? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
maybe, but how often do you see that marine resistence actually breaking out of base, and gaining back substantial map control? I frequently see games when marines have 7 v 2 nodes, both hives locked down, and yet aliens still gain momentum back with skilled players and good teamwork.
1.) Make the starting rt worth two standard rts (reduces the effect of having less rts)
2.) Increasing the cost of rts to 20 to compensate.
3.) Beef hive 3 abilities (obvious way to ease alien endgame - marine slippery slope is far less acute than alien one)
The slippery slope issue only applies for the alien team. IMO the main reason lies with cheap marine firepower (e.g 10 res for a shotgun). Aliens need large amounts of individual resources to get advanced life forms (e.g Fade is 50 res), and are unable to replace them soon upon death. Therefore, skulks will always be more common than LA/LMGs. And even LA/LMGs are useful against all life forms - the skulk gets ripped apart in 0.1< seconds with heavy weapons.
Most games that I have recently played (10/10 teams public) have been quite frustrating. So called "fast games are better" dogma has shortened games, but most of time you feel that you can´t affect situation (winning or losing).
Either marines control all res nozzles and you hide as skulk in vents and wait for res for bigger thingy or aliens get 1 - 2 good fades who owns marines. There is possibility of tactics and teamplay, but when slope is too slippery for other team your doings and abilities (teamplay, tactics, alien better movement, marines ranged firepower) won´t help you.
When most of time in game you lose or win big time it gets just boring. Slope should be slippery enought to give you feeling of that anything can happen in game.
That just wasted my time, I finally built enough defense ect, finally recaptured a third hive ect, or as a marine finally setup in a hive, finally killed a second hive...and boom, 5 people f4 and its over.
Comebacks do occur, its unfortunate people don't wait for them anymore!
The F4 problem is really centered on this issue. When you know you can't win and that there is no real way to fight back, then why fight at all? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
maybe, but how often do you see that marine resistence actually breaking out of base, and gaining back substantial map control? I frequently see games when marines have 7 v 2 nodes, both hives locked down, and yet aliens still gain momentum back with skilled players and good teamwork. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
The only reason aliens can manage to come back in those situations is that the marines get complacent and don't push to end the game, and choose to run around killing res nodes, locking down worthless areas, etc. Generally just waiting until they can get the big guns to play around with, so they can shoot hive 1 aliens with 3/3 weapons and build a siege base to kill the hive instead of just going in. If you give your opponent some slack in any game, if they're smart, they'll use it, and probably be able to turn it on you easily.
As for marine comebacks, they CAN (and do) happen quite often. All it takes it 1 marine to slip out during the fracas and build a phasegate somewhere, and bam. They've instantly gained some time, and if it's in a hive, then you can probably say goodbye to it.
They could have come back, but we had every resource nozzle except their own, and we managed to kill them off as the hive died and get rid of the phase gate.
I did make a difference that game though, as fade I was something like 60/3. I placed about 5 resource nodes as gorge, built lots of defense towers/OC's and other upgrades before I went fade as well.
You can make a difference!
Also, as for resources costing 20, the problem with that is aliens can't gorge/place a nozzle right away. That is what makes or breaks aliens at the beginning, they NEED resource nozzles. Alot of people just save up for early fade and end up dying once and we only have 1 hive, 2 resources and its over cause marines have every other one. <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If you have the above you should be winning, or else performing well throughout the length of a game would be pointless. All you would need is one good strategy, a one shot-deal if you will, and you would win because there is no consequence for poor early effort.
In a game where teams are balanced skill wise and organization wise this 'slippery slope' is absolutely necessary or else determining a winner would be impossible. If one side employs an effective strategy crippling the opponents, then the other team, of equal skill, should not be capable of recovering or else a permanent stalemate will be met.
Not very likely though, and probably noob comm that didn't beacon/relocate/notice his base was being eaten.
But as a general rule you'd be surprised how effective a combined attack on the marine start can be in a lost game where the cocky comm didn't bother to defend the base, especially if you can take out the obs and pg fast. I'd say aliens already have the comeback tactic they need.
Because of the fighting, of course. That's what combat is about, and I don't mind a good fight now and then in classic too. Good fight's are not marching into the hive with 3/3 heavies and smashing the one hive skulks, good fights are the ones where you have a chance of achieving something, but if you don't, it doesn't matter. Like marine end-games. You can't win, but you can sure as hell take a couple of onos or a hive with you.
In my opinion this kind of gaming should be moved to combat, which the original betas did very well. The thing is, Flayra has this weird obsession about making combat fast, so this doesn't happen anymore. We have to get our share of good fights from somewhere. If not from combat, then endgames.
LONG POST WARNING!!! ... SKIP DOWN TOWARDS THE END IF YOU WANT THE IMPORTANT POINTS. LOOK FOR
------
SLACKERS START HERE
------
I think part of the problem is that 3/3 endgame vanilla marines are still effective, but endgame skulks suck, and give out nice, free rfk. A hive - the most important alien building - can go down easily to a team of light marines.
However for aliens, the same number of vanilla skulks will only scratch an undefended marine base (comm just beacons them home, rfk makes up the res!). Any damage they do can be fixed with 5 res worth of welder, dropped instantly. As opposed to 10 res of gorge, which takes time to gestate, longer to get the res, and puts a skulk out of battle for a while.
Electrify anything, and it will be skulkproof the res of the game. Fade hurts it a bit? Weld it up!
What evens it up for aliens? Lack of coordination for marines, crappy comms (often the cause of lack of coordination), and skilled fades for aliens. Coordination is low in most pubs, but high in clan servers (tend to have better ppl and better comms), and that really changes the marine's strength.
I find that on bad pubs, aliens win most of the time. With a good comm and a team that listens and has decent aim, marines will win almost every time.
Here are the two main slippery slopes that I see:
1) Marines stick together, follow orders, consistantly beat the skulks, they take down rts and assasinate gorges. No rts = no res to put more up and no higher lifeforms. GG aliens.
2) Aliens manage to survive to get a good fade who doesn't die for the rest of the round (except to go onos), marines get raped, and their rts disappear. Aliens win.
The fun, back and forth games seem to happen when these conditions are met:
a) Marines have a good comm and good coordination, but a low number of rts
b) Aliens have res control and more higher lifeforms, but not very many ocs, and not too much coordination.
It ends up that the marines keep making pg rushes and taking down hives, the gorges put it back up, jpers come in... etc. A fade or two rush the marine base, take out the arms lab. The marines locate to the hive they just took down. Etc, etc, etc.
------
SLACKERS START HERE
------
So in summary, here are the problems:
1) In late game, vanilla marines > vanilla skulks. Skulks suck vs 3/3 vanilla marines, and barely scratch heavies. Jpers also own them. And skulks aren't very good at hurting marine bases - beacon and electricity. Whereas light marines will pwn a hive, and with a few heavy weapons and in groups, can take on higher lifeforms.
Possible solution: My suggestion to increase skulk speed, but keep balance at higher levels.
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=68664&hl=flayra' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...68664&hl=flayra</a>
2) The gamewinning power of a single skilled fade - he'll own anything early game.
Possible solution: Not sure.
3) The res systems. This problem is made worse by problem #1. Marines in a crunch (crunch = 1 rt) will probably have 3/3 upgrades (note that vanilla marines are still worth something), and a few heavy weapons for the best soldiers.
Aliens in a crunch will have NOTHING. 1 hive armor (weak), and a fade who managed to suvive, and can't kill any buildings before the heavy train arrives, drives him away, and welds it up in a jiffy.
Possible solution: ability to give res to gorges, or gorges getting more res to build. Thus you have permagorges who can put up rts almost as fast as a comm.
4) Not really mentioned, but the ultra power of motion tracking. IF there was a counter - i.e. if you could build sensory chambers FREELY (freely meaning you don't castrate fades and onos in the process), it would be O.K. This is actually a part of #1, at this point in the game, marines have better guns than skulks have teeth (teeth do the same amt of damage the whole game, but marines get better weapons in upgrades, don't say that focus is the counter to damage upgrades), AND they know where the skulks are. Those little puppies don't stand a chance.
Possible solution: a counter to mt, such as more chamber freedom. There are ideas everywhere about this, and I hope THIS is the "big unnannounaced system".
What annoys me more than the slippery slope is the difference in balance at different skill levels. I want aliens to win, I go to any pub. I want marines to win, I go to a few select servers with good teamwork, good aim, and good comms. But I think degreasing the slippery slope will solve this problem.
2.0/3.0 is a bloody godsend in comparison.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, what I would like to see is walking skulks - skulks only - not showing up on MT. Standard running skulks, yes. Walking, no.
I think what people are asking for is this: Assume that there's a slippery slope on both sides of a hill. One side is aliens, and the other is marines. It might look something like this:
<!--c1--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->
^
/ \
/ \
<!--c2--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->
It's a pretty pointy slope. At the beginning of the game you're balanced on the top. The smallest nudge of power on the part of either side will send a team down the slope.
But maybe it would be more fun if the slope looked like this:
<!--c1--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->
___
/ \
/ \
<!--c2--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->
On the top of this slope, there's more room for pushes and withdrawls, failures and comebacks. Once you are pushed too far, you start to slide, and it's game over. But before that, you still have some room to manoeuver, and a small early failure does not guarantee the loss of the match.
This seems to be what the original poster was getting at. I agree. I think the best games are the ones with multiple comebacks on both sides, where you really don't know who will win until the game is almost over. There's no point playing if you know what will happen. We play for the excitement, not to see pixels change colour in front of us. There's no excitement if it's a foregone conclusion.