Post by cathedralmaster on Jun 25, 2007 5:09:47 GMT
I so don't want to make this suggestion...
Now, I've benefitted from the whole 50 point prize thing as much as anybody but even I have to admit as much as I hate too (I'm loathe to argue against something that's making me uber rich here - I'd be ecstatic if you shoot my idea down, hell don't even read it! ;D), but awarding a prize for each 50 points may not be in the best interests of the competition.
First, there is no incentive to use other characters in pillars once you find something that works, and in fact there is every reason to keep using the same character. You get something that can aquire points fast, then you just keep on going. As a result, you keep seeing the same people playing the same toons competition after competition, with roughly the same personal results over and over again.
Now I understand in normal runs that there's nothing wrong with winners who keep on winning, it isn't a finite system of wealth with entrenched interests (aka "the man") keeping everyone down, but unlike normal hells runs, this is a competition designed for entertainment. Is it really fair to everyone involved that those who dominate the point aquisition be given such reinforcements to keep up their domination of the competition*? Is it really as fun as it should be? Wouldn't it be better if there were incentives to keep people bringing new blood in to the arena, to keep it enteraining and not repetitive (and would also reward people more for building new pillar characters)?
You could counter that shouldn't it be the communities responsibility to knock the kings of the hill off? The problem I see with that is for a lot of characters, your not knocking them off the hill but rather duplicating them. What's the favored strategy for gathering points at the moment? Running like a maniac so no one can hit you and grabbing as many as you can. Chainsawesome! How can someone knock that off it's hill? You don't - you duplicate it. I don't think I'm the only one noticing how many speed freak AAs seem to be popping up...
Second, I'm all in favor of stacking my toons high with BURs (again, I don't mean to complain about that) but, given how many points you can aquire once you get the greater boots, in my opinion it's getting a little bit ludicrous. You need 50 personal points per prize. A person with greater boots I'd estimate averages 20-25 points per event. As a result, your getting BURs every 2 or so events. Considering the time put in, the effort, and the risk, this is a better average for BURs than anything else on the server, in most cases by magnitudes. Only Nessus and Cania come anywhere close, and that's only for the top rollers.
As I said, I don't want to be the one who's saying don't give me BURs here, I love the prizes (by all means, shoot this idea down!), but if a hells layer was this lucrative, wouldn't you be concerned?
So I wanted to recommend a graduated prize system for those who have gotten to the point where they need incentives to move on. For each new character have only the first prize be at 50 points. Have the second at say 25% more than that - 62 points. Have the third 25% more than that - 77. And so on. It would keep people bringing new characters. It would slow down the BURs flooding down from heaven. It would still allow people to stick with a character they like if they think that can get more out of it. In my opinion, it would be fairer and more fun.
* - Maybe tieing the greater boots to one character so that one person doesn't remain as dominant once they get a pair would also help?
Now, I've benefitted from the whole 50 point prize thing as much as anybody but even I have to admit as much as I hate too (I'm loathe to argue against something that's making me uber rich here - I'd be ecstatic if you shoot my idea down, hell don't even read it! ;D), but awarding a prize for each 50 points may not be in the best interests of the competition.
First, there is no incentive to use other characters in pillars once you find something that works, and in fact there is every reason to keep using the same character. You get something that can aquire points fast, then you just keep on going. As a result, you keep seeing the same people playing the same toons competition after competition, with roughly the same personal results over and over again.
Now I understand in normal runs that there's nothing wrong with winners who keep on winning, it isn't a finite system of wealth with entrenched interests (aka "the man") keeping everyone down, but unlike normal hells runs, this is a competition designed for entertainment. Is it really fair to everyone involved that those who dominate the point aquisition be given such reinforcements to keep up their domination of the competition*? Is it really as fun as it should be? Wouldn't it be better if there were incentives to keep people bringing new blood in to the arena, to keep it enteraining and not repetitive (and would also reward people more for building new pillar characters)?
You could counter that shouldn't it be the communities responsibility to knock the kings of the hill off? The problem I see with that is for a lot of characters, your not knocking them off the hill but rather duplicating them. What's the favored strategy for gathering points at the moment? Running like a maniac so no one can hit you and grabbing as many as you can. Chainsawesome! How can someone knock that off it's hill? You don't - you duplicate it. I don't think I'm the only one noticing how many speed freak AAs seem to be popping up...
Second, I'm all in favor of stacking my toons high with BURs (again, I don't mean to complain about that) but, given how many points you can aquire once you get the greater boots, in my opinion it's getting a little bit ludicrous. You need 50 personal points per prize. A person with greater boots I'd estimate averages 20-25 points per event. As a result, your getting BURs every 2 or so events. Considering the time put in, the effort, and the risk, this is a better average for BURs than anything else on the server, in most cases by magnitudes. Only Nessus and Cania come anywhere close, and that's only for the top rollers.
As I said, I don't want to be the one who's saying don't give me BURs here, I love the prizes (by all means, shoot this idea down!), but if a hells layer was this lucrative, wouldn't you be concerned?
So I wanted to recommend a graduated prize system for those who have gotten to the point where they need incentives to move on. For each new character have only the first prize be at 50 points. Have the second at say 25% more than that - 62 points. Have the third 25% more than that - 77. And so on. It would keep people bringing new characters. It would slow down the BURs flooding down from heaven. It would still allow people to stick with a character they like if they think that can get more out of it. In my opinion, it would be fairer and more fun.
* - Maybe tieing the greater boots to one character so that one person doesn't remain as dominant once they get a pair would also help?