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I take this position as someone that had some participation in the big battle which naturally made my interest somehow greater than many players that has neither the will, strength nor the resources (or all 3) to do the same. Why did I do it? Well, economically, taking part is a major waste for players like me that are not rich but I remembered what the game was about. It was about taking part in the major battles, not necessarily to win/earn BH but to have been there. Hunting BHs or playing entrepreneurs from time to time is all nice and well but we sometimes forget that they are only meant to serve some end, not be end by themselves.

Unfortunately my side (RED) ended up losing the battle which is a shame but the purpose of this article is neither to report on this nor to seek reasons/excuses about it. My aim is to rather suggest a few tweaks and raise some issues that need addressing so that if another WW comes along, people that were 50/50 like me would not opt for saving their damage instead.

The before and after

The battle at Santiago was promptly frozen during the WW event but it had battles running all the day up to it. My suggestion is simple in theory (but probably hard to implement, I can't say) – have the event start and finish on separate day so that people don’t have the dilemma whether to use their available damage hunting BH medals in empty battles or participate in the WW event. This is not a problem in itself but it can influence people’s decision in favour of not participating when, on top of the huge cost, they would possibly forgo the chance to also win a few easier BH medals. On a similar note, staying with debuffs for possibly 3-4 days after the event is a major reason not to take part, especially if people’s countries are under threat. It might be of some help to “weaker” players but it is exactly this division that I am trying to address. I’m assuming its that long given the recent article by admin that special items would be extended by 24 hours,hence, further 24 hours cool-down period.

Med kits to the winners

I can see why admin decided to do this but there is a problem when one goes into defining “winners”. I mean individual countries, especially the ones below top 10, had little chance of influencing the outcome of the war and their individual citizens even less so. Where I'm getting at is that some people put A LOT of effort to try and win but ended up losing while all it takes every “winning” citizen is 30 random hits. In addition, judging how a med kit can make a difference between winning a BH or not even making it in top 3 in such a battle, its fair to say that this predetermines the nationality of the BH winners of the next WW event. This brings me to the next issue…

Items with better stats

Even when happening during Easter, some people described it as a “richer get richer” type of scheme. Sure, real life isn’t fair either but people would then prefer it if e-sim is more successful in copying the nastier bits from it . I think its pretty clear to everyone that even getting into top 10 of any round was not a joke as it required millions of damage from people with good equipment. I fell into this bracket and was lucky enough to receive a fair few q1-2-3 items but their slightly better stats are pretty much useless in this case (already wiped by the merge department) when we would have been doomed if we didn’t have q4-q5 stuff on us already. The only suggestion I could make here is that all players to be in the pool for all quality items but still % drop chance to be in this descending order: BH>top3>top10>all others.

Make the event with more rounds

This is for a few reasons: 1) Ease the traffic on the server. 2) Creates a sense of strategy when a battle lasts for ages (actually like a proper World War where attrition could be key). 3) Gives a better chance to people to fight for spots(Im personally 50/50 on that). 4) May ease the burden on economies where suddenly everything from strade to monetary markets goes nuts.

Medals and achievements

The WW medal is 5 innocent gold so not as advantageous as the med kit but, again, same problem – harsh to some “losing” players and “generous” to some winning ones. My personal suggestion here is to think about having 3 different medals for BH,top 3 and top 10 for the WW only where each gives different amount of gold (e.g. perhaps 10,5 and 2 respectively). In addition, achievements can be created for earning X,Y or Z amount of each type in order to keep a player interested even after earning one of each.

Also, I think when half the world is involved on one side, countries should perhaps have their own achievement pages(or medals, with gold for the national orgs) with regards to the event - at any rate, something to prompt them to act as sub-teams and their efforts in the war effort being recognized. Now, one thing that comes to my mind is about having an achievement for X number of players from a country earning top spots in rounds OR the country qualifying within 5 for damage although this has the weakness that these spots would be likely reserved for the strongest ones. This particular aspect could have an article of its own as the possibilities are many so I will leave it at that.

To summarize

Despite the shake up of our otherwise repetitive e-sim routine, I cannot go past the feeling that many people hardly even took notice of the event, seeing it as a sort of play field of the rich and powerful, while others just brushed it aside because their effort would make virtually no difference to their side or their country. In my opinion, this completely misses the point when this WW event should be an inclusive one and as fair to everyone as the game mechanics can possible afford to be. I am merely throwing the above suggestions on the table but which and in what (hopefully better) form they get accepted that should be up to all of us.



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