Tokens in an unexpected place

Recently, I took a trip with some family to an amusement park. While walking around, we came across a carnival game. You know the one where you compete with others over who can shoot the most water into a clowns mouth? Yeah, that's that's it. This by itself is normal, but you now win tokens.

One token can be turned in for the small piece-o-crap prize while four can be turned in for the large piece-o-crap prize. That's all well and good but then I looked at the rules which stated: Everybody wins, Every time.

I was taken aback by this, as these games had always rewarded the winner. Now it doesn't really matter if you win, you get a token just the same. On one hand this makes a lot of sense for the folks running the booth. If you want that large prize, you are guaranteed to get it in 4 games. That makes it a bit more tempting. Of course at $3 a game, they will make a tidy profit.

On the other hand, this killed our motivation to play so we kept walking. The $3 price tag didn't help any, what the hell? In retrospect, the tokens should not have had any influence on our wanting to play. We were not playing for the prizes and there still would have been a winner. I guess we just don't want to see everybody winning. Hey, that's family :)

This system is actually more extreme than what you would find in a MMO. There you at least have to do something for the tokens. In the carnival game, you really are just handing over money for a token. They should at least have had the winner get 2 tokens or something.

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Medallions

Late last week, Mythic gave us some details on their new token system. This is similar to badges in WoW and other bartering (token) systems. Medallions are loot, which are rolled on, and can be traded in for items at a npc. They are bound to you though, so no giving them to another player or alt.

I am pretty excited about seeing this system come to WAR. One thing that the game has been missing is any sort of progression to the next set of armor. I can't remember the last time I got a new piece of armor (that I didn't buy). Tirew is wearing 2 Conqueror pieces and 3 Annihilator still. The odds of me getting any Fortress rewards or City PQ rewards have been very slim. Now, I can start to work towards those by just participating.

ANY player who participates in a keep capture will be rewarded 2 common medallions appropriate for that tier content.

Did you ever get that deja vu feeling? The easiest way to get medallions will be to take an undefended keep. This will just encourage keep swapping, just like influence did. Players should be rewarded, but why 2? One medallion would be more appropriate. Zone capture does give players who participated in the siege medallions too. So why should the undefended keep swapping give better rewards than a zone capture?

Crests (higher level medallions) are also rewarded on city siege PQ completion. If there is a mostly empty instance, the players will pretty much farm all the crests they will need for a piece of gear in 1 shot. Again it seems like avoiding combat is being rewarded.

Another questions is how will this system work with the Land of the Dead? I am going to bet that it will have it's own version of this token system.

Overall, I am happy to see a token system. It should add a lot to WAR and make the end game a bit more interesting for many players. At present though, it seems like there are too many rewards for not fighting players. Please Mythic, reward fighting players, not npc's.

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