Rank Removed, PvP is Less Interesting Now

[nickx]

You might have did this for more players to join but you're losing the hardcore PvPers.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your gear point, however, I think most true hardcore PvPers aren't interested as much in the rank-less gear decision and will not be leaving PvP. If anything, the real hardcore PvPers are more about the competition and are impatiently waiting for the Feast.

[Februs]

Not necessarily disagreeing with your gear point, however, I think most true hardcore PvPers aren't interested as much in the rank-less gear decision and will not be leaving PvP. If anything, the real hardcore PvPers are more about the competition and are impatiently waiting for the Feast.

This is true, however you're not seeing competition the same way hardcore PvP'ers do. The removal of ranks is actually a bad sign for the future competition in PvP.

A lot of hardcore PvP'ers advocate for the re-establishment of Morale in PvP (at the very least in the upcoming ranked game modes) to encourage more competition. Further, given that SE has openly been pushing an E-sports agenda with Feast, raked rewards for gear, customization, and stat/skill allocation would make a HUGE difference in pre-made competitive teams, especially in tournaments (which SE has said, in an interview, that they are planning as a future goal if Feast is successful). All of these little things seems small, but real competitors would actually go the extra mile to make sure they are optimizing their load-outs.

The development of Feast, the way the game mode is set up, and the establishment of leagues and seasonal rankings, are a big leap forward in showing the community that they are taking a vested interest in making a viable, competitive, PvP environment. Removing ranks from PvP, on the other hand, is a huge leap backwards, and makes its seem like SE doesn't actually care about fostering a competitive PvP following, because there is nothing competitive about watering down the playing field and taking away long term goals from the players.

[Renault]

This is true, however you're not seeing competition the same way hardcore PvP'ers do. The removal of ranks is actually a bad sign for the future competition in PvP.

Yeah Nikoza, you're not seeing competition like the "hardcore PVPers." Maybe you should start thinking like the hardcore players, like the OP.

[nickx]

Yeah Nikoza, you're not seeing competition like the "hardcore PVPers." Maybe you should start thinking like the hardcore players, like the OP.

The 250 premade wolves' den matches I do weekly don't qualify me as hardcore.

[AshenStar]

Not necessarily disagreeing with your gear point, however, I think most true hardcore PvPers aren't interested as much in the rank-less gear decision and will not be leaving PvP. If anything, the real hardcore PvPers are more about the competition and are impatiently waiting for the Feast.

The most hardcore will always need a big goal to struggle for. Best gear, best rating, etc. You are confusing with casual pvper's who just play for fun. They will not be spending 10 hours per day PvPing. They will play maybe once or a couple times from time to time and they will not care about gear, about ranks etc.
I've played a lot of MMOs and can tell for sure - PvP without incentive will die.

[Kurogaea]

Not necessarily disagreeing with your gear point, however, I think most true hardcore PvPers aren't interested as much in the rank-less gear decision and will not be leaving PvP. If anything, the real hardcore PvPers are more about the competition and are impatiently waiting for the Feast.

I really don't think you know how PvPers actually think as a whole. We're impatiently waiting for the feast because we have nothing to work towards and PvP is rendered a minigame now, almost on par with the Gold Saucer at this point. We don't judge our competitiveness through fighting, but experience, and the best way we had to show that was our ranks. The gear restricted items we're a goal we could look forward to to show how far we've gotten after fighting each other for 2 years. Giving PvP rankless gear will only allow players who aren't inerested in PvP a chance to get the gear. PvPers will stay PvPers, SE changed nothing but took away a chunk of their devoted PvP players proof of their struggles to achieve what they had.

I'll give an example of how bad this is, and yes, its the same. Lets say I increased the level cap in the game to 70 and made it 2x harder than it was to level than 50-60. Then I'd allow the players to choose their rewards that could be a costume from any FF series. a month later after grinding for so long, many players achieved lvl 70 and gotten the gear of their choosing for 10k. SE updates the game and now all that gear can be achieved at lvl 1 for 10k as well. <--- thats what happened.

[nickx]

I really don't think you know how PvPers actually think as a whole. We're impatiently waiting for the feast because we have nothing to work towards and PvP is rendered a minigame now, almost on par with the Gold Saucer at this point. We don't judge our competitiveness through fighting, but experience, and the best way we had to show that was our ranks.

I understand that, but I believe using ranks to judge experience is no longer the main focus of PvP, it was up until patch 3.2. SE is taking PvP to a more serious level now with rating and leaderboards, and they want as much participation in this as possible, thus they removed the rank restriction on gear (as mentioned by Zhexos here). For players who have been devoted this long in PvP, they'll now have a chance to use this experience they've gotten for 2 years and finally be able to use it in a competitive setting.

In my opinion, increasing ranks every patch or two and having new gear to grind for is not really a good direction to take PvP, as participation still remains fairly low overall. I think SE knows this and wants to take PvP in a different direction now, a direction that will allow both new and veteran players participate, with hopes of increasing the PvP playerbase.

[Renault]

Snip

I have to disagree. The old system rewarded nothing but dedication. With the new system, those rewards are still there in the form of titles and a mount for "The Feast". 1000 wins in each role for a unique title, and 200 wins in general for a mount. There's your reward. To me, the reward for participation means nothing, I much prefer to strive for the mysterious "Diamond gear" that players who reach diamond ranking will supposedly receive after Season 1.

[Kurogaea]

...

You do know their going to announce the gear when they come up with it right? If you insist on calling it dedication than rewards, aren't you dedicating yourself to 1000 wins for a mount and a title that would provide you with nothing but glamour, instead of an actual piece of gear that will make you even stronger to show how experienced you've become through numerous battles? And just so you know, participating offers more of a reward than you think (may be a bit lazy, but its a reward), and SE is basically saying thats ok by allowing those who are new to pvp to just lose over and over and over till they have enough points to buy there glamour and never participate in PvP again. Ranks is what kept that from happening. :/

[Renault]

Snip

That's no different. There are tons of terrible rank 50 PVP'ers that afk'd their way to rank 50. Also, your reasoning of the gear showing how you're stronger is null and void, as gear is synched in PVP. What I mean by "rewards for participation" is that there is no skill wall to lock you out of rewards. You just have to show up. That's true for the old system and the new. The only difference is that now you only need to grind the 50k + wolf marks, instead of a new PVP'er ALSO having to grind for literal months/years to hit max rank.