Is it possible to calculate or mathematically prove if a game is balanced / fair?

Posted by Lurca on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Lurca
Published on 2011-10-21T13:02:17Z Indexed on 2013/10/28 10:02 UTC
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game-design

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game-mechanics

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balance

This question is not focussed on video games but games in general. I went to a boardgame trade fair yesterday and asked myself if there is a way to calculate the fairness of a game. Sure, some of them require a good portion of luck, but it might be possible to calculate if some character is overpowered. Especially in role-playing games and trading card games. How, for example, can the creators of "Magic: The Gathering" make sure that there isn't the "one card that beats them all", given the impressive number of available cards?

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