Have Modern Games Gone Overboard with Asymmetric Powers?

[RicardoRix]

Not sure it really makes much difference.
The differences can easily be accomplished in many different ways, not just starting factions. I'm guessing it just comes across as really cool with the different thematic paint that also come with it.
What's probably most annoying is the resultant over analysis and favoritism which seem to come with it.

I have much more of a problem with Victory Points, trains and wizards.
If you're gonna have a dragon in your game, then you better make it really good - looking at you Res Arcana.

[Meeplelowda]

If you're gonna have a dragon in your game, then you better make it really good - looking at you Res Arcana.

I haven't played. Are you talking about the mechanics of the dragon, or the artwork for the dragon? Reminds me of a Dice Tower episode on the Top 10 worst artwork.

[RicardoRix]

The artwork is very good, but the abilities are naff.

You discard you whole hand to get enough resources to play the mighty dragon, and then next turn you say "I attack with my fire dragon" and the opponent just shrugs.

Have you played Root?

[Tisaac]

I think modern games have gone overboard with the asymmetric powers thing. 14 different factions in Terra Mystica and Gaia Project. 20 different factions in Apiary. I think Terraforming Mars has 40 corporations if you count all the expansions. What's next? At the beginning of the game you do a cheek swab and it makes a custom faction based on your DNA profile?

Yes, yes, yes. I know the mantra is "replayability," but isn't it harder to balance them all the more buckets of asymmetric abilities you have?

That's an interesting topic, I was actually striked by a similar thought when considering that the brass games that managed to get in the top BGG games and yet do not have any kind of asymmetric powers within them. Even the cards themselves do not have a lot of variety, compared to ArkNova if you pick the "same map" setup to remove asymmetric aspec of the map, and yet there is a lot of replayability. Really amazing!

[FDHenneberg]

I’m not sure if asymmetry is only or mostly being justified with replayability. Asymmetric factions add an additional layer of complexity. What’s good about that and what’s bad about that mostly has been noted in this thread: That massive added complexity is great fun by itself for many people. At the same time, it makes games less accessible and more prone to being imbalanced, though there a games without asymmetrical factions that have balance problems and games with asymmetrical factions that are balanced. Complexity is also a way to increase replayability for people that like to delve deep and at the same get bored once they feel they’ve thoroughly mastered everything. Factions are especially good at that. But I think this is just a fairly small sample of players. For the rest, replayability is about other aspects. As I’ve said, there is a trend towards asymmetric factions, but I don’t perceive it as a fad or as dominant, and so I’m totally fine with it. SETI as a still fairly new game with loads of hype only has asymmetric factions in the expansion, which is maybe the best way to handle it.