Why are tourneys so preferable? Why have the arenas faded?

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:45 pm

Since there are prizes in tourneys, why shouldn't a prize be added to all basic arenas?

I still think giving a limited rez prize for playing a full team for X number of turns would be good for basic arenas.

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:20 pm

The Consortium wrote:

KidArcane wrote:

The Consortium wrote:

We will add a different take as to "why the tournaments have accelerated and the arenas decelerated ...
PRIZES

The advent of adding prizes to tournaments stimulated and still stimulates action in that direction. With prizes valued at $250-750ish, the natural desire to compete head-to-head across arenas, and the search for the ultra-albeit modified-warrior, tournaments/tournament thinking/tournament planning/modified warriors have "taken over the limelight". A tournament is also good for RSI as sales "rush" and intake per event are much higher and more efficient than the arena method.

The "original game" is changed.

I think this hits the proverbial nail on the head. I will take it further and say that it is not just prizes that have altered the game (i.e. their availability via tournaments and their effect on warriors and the game itself). No, it's not just the fighter-augmentation prizes that have changed the game, its the cumulative effect of a few players dropping so much money on the game. I stopped sending fighters to the tournaments because I don't have the inclination to compete against managers who had the luxury of picking a handful of fighters from about ten or twenty or more roll-up sheets. I am a little envious, but I'm also disappointed. When a manager can flood a series of arenas with teams just so they can get a crop of godlings into the tournament system.... it's not really much of a competition, is it?

I believe that this is the biggest factor that has changed the game: money. There are managers who have deep pockets devoted to RSI, and they call a lot of the shots.

As I told another manager: Look at Vegas. Casinos have players called "whales" who gamble with millions of dollars at a time. Now if you had to keep a customer happy, who would be getting the most of your attention? The weekend tourist who might drop a few grand? Or the whale?

Whales, in RSI, have fought against small (barely populated) arenas being shut down or consolidated; They've fought to have the warrior augmentation prizes; they've fought to have Primus in the first place. Now the big push is for programming changes... (which probably won't happen because they CAN'T happen.) I believe people dropped away over time because it stopped being as much fun. Part of the reason for that is that the tournament competition became unreal. Sure, anyone can send a great roll-up in with the right strategy and win a prize. But the guy who can send in 30 great roll-ups is going to have the edge there, no question. And when you have a half-dozen guys, each sending in that many fighters... or more... For those of us who can only afford to send in a few fighters per tournament, that joke gets old real fast. For a manager sending in just a few fighters it's unrealistic to expect much out of it in the way of a prize. (Read that as LIMITED entertainment.) I believe that some stay away from tournaments because of that. I know I have.

And since I stay out of tournaments, why bother with ADM? In ADM, if my fighters don't have prizes tacked on to their stats, and don't have the additional FE gained via tournaments, they are behind the 8 ball starting out -- and it will only get worse over time. Any fighter w/o tournament experience and a prize modification is at a distinct disadvantage, particularly if it's not one of the "Uber" styles, like LU or AB. This seems a little unfair, and it is. If one wants to compete with the same fighter for years, tournaments aren't an option.

As someone else said earlier, there are more managers/fighters at the far end of the game than at the beginning. Amen. When the managers (who could afford it) starting flooding the tournaments, they sort of created their own little club. Most of the fighters parked in the upper levels of ADM and stagnating in Primus belong to this same group of managers. For this group, augmentation prizes are imperative. They demand them. Since certain styles seem to be benefiting more than others, it is turning into a very frustrating system, even for some of these veterans. Who knows where it will lead?

In any case prizes, and money flooded into the game to win those prizes, has changed the game significantly and, IMHO, detrimentally.

The "whale effect" may be a factor, but you may want to note that the largest contributor ($ over time) is devoted to the arena game.

And God bless ya, man! Very Happy