Originally Posted by Makani

Thanks for your post Alex. I am glad to hear that you guys are going to deal with the RP and PvP simultaneously. Im sure you guys have already thought of this, but should we implement the things that we have requested, we may have the problem of people hogging the arenas for faction.

We all understand the problems with farming, and know why ANet has nurfed it. However, although PvE farming is dead, ANet initiated a new kind of farming: Faction Farming. How often have we wondered what would happen if our demands for 32x faction were met? If we significantly increase the faction, the uber players will begin to hog the arenas and even the above-average player will have lots of difficulty winning games. This will result in increased annoyance, unsatisfaction and anger at the majority of the people that attempt the arenas. This may eventually lead to people getting bored and quitting the game. Just as tombs has been adversly affected today by spirit spammers, arenas will also be ruined by faction hoggers.

How many times have we thought about that aspect of increasing faction? Sure it will induce competitive play for a while between the few uber players, but the majority of normal players will lose too much to be happy. As mature players of the game, it is important that we understand such issues before attempting to solve our issues.

As I am not one of the game designers it is impossible for me to see the whole picture, so in the end the numbers must be determined by the game designers, but I will make a solemn attempt at finding a good solution:

1) I know many of us will not play the entire PvE again (especially me, though i LOVED it), but let us be a little selfless for a bit. I sincerely believe that the ideal solution is the very way ANet wants it to be: through PvE. PvE should be designed such that in the very first-time-through, one should unlock almost everything, for all professions and for every kind of thing. No 2 items found should be the same. Infact, I would design it such that if one has the patience to play the game for the third time through, one should be guaranteed to unlock every possible thing in the game (first time more than second, second more than third, but by third all is done). So ANet has been thinking along the right lines (i.e things should be unlocked in the most fun way possible) but with one serious problem: The had not realized that we need to have EVERY SINGLE thing unlocked, because PvEers today, will be GvGers tomorrow, and as they should have learned by now, GvGers need everything unlocked.

2) The only viable way for farming skills or runes will become faction should we increase it. This will force everyone to hog this method, and many people who would literally enjoy PvE farming more (since it is less tense and easier because they dont HAVE to win) would be at a major disadvantage. Thus, PvE farming should be improved. There HAS to be balance between PvP farming and PvE farming, and currently it is already towards PvP farming, and if faction is made 32x (or 16x whatever) it will be infinately towards PvP farming. We need to diversify the farmers so that they dont hog any one method, because farmers there always will be.

3) But many of us will not play PvE again so 1 doesnt work for ppl like me. And 2 aggrevates the very problem we have wanted to reduce since game inception. Thus we now need to find a solution for the more mature players, without forcing them to faction farm. This is a very difficult problem and is what everyone has been debating on, however we must try and solve it with the aforementioned issues in mind, and try to have a broader picture of what the game is intended to be, and how our solutions affect that goal and ALL the people that play it. Thus we need to increase unlock rate without inducing farming and keeping the game as fun as possible:

a) Skill Points:
Skill Point acquisition is a function of XP. But we must not forget that level-up rate is also a function of xp. Thus if we amend xp acquisition, we are bound to affect level-up rate, which btw I believe is perfect right now. Thus we cannot change the xp, and I propose we leave everything as it is, except one thing. Skill Points are only obtained at level 20. Thus we can simply reduce the xp requirement at level 20. My suggestion would be that we make skill point acquisition 3 to 4 times faster, thus level cap should be between 5000 to 7000 instead of the current 20000. Do remember that PvP wins give XP too, but I would not change that as I think this will help balance the skill-point acquisition rate with faction-acquisition rate when we increase faction-rate. Balance is good.

b) Faction:
Faction definately needs to be increased. My suggestion is 4x, though I do think even that is high considering the fact that we are increase skill point acquisition. Actually, 4x is probably still enough to make me want to farm team arenas (last time i did 61 undefeated, during which I hogged ta for a couple of hours). Nevertheless, I think 4x is good because we are going to add a third dimension to lure the uber players away towards more fun competitive play instead of faction farming.

c) Advanced Competitive Play
This is the third dimension. We need a way to drastically increase unlocking rate for the elite people in the game who need to instantly randomly try different gvg builds, yet avoiding any form of grind (even faction farming). We need a way to kick the high-ranking guilds back into action with advanced competitive play.

i) Ladder (current system)
The amount of faction received from GvG needs to be increased significantly. Instead of 200-500, we should make it 500-2000 per win, where the higher the rank you defeat, the more the faction each person in the party gets.

ii) Leagues
These will be large tournaments where a team is not immediately eliminated on a loss, so that they have another go at attaining the high faction received for each win in here. Kind of like a Fifa League, so in the initial part of the leage each win gives perhaps 1000 faction and when you enter playoffs near end you could receive something like 5000 faction per person in team for a victory.

iii) Smaller tournaments or any official competitive play
Any kind of official competition should basically have a significantly increased amount of faction.

We must also remember that one must still need to put in a bit of work to achieve things. So giving infinite faction for a win beats the whole experience ANet has been trying to develop. Faction can infact be a strong motivation factor for winning games, but if everyone already has every skill, then that kind of drive will not be there and a decreased sense of reward for a victory.

Thank you Alex for a wonderful game so far and for listening to our suggestions.

Makani Blade