Quote Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI View Post
It's unfortunate, but the only way to really bring integrity back into PvP is to remove the XP reward entirely. Things were much better - even with the supposedly "worse" PvP system we had before - when no XP was given. We played to win, and we enjoyed it. We didn't care about XP. We got it in all the other content the game had to offer and it was a non issue.
I really can't agree. I was grinding Garo gear before XP was added and it wasn't noticeably different. The biggest change for me wasn't the addition of XP, but switching GCs to one that generally has its act together. Since going to Maelstrom, I've won about 40% of my matches and when I don't win I'm in second, often a close second. I've been in third maybe one time since switching. In contrast, when I was on Twin Adders without Freelancer enabled, I was winning only around 20% of the time and routinely coming in third place. When I turned on Freelancer and got put on Flames around 90% of the time, it was a similar experience. On Aether, whatever the reason, Maelstrom just wins more than the other two. Prior to switching, both pre- and post-XP, Adders and Flames were both an experience in frustration and futility. My teams were noticeably less likely to make themselves useful and would often blow even large early leads with sloppy play and wasting their time doing stupid stuff. Even nerfing the losers' XP didn't change this. I see little reason to think removing XP entirely would somehow magically fix the problem, which existed long before XP in PVP did.