Fixing Player engagement DEV pls consider

[ItMe]

I can definitely see a system like this leading to problems.

"I want a gold medal, AST buff me more!!!"

"Hey! Switch to me for dance partner! I just need a few more gold..."

"I DON'T CARE I'M TANKING, DRAGOON GIVE ME YOUR TETHER!"

And the inevitable PF's for farming medals would undermine much of what the system would be trying to accomplish.

Also, if you could get medals from EX content they would quickly become worthless while people farmed the weapons/mounts.


But it's a moot issue.
Yoshi P. has said they'd never add anything in game that rates/ranks your performance.

[TaleraRistain]

This isn't keeping healers in mind. And it does have potential for toxicity. Sometimes people are so worried about their uptime that they willingly eat mechanics and expect "healer adjust". If they get a *medal* for it and not just time shaved off the run, that will get even worse.

Also, if I have to spend the entire raid constantly raising those people, I'm not putting out damage. So I worked my ass off the entire raid but I go away with nothing?

[SturmChurro]

That's why instead of healing, you just do DPS as healer. It's for the gold star, but I already do that anyway - gold star or not.

[Feronar]

WildStar had a bronze/silver/gold medal system for its dungeons and adventures (Accessed through the duty finder), and rewards like gear, and even progression of the raid attunement quest, were tied to said medals. For example, for one step of the attunement quest you had to get silver or higher in every veteran adventure. Later you would have to get silver in all veteran dungeons (Which were very hard) as well. Also, The best weapons would only drop if you got gold. The result was people would simply drop out of the duty or vote disband if they failed to get gold. It was a total mess. It's just one of the many reasons WildStar failed and shut down a couple years ago.

[Ath192]

I can definitely see a system like this leading to problems.

"I want a gold medal, AST buff me more!!!"

"Hey! Switch to me for dance partner! I just need a few more gold..."

"I DON'T CARE I'M TANKING, DRAGOON GIVE ME YOUR TETHER!"

And the inevitable PF's for farming medals would undermine much of what the system would be trying to accomplish.

Also, if you could get medals from EX content they would quickly become worthless while people farmed the weapons/mounts.


But it's a moot issue.
Yoshi P. has said they'd never add anything in game that rates/ranks your performance.

=/ But they did, in PVP you have a giant performance chart at the end, and also earn more medals if you win, and in Bozja you can't get a duel if you dont perform well with a set of criteria.

[Ath192]

This isn't keeping healers in mind. And it does have potential for toxicity. Sometimes people are so worried about their uptime that they willingly eat mechanics and expect "healer adjust". If they get a *medal* for it and not just time shaved off the run, that will get even worse.

Also, if I have to spend the entire raid constantly raising those people, I'm not putting out damage. So I worked my ass off the entire raid but I go away with nothing?

We touched on this topic page 2, and about the potential solutions so that people arent only DPS focused.

[Ath192]

WildStar had a bronze/silver/gold medal system for its dungeons and adventures (Accessed through the duty finder), and rewards like gear, and even progression of the raid attunement quest, were tied to said medals. For example, for one step of the attunement quest you had to get silver or higher in every veteran adventure. Later you would have to get silver in all veteran dungeons (Which were very hard) as well. Also, The best weapons would only drop if you got gold. The result was people would simply drop out of the duty or vote disband if they failed to get gold. It was a total mess. It's just one of the many reasons WildStar failed and shut down a couple years ago.

This seems interesting but not entirely related, as our normal difficulty raids arent hard, and the system would be implemented so people meet an acceptable standard, not a high one. In other words, were you AFK? Do you know your job a reasonable amount? Gold.

And also, since the medals drop after the raid is done, you cant disband midway, and lets say you drop mid raid because you are doing terrible, the 30 minute penalty you get for doing so would outweigh the benefits of at least getting a silver and queuing up again for another one if you want to farm them that bad.

[Ath192]

I think it seems the general consensus is that there are some reasons people would not prefer this, and that is okay, it is always easier to do nothing, but I think people are failing to analyze the other side of this equation. Which is the current state of affairs, with the current system I've seen people kick poor performers without saying a word or helping them for fear of being reported, High end raids get locked behind super high ILVL so people who haven't raided cant get in and have fun, elitism is very common, I've even heard poor performers get black listed so that you don't see their listings in party finder. People have found ways to segregate themselves, and even here we have a person who has confessed that as a healer they don't heal and just dps, this in my opinion would be grounds for no medal since healers are supposed to keep the party alive and do damage when there's no healing or raising to do.

Encouraging better performance for the base population may somewhat alleviate these issues. I don't know what the exact criteria and balance of this formula would look like, but ideally it should encourage healers to heal, raise and do damage when not busy, tanks to tank, use cooldowns to mitigate and DPS to perform their rotations well and do damage, which seem to be the base required functions of each role. It's not all about uptime and damage like people here seem to be interpreting. That is categorically wrong and not the purpose of the system.

But if this is what the community deems preferable of course I am just one person that disagrees. None the less the idea is out there, and even better ideas are welcome and encouraged. All I'm seeing here is doubt, but what we currently have definitely isn't perfect in my opinion.

[Vahlnir]

I'd rather not see this come to pass. It fosters unnecessary competition and gives players with a high ego more of a reason to flex their totally awesome skills.

I think it seems the general consensus is that there are some reasons people would not prefer this, and that is okay, it is always easier to do nothing, but I think people are failing to analyze the other side of this equation. Which is the current state of affairs, with the current system I've seen people kick poor performers without saying a word or helping them for fear of being reported, High end raids get locked behind super high ILVL so people who haven't raided cant get in and have fun, elitism is very common, I've even heard poor performers get black listed so that you don't see their listings in party finder. People have found ways to segregate themselves, and even here we have a person who has confessed that as a healer they don't heal and just dps, this in my opinion would be grounds for no medal since healers are supposed to keep the party alive and do damage when there's no healing or raising to do.

Honestly, a system like this would just make whatever elitism exists 10 times worse. It doesn't solve anything.

[ItMe]

=/ But they did, in PVP you have a giant performance chart at the end, and also earn more medals if you win, and in Bozja you can't get a duel if you dont perform well with a set of criteria.

Yeah. It's weird.
I can only assume he was referring to never adding one to PvE, but more consistency would be nice.