An interesting topic came up in a thread this week. The topic was, "Clan Wars are getting a bit stale, what can be done to spice them back up?". Of course such a broad sweeping question invited massive commentary and debate participation. I monitored the conversation until it finally ran out, digested the content, reread a few of the comments, and filtered out the primary suggestions of improvements. In other words, you people owe me! I will probably require several months of therapy for this incident, but I am a good sport, so I took one for the team. You are all very welcome (he says as he sucks his thumb and rocks back and forth holding his teddy bear close).
The improvement suggestions discussed fell into two primary categories; changes to the betting system and alternative global competitions. There were many suggestions for both, so I am going to boil them down for the sake of minimizing this article, otherwise it would wind up being a small novella, and nobody wants to read my mental ramblings any longer than they absolutely have to (you don't want to trade places with me and my teddy bear, trust me lol). So, all of that being said, here goes:
A. NEW BETTING SYSTEM IDEAS:
The current betting system is believed by many to be either too limiting, constrictive, and predictable or a waste of time and niodes. I personally disagree on both counts, however the majority of the participants in the debate felt otherwise, so I bow to popular opinion on this matter (see....I am democratic in my writing.....all you conspirators who believe I am actually Stalin's brain attached to a lap top in the west wing of the white house can bite my digital junk! lol ).
Several alternatives were suggested, but the prevalent opinion was that either the odds needed to be adjusted to show a bit more lenience or an additional form of bet be introduced. For example; instead of just betting on the winners of each bracket, bets be allowed for win, place and show. These were just some of the options discussed.
B. ALTERNATIVE GLOBAL COMPETITIONS:
The current two forms of massive game wide combat are clan wars and faction wars (not counting KOTM or Circuits). While the vast majority of players love both clan and faction wars, many feel that clan wars are getting a bit stale and could use a little spice to liven them back up or another form of combat be examined to augment the existing two engagements. I personally enjoyed the hell out of this brain storming session, as players were very creative in their ideas on how to approach this particular game aspect. (In other words, this part of the debate gave me a warm fuzzy lol.)
Ideas for spicing up the original clan wars, were varied but two ideas stuck out:
1. GRAND CHAMPION: Add a point system that tracks all divisions and uses those points to determine a grand champion for the clan wars in addition to the various bracket winners. This idea seems a bit complicated on the math side, as it would need to make the point system fair to all divisions equally.
2. DIVISION CHAMPION: Add an additional rank to winner brackets for each division. Instead of just bronze, silver and gold there would also be "champion". After the first three rounds, all gold winners in each division would enter into a single elimination tourney for the purpose of determining a champion for the division, with additional prizes given to the champions on top of their gold medal winnings.
The final area of discussion was the idea of entirely new competitions. Here is the number one suggestion (by popular opinion of those in the discussion.).
1. UNLIMITED BEAR PIT: This proposed contest would have all members of all clans in a division, entered into an unlimited KOTM, with the no more than two kills per player rule in effect. Winners are determined by the amount of kills accumulated by all the members of each clan. The only other modification of note was the notion that specialists be allowed in this contest, but only weapons specialists. This would have the added bonus of giving people the incentive to level up and get skill points in weapons spec's.
Well, that concludes my observations of the think tank forum. Thank you all for reading, and good luck out there in the clan wars.
Submitted by Sgt Ron Frye aka Monk Malone#879655