Comments on: WAR-oboros

By: Guild Wars 2 RTS | Kill Ten Rats

Guild Wars 2 RTS | Kill Ten Rats — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:12:50 +0000

[...] issue where large numbers of players simply smash through any balanced complexity. A complex Ouroboros fight of hitting mines, supply lines, watchtowers, then keeps is still a boring prospect. On top of [...]

By: Huffledoom Thunderpants

Huffledoom Thunderpants — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:59:04 +0000

I don’t think this will be as much of a problem once people understand how zone control works. If you’re trying to take the zone and get access to your enemy’s zone, the War-oborous is not good strategy. It’s a short-term tactic to increase your stats, but eventually people are going to start to want that ultimate prize… city sieges.

By: WAR-oboros, take two | Kill Ten Rats

WAR-oboros, take two | Kill Ten Rats — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:09:31 +0000

[...] wanted to return to the concept of WAR-oboros because I saw the concept evolve, if only in my own perception, the other night. The early play [...]

By: Ark's Ark

Ark's Ark — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:04:15 +0000

Warhammer Online Update. 21st of October….

My server, Makaisson, has been down for about an hour in Prime Time now, without comment from GOA. I’ll take the time to bring you up to date with my adventures!
Osgard, my Engineer, is now level 21, with a renown rank of 20. The renown rank mean…

By: Ravious

Ravious — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:38:35 +0000

Well, I don’t think that Mythic 100% knew where to move the cheese and carrots, but I agree that taking PvE Keeps is pretty lousy. Some fights work very well where the mob mentality of both sides is to pitch in for a 2 hour battle. But, I think this is when PUGs are fighting on both sides. Smarter groups that are led… I think go where the better rewards are.

By: yunk

yunk — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:20:13 +0000

They aren’t playing the way they “wish’ to play, they are playing according to the incentives laid out by Mythic. If you change the incentives, players will decide to play differently.

It’s not so much as adding new incentives, as much as changing the ones that already exist that are affecting player behavior. Every game has incentives built in that will cause players to behave a certian way, there is no escaping that. Just like everything a government does, or a business does, or our spouses do, affects our behavior. Evertying affects us and provides incentives and disincentives.

This is the very basis of phrases like “unintended consequences” or “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” – when we accidentally provide incentives to do something contrary to what we hope people will do.

So to make a better game, or economy, or business environment, you just need to try to intelligently take advantage of that fact, and remove the disincentives towards your goals or provide incentives.

It’s about making people happy with a better game. Taking pve keeps makes WAR a lousy version of PvE WoW.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:48:46 +0000

The rewards for defending are low, although you do get free siege weapons to help you earn those rewards. The rewards for attacking are moderate, although you are either fighting entirely NPCs or fighting a difficult battle against PCs supported by large NPCs.

I still want to hit the enemy tank with a -100% healing debuff while he has the keep lord. Then again, if I am playing Order, Destruction has another 7 tanks in that warband to pick up the slack.

By: Ravious

Ravious — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:50:10 +0000

I didn’t say anybody was doing it wrong, just that I think that Mythic envisioned a different style of play than what has come out. I just read Mark Jacob’s state of the game letter, and I do hope and believe that more carrots will be added for open RvR.

By: Plotter

Plotter — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:29:11 +0000

On a related note, I wonder how a guild “claiming a keep” affects the rewards.

In this case, while I sort of agree with the main article, defenders can’t get too much of a boost or things can get way out of balance in keep taking. As it is, it’s fairly easy to defend a keep with smaller numbers. Kill the main tank while he’s tanking a keep lord and/or the healers that are keeping him up and watch the hilarity ensue. Pretty everybody except tanks get three shot by keep lords. A coordinated group of 6 can fairly easily block a keep attempt of a full warband.

If the defender rewards are such that defenders are going to be encouraged defend keeps in equal or nearly equal numbers, keep taking is never going to happen until even more people give up on the open rvr completely and just grind scenarios.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:26:47 +0000

So basically, the players are playing it wrong?

Since clearly people (in both WoW and WAR) would rather avoid conflict with other players if they can get the loot without doing so, why try forcing players to play in a way they clearly don’t generally wish to play?