My mom has always told me I never lose if I try my best. Now, Mythic Entertainment is telling me the same thing!
The trend at Mythic for Warhammer Online seems to be pushing into an age of gaming where rewards are not aimed so much at the winner, but at everyone that participates.
This started with scenerios, where win or lose, everyone receives the same scenerio currency token. This sort of reward system seems to be still on their minds with the redesigning of the Warlord and Palace instances that will be released soon with 1.3.5.
Personally, I am a bit on the fence with the participation strategy. Any regular readers of this blog know I am Mythic’s biggest supporter of the way scenerio currency rewards were implemented and the immediate benefits it has brought the game. My concern is, what happens if you dull the edge of competition too much, and remove too much of the push, fire and desire to win.
The very essence and point of gaming is to win and rewarding winners is the proven way to do things. Take some random examples:
Olympics: Top 3 get medals, everyone else lost.
National Sports: The winners drink the losers tears from a cup.
World of Warcraft: In the most casual friendly game in the world, 3 tokens for a BG win. 1 for a loss.
Is it an antiquated way of thinking to expect winners will be rewarded and losers will be left to work on getting better and learn new tactics? Who knows really, all I know is I am keeping an eye on how far Mythic pushes the participation reward systems and what kind of results they get. Some of the other places they have moved away from tried and proven methods have really cost them in Warhammer *cough* loot system *cough*, but -so far-, this seems like it could strike better results.
As an additional note, my mom also tells me I am smart and that people like me. Mythic had no comment on that…