reward-systems
Latest
Flameseeker Chronicles: The strange case of Guild Wars 2's reward system
Every now and then I'll hear someone say that Guild Wars 2 has no rewards. They'll say it's extraordinarily grindy, that there's nothing to work toward, and that ArenaNet is intentionally making things harder than they should be so that we'll all give up and buy gems. This is confusing and frustrating to me for two reasons: The first is that all of those things are demonstrably untrue. The second is that I can nevertheless see where those people are coming from to some extent, and it's been difficult to put my finger on why. GW2 showers players with loot and rewards. In an hour's normal play, I can fill my bags with items and come out of it with a tidy sum of cash; nearly everything in the game is designed to reward players for doing stuff, no matter what that stuff is. Some of it, like Edge of the Mists, is almost ludicrously generous. Even with the changes to the way Queen's Pavilion fights work this time around, it's possible to grab huge numbers of Champion loot bags if you land on an organized megaserver. So why does GW2 feel so stingy?
Lord of the Rings Online offering PvMP players some Commendation
Lord of the Rings Online has always had an interesting system of PvP, with players facing off against a specially designated group of players in the guise of monsters. It's also a system that's historically had some problems, ones that the developers are hoping to alleviate the new Commendation system coming with Update 6. While it won't fix everything, the new system outlined in today's developer diary should ensure that players will be able to focus their PvMP efforts toward PvMP rewards, making rewards more straightforward without forcing players into PvE to advance. The diary explains how Destiny, the previously intended PvMP currency, wound up being bloated and failed to serve its proper purpose. Commendations will be hard-capped at 100,000, and spending this currency will allow players to advance Creeps and acquire new equipment. The preliminary numbers are also included with the diary, with the understanding that there will be some tweaking after the system goes live. While players might be a bit miffed at having to use their Destiny quickly before it goes away, the new reward system will hopefully make advancing via PvMP far more viable.
The Daily Grind: Non-combat titles vs combat titles
I admit it; I'm a title hunter. Way back when I started up City of Heroes, the idea of gathering as many badges as I could seemed like a lot of fun to me. It gave me a plethora of various titles and accolades to choose from at any given time. Later, when the TaxiBots entered the scene, I joined up with their cause. One of the things we had the most success with in regards to player-run events was the Badge tours, whereby people who either didn't know where the badges were, or just didn't feel like hunting them could get teleported from place to place via Recall Friend. We took the badge flavor text and spun outrageous stories based on it, then sent them along to the next person in the route. After approximately 2 minutes, the "fare" (player) would have gained 5-7 new badges, and had a lot of fun listening to us spin tales of bravery and occasionally depravity. Fast forward to WoW and LotRO, and I find myself chasing titles once again, but most of these require combat to gain. It is quite different from the early CoH badges with many available just for walking over a certain area, or finding an easter egg. Is there a better way to do it? Perhaps. But this is what we'd like to ask you about today. Are you also a badge hunter, seeking the next new title? If so, do you prefer yours for combat and feats of prowess, would you rather have them for just finding some "historic" spot that advances the lore, or do you like the idea of a combination of both? Do you think the idea of a non-combat title is just silly? Or do you really just not care about the idea of titles at all?
