Quote Originally Posted by Arkdra View Post
Homogenization is better gameplay. Mechanical distinctness is not as cool as a balanced game in any multiplayer setting where me getting to do things requires not having to deal with job-based discrimination.
The reason this line of thinking is fallacious, is because it totally misses the entire point of balance - to be able to play whatever job you like. When you achieve balance through making jobs too similar, you have effectively homogenized those jobs people wanted to play out of existence.

Sure, if things are wildly imbalanced then you may sometimes find yourself unable to play the job you like, due to certain people excluding you, but if said job's gameplay has been changed into something completely different, then you won't be able to play that job you wanted at all, because it basically does not exist any longer.

That is not to say devs should give up on balance, but that they should never lose sight of what the ultimate goal of balancing is - to let people play what they enjoy without worrying about dragging their team down. Different jobs should bring similar level of power to the table, but offer a wide array of different ways to get to that result.