In my experience, "balance" usually means "Hey, they figured out a new meta...time to kibosh that mess!" I bought Diablo IV at launch, played it through, got into the endgame and every time I blinked they'd nerfed the fun stuff harder and harder. Now, I kinda get that in an ongoing game meant to nickel and dime (ugh...live service games...) players, but I've never, EVER understood it in either a single player game or something like what we play here in COH land. If it's fun, and your players are enjoying it, who gives a crap about balance? Even in the Diablo example, if you make the game itself fun and interesting and not rely on people constantly having to reinvent the wheel to keep your playerbase, I think you'd be amazed at how many people continue to play. (even if they're not playing to your vision...Jack)