What's with all the balance talk recently?

[Dogmantra]

Idk, both here and on AWP, it seems like there's a new discussion on balance every day or two, and in particular a lot of suggestions to improve balance. I'm not particularly mad about it, but I am very curious why it seems to have suddenly spiked. Is it because of the errata and upcoming excitement for the new gaining grounds? I don't remember the reaction being this big to January's errata (but I do have a pretty bad memory). Thoughts?

[-Loki-]

Probably encouraged by the new willingness to errata things. Prior to the January errata Things had to be well and truly overpowered to get an errata, but the January errata showed a willingness to balance just 'quality of life' type updates and to buff up underperforming models.

So now people are making themselves heard about where they think the issues are. It's slowly been building up since January. The second errata in July would have reminded people this is a thing now.

[retnab]

I'm willing to bet GG18 and the new upgrades are on people's minds too, in a month or so the bottom tier masters might even go top-tier, who knows?  Lots of potential to really shake things up are coming soon.

[Gnomezilla]

Interest surged last July as well after the rat engine was dismantled. (January errata was quieter by far.) I chalk it up to both GenCon chatter and errata sparking an interest in balance and the unbalanced.

It was a good fortnight for AWP. Lots of thoughtful arguments. They convinced me on several points--people who I mentally had on ignore before.

[-Loki-]

I'll say this - it's some of the most pleasant balance discussion I've seen. Seeing other games (not just the usual GW, but Infinity discussion as well) going off the rails, this is almost like people sitting around a table with a beer.

[Lucidicide]

I think the scheduled errata has some to do with it. I think an increasingly competitive player base has something to do with it, too.

The fact that I read all the threads and let people know I read them probably doesn't hurt, as people know they'll be seen and aren't just shouting into the internet void.

Lastly, I think that people are excited about the game (added into GenCon and GG18 and Upgrades), and that makes them want to talk about it. The two easiest things to talk about are hobby and balance, especially in a game where "netlisting" is pretty often seen as a futile gesture.