Morale Welfare And Incentive A Critique Of This Clan War By Sgt Ron Frye#879655 Junior Editor, The Galaxy Gathering

The past few wars, we have been part of an ongoing debate concerning the balance between rewarding those who have worked their way up the ranks and those just starting who need the boost to compete in the upper echelons on the game. It is a delicate situation, that must be weighed carefully or the precarious perch between cheap skate and Monty Hall will tip. Chef and his staff have done their best to placate the gaming community; however, these words still ring as true today as they did decades ago when first spoken, "You can't please everyone.". This having been said, it is my opinion that the scale has been tipped; not intentionally, but due to an attempt to appease the few players who felt unhappy by the system put in place to handle the needs of the vast majority.

This war, the rewards given versus the effort expended were inadequate to say the least. In an attempt to balance the game's rewards, Chef inadvertently shorted us in not only loot, but also chances at loot. The smaller raid quantity of enemies made the raid quicker, easier, and more attainable in the given time frame for the smaller, less experienced, and less equipped clans, but left the larger, more established clans hanging in the breeze with not enough rewards to compensate for the expenditure of their time and energy. Quite frankly, if the members of the larger clans chose to do king of the hill, watch videos, or just hit the circuits, they could get more stuff than doing this war.

I am not trying to insult anyone. Chef has a hell of a hard job, as do the staff supporting him. I just feel that this was a case of trying to make everyone happy, when that is an impossibility. Now, I never point out an issue without also pointing out a solution to that issue. It is a part of my character that was ingrained in me during my service in the military and serves me in all aspects of my life. In essence, do not just sit around bitching about a problem, point it out and find a way to fix it. If you have a flat tire, you don't just sit on the roadside and have a good cry about it, you get your tools out, find a spare, and fix your car, while at the same time, trying to find out what caused the tire to go flat in the first place, so you can make sure it doesn't go flat for that reason ever again.

Here is my solution to this problem:

Next clan war (or faction war, etc.), leave the rewards for the actual battles pretty much the same; with a slight upgrade in the mechs given as loot. Bigger mechs means players get more active in an effort to upgrade those mechs as well as giving them a reason to want more niodes, which leads to either more niode purchases or more activity in watching niode videos (etc.), in an effort to acquire more niodes.

Secondly, when the raid kicks off, leave the numbers the same for the lower brackets, but at least double, triple or even quadruple the numbers *maybe even more* to give the higher brackets more chances to roll on loot, which encourages them to fight more, gain more experience, gain more levels, and promote the concept of advancing in the game rather than just sitting around farming. Active players equal more activity in the game, which leads to happy advertisers, more publicity and more game revenue, which is good for everyone.

To summarize, though, this clan war was very disappointing. We need to increase the loot, increase the numerical opposition, and institute a sliding difficulty scale in the raid.

Sincerely (hoping this helps as a constructive critique).

Submitted by Sgt Ron 879655