2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
I do enjoy the battles and the competative aspect of it, how well my team is doing compared to the other players on my leaderboard. I just don't like pay-out.
I wouldn’t even describe arena as competitive — I’d call it cooperative or collaborative. The only “competition” is between those who are working together and those who aren’t. The game facilitates this and encourages it, which is a poor design.
You have to beat other players teams no matter what, that is competition.
Not every shard works to keep people out, some of us just want to not step on others toes.
The game does nothing to facilitate it, and they dont encourage it. The dev team have made statements they are aware it goes on and monitor it, but dont regard it as cheating in this system.
yes I understand the PO situation and the people that have lighter hours, but when 12 people move up for one hour, then 5 the next, and a few others throughout the day. the people with no one in their PO, will still have to be able to beat those teams. its not like they get a hand out, but yes they do have it a little easier.
I am told by a programmer i work with that anything is possible. If i walk into his office and say i need a system that will sort X,Y, and Z based on parameters A,B,and C. I'm sure he could do it, but it is easy for me to design this on paper, building the tools and algorithms that do it (the technical side) is no that simple. The actual coded system that would be able to dynamically reassign the shards, could be technically "impossible" or also could take 6 months of a teams time to get it to where they want, and destroy the content timeline. (thats bad for the health of the game too). To be able to make this happen the algorithm could be "technically impossible" and just because you think a certain answer is "the answer" doesn't make it true.
They have already stated they are looking at the PO hour adjustment, so no worries. but we have no idea what the end result will be. Also it will not involve getting away from your shard.
I'm a programmer, and I can tell you that it's impossible to make an assertion of difficulty without seeing the game code and database code. We make a lot of assumptions based on what we see, not what is coded.
I have apps that making a refactor of data could take a day, for just me and not other programmers. Some of these apps have a lot of data. Hundreds of millions of rows in complex schema structures.
Other apps I have only have a few hundred thousand rows of data, but would be wildly more difficult to refactor because of business rules involved, code, etc, etc.
It could be simple, it could be difficult - there's just no way to know unless you a) are a programmer, and b) can see the code/data.
Just like as much as people want to say "the shard drop rate is averages 33%", may or may not be correct. Unless a programmer says, yes, the win rate is programmed at 33%, people are guessing that's what it is based on observation, not fact.
I completely agree that the arenas can be a trash-can dumpster fire. I don't think that reseeding the shards would necessarily "fix" the problem as much as a different method of determining rewards.
2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
I do enjoy the battles and the competative aspect of it, how well my team is doing compared to the other players on my leaderboard. I just don't like pay-out.
I wouldn’t even describe arena as competitive — I’d call it cooperative or collaborative. The only “competition” is between those who are working together and those who aren’t. The game facilitates this and encourages it, which is a poor design.
While that may or may not be true for you personally, it's definately not true for everyone. Besides the fact that cooperation only works for the top ranks, not all leaderboards are cooperating in the same manner.
For the record, i don't care about cooperating, i just don't like having to be online on a specific time and the whole sniping/locking routine, it's just not fun imo. Cooperating is more of a sollution to that problem than a cause.
What i meant with competative has more to do with how teams perform during battle and on def, not how skilled players are at sniping/locking.
2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
I do enjoy the battles and the competative aspect of it, how well my team is doing compared to the other players on my leaderboard. I just don't like pay-out.
I wouldn’t even describe arena as competitive — I’d call it cooperative or collaborative. The only “competition” is between those who are working together and those who aren’t. The game facilitates this and encourages it, which is a poor design.
You have to beat other players teams no matter what, that is competition.
Not every shard works to keep people out, some of us just want to not step on others toes.
The game does nothing to facilitate it, and they dont encourage it. The dev team have made statements they are aware it goes on and monitor it, but dont regard it as cheating in this system.
If the current system allows it, people do it, and the devs are aware of it and even “monitor” it without changing anything, then yeah, that’s called facilitating.
2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
The arena is what keeps players on their toes and pushes them to develop their roster to keep up with various METAs. Without the arena(s) and with new raids only being introduced once a year, the game would die. There wouldn't be much incentive to buy new characters, if you already had the raids on farm.
2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
The arena is what keeps players on their toes and pushes them to develop their roster to keep up with various METAs. Without the arena(s) and with new raids only being introduced once a year, the game would die. There wouldn't be much incentive to buy new characters, if you already had the raids on farm.
The arena exists so that whales can feel better after spending all that money. It’s a consolation prize, like complimentary rooms at the casino after you lose thousands of dollars gambling. When in reality, you are better off just buying crystals rather then spending hundreds chasing the latest meta to reassert your arena dominance.
2 daily galactic wars and no arena any more, then?
if i'm being completely honest, i'd prefer 2 pre-nerf galactic wars over arena any day of the week and twice on sunday. The whole sniping/having to be online during pay-out to maintain rank thingy is not something i enjoy.
I mean really though, what is there to like about Arena besides the crystals? I don’t find any enjoyment out of playing it, waiting 10 minutes between attacks, having to spend more time in the game to maintain rank, and cooperating with others to get a better payout. The game mode itself is absolutely unenjoyable and if it weren’t the major source of crystals and a daily requirement, I’d not touch the arena at all.
The arena is what keeps players on their toes and pushes them to develop their roster to keep up with various METAs. Without the arena(s) and with new raids only being introduced once a year, the game would die. There wouldn't be much incentive to buy new characters, if you already had the raids on farm.
The arena exists so that whales can feel better after spending all that money. It’s a consolation prize, like complimentary rooms at the casino after you lose thousands of dollars gambling. When in reality, your better of just buying crystals rather then spending hundreds chasing the latest meta to reassert your arena dominance.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the perceived notion to a lot of people. The arena is to "reward" people who've spent large sums of money to make it seem like they've gotten value out of their purchases.
I agree with Waqui that the real issue is that there isn't newly created PVE content to foster value from roster purchases vs arena. I'd much rather have more PVE (whether it's raids, or something similar) than the arena in its current form.
I mentioned (either in this thread or another), I'd rather see "team" mini-raids for maybe 1-3 people that reward roster building so people get value from their purchases as an alternative to the arena.
We know that the devs probably are not going to change the arena, but it seems that this mechanic causes more consternation than even GW does. I would hope they'd look at alternatives that give people opportunities that the arena just doesn't provide right now.
Competition is a façade in shards (at least mine and others in my guild I've talked to.) Sure, occasional spats flare, and I'm sure there are some shards that are competitive, but those competitive shards seem to be the exception.
I also agree that non-action is basically facilitating cooperation and coordination. Out of everything in the game, the arenas are the thing I hate the most. (And I'm usually in the top 100-200 in my shard since it's fairly new, and I still hate it.)
Everything else (gear, shard drag) is annoying, but the arenas are just terrible. I get more out of TW battles in terms of roster mixing and trying than arenas.
@xeynx
How can you say that your shard isn't competative if you don't even rank high?
You’re concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition, rather than a lack of him caring to spend time on a boring game mode. I know I personally open arena twice a day on auto just to get the daily requirement. Same deal with fleet arena. There’s nothing fun about it.
If your definition of competition is merely the presence of other people, then yes, Arena is competitive.
But it’s not competitive in the sense of being a free-for-all to get rewards at the higher tiers.
xeynx
How can you say that your shard isn't competative if you don't even rank high?
You’re concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition, rather than a lack of him caring to spend time on a boring game mode. I know I personally open arena twice a day on auto just to get the daily requirement. Same deal with fleet arena. There’s nothing fun about it.
If your definition of competition is merely the presence of other people, then yes, Arena is competitive.
But it’s not competitive in the sense of being a free-for-all to get rewards at the higher tiers.
I'm asking how he's able to determine that his shard isn't competative without being in the top20 himself.
I am however certainly concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition. Why else would he rank top100/200 instead of #1?
xeynx
How can you say that your shard isn't competative if you don't even rank high?
You’re concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition, rather than a lack of him caring to spend time on a boring game mode. I know I personally open arena twice a day on auto just to get the daily requirement. Same deal with fleet arena. There’s nothing fun about it.
If your definition of competition is merely the presence of other people, then yes, Arena is competitive.
But it’s not competitive in the sense of being a free-for-all to get rewards at the higher tiers.
I'm asking how he's able to determine that his shard isn't competative without being in the top20 himself.
I am however certainly concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition. Why else would he rank top100/200 instead of #1?
There are a few reasons.
First, I'm not a whale. (My shard is too young for FTP to be competitive. Not saying there are 0 FTP at the top, but the majority did whale from dolphin to kraken level.)
Second, I'm in shard chat for my shard. I think we have 98% of the top of the shard in shard chat. They actively collude as to not screw each other. There are agreements on who gets 1st which day if there are multiple in the same payout.
Third, I hate the arenas. It's a skewed PVE step up from GW with limited retries. It's not PVP, don't try to sell it as such. GW takes its nodes from player made squads. The only difference is that people have a set group at a certain rank.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
I am sub-100, or at a minimum low 100s, but I do float upward due to defenses. It happens.
So, in essence, yes, there is "some" competition. However, the point is, if we had the top 200 in shard chat, we would see 0 "competition". I definitely would not attack someone who's waiting for payout if I can avoid it.
Saying, "hey, I'm gonna attack you since you had payout already" so I can get to the next rank is not competition. The more people in shard chat, the less "true competition" there is.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
I’d really love to see CG put out another survey about which part of the game players find least and most enjoyable. I’d wager that after the GW sim fix, arena would handedly win the title of least fun aspect of the game by the player base.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else. It's meant to be that way. It just happens to offer a better "free" play than a lot of games, but it does nothing "ground breaking" than any other pay to win mobile game.
This is basic, spend money = more energy = more sims = progress faster.
Calling someone a "noob", which really is a lowbrow version of "newbie", does nothing to facilitate good conversation. Personal attacks are just a deflection because they do not coincide with your opinion. (Also note, that being in the top 100 puts me in the top 1% of my shard, not sure how that qualifies me as a "noob".)
Furthermore, since you're not a part of my shard, you really have zero evidence that there isn't any collusion at my ranking. There very well may be another shard chat I'm not a part of for my shard that does in fact "collude" around the 100 rank.
I don't mind that your opinion is that there is a plethora of competition. My opinion differs from that. Based on my time playing, discussions with day one players, discussions in my shard chat, I disagree at the amount of competition that truly exists, and the level of response from the devs in that regard.
There very well may be another shard chat I'm not a part of for my shard that does in fact "collude" around the 100 rank.
lmao
For the record, i did call you a noob/newbie because you're not progressed enough to be able to compete for top ranks. Also because you're claiming there isn't enough competition, but you can't even rank high yourself. Obviously you're entitled to your opinion, i'm however willing to imply it's somewhat unfounded. Granted, i could have said it in a nicer way.
There very well may be another shard chat I'm not a part of for my shard that does in fact "collude" around the 100 rank.
lmao
For the record, i did call you a noob/newbie because you're not progressed enough to be able to compete for top ranks. Also because you're claiming there isn't enough competition, but you can't even rank high yourself. Obviously you're entitled to your opinion, i'm however willing to imply it's somewhat unfounded. Granted, i could have said it in a nicer way.
@xeynx laid out his argument very clearly and concisely actually. You’re just creating a straw man out of his argument and trying to undermine his opinion based on his Arena rank.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else.
You do realize there's technically no way to win this game, right?
Or more accurately, there's many ways to win and it's defined differently by different people. You clearly think you win by reaching #1 in arena, but there's far more to the game than that. And guess what, you can succeed at every other single game mode here without ever sniffing the top 200 of either arena, or paying a singe cent. The only tradeoff is that it takes you longer.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else. It's meant to be that way. It just happens to offer a better "free" play than a lot of games, but it does nothing "ground breaking" than any other pay to win mobile game.
This is basic, spend money = more energy = more sims = progress faster.
This is basic knowledge:
Spend your resources 'wisely' consistently => progress faster and reach top ranks.
You can reach rank 1 in both arenas and have the hardest raid on farm without spending a dime as long as you spent your resources wisely over a long enough period of time. Even if you spend a lot of money on the game you are not guaranteed to rank higher than non—spenders and you could be unable to farm the hardest raid in the game. Spending money will get you nowhere if you don't at the same time manage your resources well.
Ergo: Resource management rather than p2w.
Yes, you may think it's a simple game, which brings nothing new to the table, but that's a different subject.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else. It's meant to be that way. It just happens to offer a better "free" play than a lot of games, but it does nothing "ground breaking" than any other pay to win mobile game.
This is basic, spend money = more energy = more sims = progress faster.
This is basic knowledge:
Spend your resources 'wisely' consistently => progress faster and reach top ranks.
You can reach rank 1 in both arenas and have the hardest raid on farm without spending a dime as long as you spent your resources wisely over a long enough period of time. Even if you spend a lot of money on the game you are not guaranteed to rank higher than non—spenders and you could be unable to farm the hardest raid in the game. Spending money will get you nowhere if you don't at the same time manage your resources well.
Ergo: Resource management rather than p2w.
Yes, you may think it's a simple game, which brings nothing new to the table, but that's a different subject.
I agree with what you're saying. Yes, it is a simple resource management game. That is not to take away from how enjoyable the game is. I can get behind your assertion, but perhaps modify it. I'll agree it's not p2w because, like an MMO, there really isn't a "win". Let's rephrase to pay-for-shortcuts/expediency.
I also agree with you that if you do things that may not be as helpful, even spending money, your progress could be hampered (depending on what your goals are.) And that it is feasible to reach #1 with enough time, good management, etc.
Back to the true argument here, which is that the arena really isn't that "great". It's not the "worst" in the world, but I think a number of people, myself included, see where there could be improvement that might either 1) make it more enjoyable, or 2) less of a defining factor for the entirety of the game.
I don't mind it being a piece, but as it is now, it's the main source of crystals, therefore it carries more weight than the other components.
In response to @TVF, no, I do not believe that reaching #1 in arena = win. As mentioned above, I treat the progression in a similar fashion to MMOs. There really isn't a "win" other than what the individual believes to be winning for them. The problematic aspect is how much importance the arena carries in the game and what improvements could be made. Colluding (at any rank, regardless if it's the top 10, 20, 50, or 1,000) isn't "competition" per se.
As even @leef mentioned in an earlier post, he'd rather do GW multiple times than deal with some of the not as good aspects of the arena (sniping, etc.)... (Paraphrasing here, sorry if it's not the exact quote @leef.)
I'm not complaining about the existence of the arena, I'm advocating for improvements, or changes that can be beneficial for the general populous, not just the "top". There have been a lot of good ideas proposed by different people that could work, or maybe with changes, could improve the current iteration.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
right, so because others are better players (or spend more money) it's not competition? Seems to me that is exactly what makes it a competition.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else
Played enuf MMO's in my time, from DAoC to ShadowBane to WoW to Warhammer Online.
They r all the same as this. It's time invested, it's managing resources, it is ALSO stepping outside the game to purchase gold, items, power-leveling w/ real currency the same way u can buy crystals, characters and mods here. All the same really.
Except, I don't have to deal w/ Chinese farmers ganking me when I enter a zone to farm rare/expensive mats
Replies
You have to beat other players teams no matter what, that is competition.
Not every shard works to keep people out, some of us just want to not step on others toes.
The game does nothing to facilitate it, and they dont encourage it. The dev team have made statements they are aware it goes on and monitor it, but dont regard it as cheating in this system.
I'm a programmer, and I can tell you that it's impossible to make an assertion of difficulty without seeing the game code and database code. We make a lot of assumptions based on what we see, not what is coded.
I have apps that making a refactor of data could take a day, for just me and not other programmers. Some of these apps have a lot of data. Hundreds of millions of rows in complex schema structures.
Other apps I have only have a few hundred thousand rows of data, but would be wildly more difficult to refactor because of business rules involved, code, etc, etc.
It could be simple, it could be difficult - there's just no way to know unless you a) are a programmer, and b) can see the code/data.
Just like as much as people want to say "the shard drop rate is averages 33%", may or may not be correct. Unless a programmer says, yes, the win rate is programmed at 33%, people are guessing that's what it is based on observation, not fact.
I completely agree that the arenas can be a trash-can dumpster fire. I don't think that reseeding the shards would necessarily "fix" the problem as much as a different method of determining rewards.
While that may or may not be true for you personally, it's definately not true for everyone. Besides the fact that cooperation only works for the top ranks, not all leaderboards are cooperating in the same manner.
For the record, i don't care about cooperating, i just don't like having to be online on a specific time and the whole sniping/locking routine, it's just not fun imo. Cooperating is more of a sollution to that problem than a cause.
What i meant with competative has more to do with how teams perform during battle and on def, not how skilled players are at sniping/locking.
If the current system allows it, people do it, and the devs are aware of it and even “monitor” it without changing anything, then yeah, that’s called facilitating.
Please keep in mind, that it's not my suggestion. Direct any criticism to Justloseit and Funderbolts.
The arena is what keeps players on their toes and pushes them to develop their roster to keep up with various METAs. Without the arena(s) and with new raids only being introduced once a year, the game would die. There wouldn't be much incentive to buy new characters, if you already had the raids on farm.
The arena exists so that whales can feel better after spending all that money. It’s a consolation prize, like complimentary rooms at the casino after you lose thousands of dollars gambling. When in reality, you are better off just buying crystals rather then spending hundreds chasing the latest meta to reassert your arena dominance.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the perceived notion to a lot of people. The arena is to "reward" people who've spent large sums of money to make it seem like they've gotten value out of their purchases.
I agree with Waqui that the real issue is that there isn't newly created PVE content to foster value from roster purchases vs arena. I'd much rather have more PVE (whether it's raids, or something similar) than the arena in its current form.
I mentioned (either in this thread or another), I'd rather see "team" mini-raids for maybe 1-3 people that reward roster building so people get value from their purchases as an alternative to the arena.
We know that the devs probably are not going to change the arena, but it seems that this mechanic causes more consternation than even GW does. I would hope they'd look at alternatives that give people opportunities that the arena just doesn't provide right now.
Competition is a façade in shards (at least mine and others in my guild I've talked to.) Sure, occasional spats flare, and I'm sure there are some shards that are competitive, but those competitive shards seem to be the exception.
I also agree that non-action is basically facilitating cooperation and coordination. Out of everything in the game, the arenas are the thing I hate the most. (And I'm usually in the top 100-200 in my shard since it's fairly new, and I still hate it.)
Everything else (gear, shard drag) is annoying, but the arenas are just terrible. I get more out of TW battles in terms of roster mixing and trying than arenas.
How can you say that your shard isn't competative if you don't even rank high?
You’re concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition, rather than a lack of him caring to spend time on a boring game mode. I know I personally open arena twice a day on auto just to get the daily requirement. Same deal with fleet arena. There’s nothing fun about it.
If your definition of competition is merely the presence of other people, then yes, Arena is competitive.
But it’s not competitive in the sense of being a free-for-all to get rewards at the higher tiers.
I'm asking how he's able to determine that his shard isn't competative without being in the top20 himself.
I am however certainly concluding that his rank is due to the presence of competition. Why else would he rank top100/200 instead of #1?
There are a few reasons.
First, I'm not a whale. (My shard is too young for FTP to be competitive. Not saying there are 0 FTP at the top, but the majority did whale from dolphin to kraken level.)
Second, I'm in shard chat for my shard. I think we have 98% of the top of the shard in shard chat. They actively collude as to not screw each other. There are agreements on who gets 1st which day if there are multiple in the same payout.
Third, I hate the arenas. It's a skewed PVE step up from GW with limited retries. It's not PVP, don't try to sell it as such. GW takes its nodes from player made squads. The only difference is that people have a set group at a certain rank.
Just because I, myself, do not whale and have a strong enough squad to get into the top 50 is not evidence of competition. It is purely a function of 1) Gear level, 2) Mods, 3) TM luck, 4) care level.
I am sub-100, or at a minimum low 100s, but I do float upward due to defenses. It happens.
So, in essence, yes, there is "some" competition. However, the point is, if we had the top 200 in shard chat, we would see 0 "competition". I definitely would not attack someone who's waiting for payout if I can avoid it.
Saying, "hey, I'm gonna attack you since you had payout already" so I can get to the next rank is not competition. The more people in shard chat, the less "true competition" there is.
You seem to be under the impression this is a game of skill, but it's not, it's a resource management game.
Lol, this is probably one of the most simplistic "resource management" games I've ever played. If you've played an MMO, those are resource management games. This is a pay to win game, nothing more, nothing else. It's meant to be that way. It just happens to offer a better "free" play than a lot of games, but it does nothing "ground breaking" than any other pay to win mobile game.
This is basic, spend money = more energy = more sims = progress faster.
Calling someone a "noob", which really is a lowbrow version of "newbie", does nothing to facilitate good conversation. Personal attacks are just a deflection because they do not coincide with your opinion. (Also note, that being in the top 100 puts me in the top 1% of my shard, not sure how that qualifies me as a "noob".)
Furthermore, since you're not a part of my shard, you really have zero evidence that there isn't any collusion at my ranking. There very well may be another shard chat I'm not a part of for my shard that does in fact "collude" around the 100 rank.
I don't mind that your opinion is that there is a plethora of competition. My opinion differs from that. Based on my time playing, discussions with day one players, discussions in my shard chat, I disagree at the amount of competition that truly exists, and the level of response from the devs in that regard.
For the record, i did call you a noob/newbie because you're not progressed enough to be able to compete for top ranks. Also because you're claiming there isn't enough competition, but you can't even rank high yourself. Obviously you're entitled to your opinion, i'm however willing to imply it's somewhat unfounded. Granted, i could have said it in a nicer way.
@xeynx laid out his argument very clearly and concisely actually. You’re just creating a straw man out of his argument and trying to undermine his opinion based on his Arena rank.
You do realize there's technically no way to win this game, right?
Or more accurately, there's many ways to win and it's defined differently by different people. You clearly think you win by reaching #1 in arena, but there's far more to the game than that. And guess what, you can succeed at every other single game mode here without ever sniffing the top 200 of either arena, or paying a singe cent. The only tradeoff is that it takes you longer.
Why people don't understand this is beyond me.
This is basic knowledge:
Spend your resources 'wisely' consistently => progress faster and reach top ranks.
You can reach rank 1 in both arenas and have the hardest raid on farm without spending a dime as long as you spent your resources wisely over a long enough period of time. Even if you spend a lot of money on the game you are not guaranteed to rank higher than non—spenders and you could be unable to farm the hardest raid in the game. Spending money will get you nowhere if you don't at the same time manage your resources well.
Ergo: Resource management rather than p2w.
Yes, you may think it's a simple game, which brings nothing new to the table, but that's a different subject.
I agree with what you're saying. Yes, it is a simple resource management game. That is not to take away from how enjoyable the game is. I can get behind your assertion, but perhaps modify it. I'll agree it's not p2w because, like an MMO, there really isn't a "win". Let's rephrase to pay-for-shortcuts/expediency.
I also agree with you that if you do things that may not be as helpful, even spending money, your progress could be hampered (depending on what your goals are.) And that it is feasible to reach #1 with enough time, good management, etc.
Back to the true argument here, which is that the arena really isn't that "great". It's not the "worst" in the world, but I think a number of people, myself included, see where there could be improvement that might either 1) make it more enjoyable, or 2) less of a defining factor for the entirety of the game.
I don't mind it being a piece, but as it is now, it's the main source of crystals, therefore it carries more weight than the other components.
In response to @TVF, no, I do not believe that reaching #1 in arena = win. As mentioned above, I treat the progression in a similar fashion to MMOs. There really isn't a "win" other than what the individual believes to be winning for them. The problematic aspect is how much importance the arena carries in the game and what improvements could be made. Colluding (at any rank, regardless if it's the top 10, 20, 50, or 1,000) isn't "competition" per se.
As even @leef mentioned in an earlier post, he'd rather do GW multiple times than deal with some of the not as good aspects of the arena (sniping, etc.)... (Paraphrasing here, sorry if it's not the exact quote @leef.)
I'm not complaining about the existence of the arena, I'm advocating for improvements, or changes that can be beneficial for the general populous, not just the "top". There have been a lot of good ideas proposed by different people that could work, or maybe with changes, could improve the current iteration.
Played enuf MMO's in my time, from DAoC to ShadowBane to WoW to Warhammer Online.
They r all the same as this. It's time invested, it's managing resources, it is ALSO stepping outside the game to purchase gold, items, power-leveling w/ real currency the same way u can buy crystals, characters and mods here. All the same really.
Except, I don't have to deal w/ Chinese farmers ganking me when I enter a zone to farm rare/expensive mats