Fixing Squad Arena
TL;DR at the bottom. The problems The biggest fundamental issue with squad arena is collusion. Not even specifically what those involved may refer to as "negative collusion" but collusion as a w...
Forum Discussion
I'd like to counter with this: why should the daily investment of time and participation in events, raids, and the daily grind for gear be discarded? You're the one who chose to take a break from the game. Just because you want to be top 20 again doesn't trump the 4 months of time and effort invested by the other players. If you want to catch up, you'll have to spend money - the two are directly linked (not just in this game but in much of life). You didn't invest the time that others did, so if you want to catch up you have to invest money that they didn't. That's the model this entire part of the gaming industry is built on.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes people need to take a break for legitimate reasons, and that's totally okay. But to come back and expect equality of roster strength and arena competitiveness without matching others' time investment with some kind of new investment (aka money) of your own is wrong. Why should the work of others be invalidated to accommodate you (or anyone else that takes a break)?
As for switching arena shards - this is a terrible idea. There's a reason "free to play players being disenfranchised by whales dominating the top spots in their arena shard". They paid for that advantage. To change up their shard so that they only face other whales would completely invalidate their financial investment in the game and would signal to every single player that spending money will only make your life harder in the future. That's not exactly a good way to keep the game running.
You speak of old players taking a long break coming back to an unfair shard, but in actuality it's perfectly fair as-is. It is fair to the investment of others for you to come back from a long break with setbacks and struggles. It is fair that the advantage some paid for with money (in addition to time) should stay with them, at least until F2P catch up and whales have to spend again. You are confusing fairness with respect to investment and equality irrespective of investment. While I don't think there is anything wrong with taking a break, I know there is something wrong with taking a 4 month break and coming back expecting everything to be easy.
And no, I'm not a whale. I've spent very little money on this game, but I have spent 10 months of logging in every day, doing my 600 every day, completing challenges every day, running GW every day, doing arena and ship battles every day, farming characters and gear every day, and participating in raids as often as they occur. That time investment counts for something.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes people need to take a break for legitimate reasons, and that's totally okay. But to come back and expect equality of roster strength and arena competitiveness without matching others' time investment with some kind of new investment (aka money) of your own is wrong. Why should the work of others be invalidated to accommodate you (or anyone else that takes a break)?
As for switching arena shards - this is a terrible idea. There's a reason "free to play players being disenfranchised by whales dominating the top spots in their arena shard". They paid for that advantage. To change up their shard so that they only face other whales would completely invalidate their financial investment in the game and would signal to every single player that spending money will only make your life harder in the future. That's not exactly a good way to keep the game running.
You speak of old players taking a long break coming back to an unfair shard, but in actuality it's perfectly fair as-is. It is fair to the investment of others for you to come back from a long break with setbacks and struggles. It is fair that the advantage some paid for with money (in addition to time) should stay with them, at least until F2P catch up and whales have to spend again. You are confusing fairness with respect to investment and equality irrespective of investment. While I don't think there is anything wrong with taking a break, I know there is something wrong with taking a 4 month break and coming back expecting everything to be easy.
And no, I'm not a whale. I've spent very little money on this game, but I have spent 10 months of logging in every day, doing my 600 every day, completing challenges every day, running GW every day, doing arena and ship battles every day, farming characters and gear every day, and participating in raids as often as they occur. That time investment counts for something.
