User blog:InkSpider/Power Scaling and Verse Power Levels (and Why I Don't Like Them)

Power-Scaling and Verse Power Levels

                 Someone brought up Power Scaling in regards to one of my battles a while back, disagreeing with the result partially on the basis that the losing character should have been scaled to their verse. I see talk about scaling pretty often on this wiki, and I honestly don’t much like using scaling, at all. Here’s why.

                   The basic assumption behind power-scaling is that if Character A won (or fought to a draw) against Character B, then Character A is as strong as Character B. This makes sense in theory, but it often leads to over-looking extenuating circumstances that could have tilted the scales and given one character or the other an advantage. For example, in a cross-over comic, Batman beat Captain America, but that was only because Captain America was randomly taken out by a bursting water-pipe. Thus, that fight doesn’t really prove that Batman is a better fighter, and scaling Batman to Captain America’s level is a distortion of Batman’s abilities (not that I disagreed with the actual DB).

                 The other thing to remember is that sometimes, characters win victories in canon that flat-out don’t make sense. Remember that time Spider-Man curb-stomped Fire Lord, a pyro-kinetic with power equal to the sun? Following Power-Scaling, that gives Spider-Man at least Star Level strength, which is miles beyond the level of power he usually displays in canon. (I could also bring up Mortal Kombat, but honestly, I think I tend to kick that franchise around enough as it is.)

                 Another thing I often see tied to power-scaling is Verse Power Level, which can be even more problematic. When used as a rough estimation for the power levels of a verse’s major players, Verse Power Level can be handy for picking match-ups. If we assume (just for the sake of example) that Street Fighter and King of Fighters have roughly the same Verse Power Level, we can rest (somewhat) confident that fight between an SF character and a KOF character probably won’t be a horrific curb-stomp. Thing is… that’s just about the only thing Verse Power Level is useful for. Character’s power-levels often vary wildly within their universe. I don’t think anyone here is going to claim that Hercule Satan could curb-stomp Akuma because Satan scales to the DBZ-verse. If you’re not backing up your claims of power scaling with Character-specific feats, I call bs.

                 A last complaint I’d like to raise about Power Scaling is that it too often serves as a short-cut, a stand-in for character specific analysis. This is worse than faulty analysis. This is under-cutting everything interesting, unique and distinct about a character’s strengths and weaknesses, and that just makes battles boring. If one must use Power Scaling, it should be used carefully, conservatively and specifically.