feonix13

There has been a lot of discussion about incentivizing participation in global quests, and some good points made on both sides of the issue.  My 2 cents:

1) The top 100 acts as an incentive for a relatively small number of players.  Since there is no concrete award associated with it, many players who COULD qualify for the list choose not to.  And I submit that the majority of players have no realistic chance of making it to the list, and know it, so they don't bother.  I don't want to argue the "well they SHOULD do more" - the fact is, they DON'T.  If they are to be reached, it will need to be through some other means.

2) Low-level players have a couple of reasons for not wanting to be bothered:

a) The potions are so overpowered for their level that there is little difference between a bronze potion, a gold potion, or a ruby potion.  Why fight so I can get the gold potion when there is no practical difference to me between that and the bronze I've already earned?

In events where multiple potions are awarded, many low-level characters lack the backpack space to hold onto them until they will become more useful.  So they either use them wastefully at low levels, or let them go to waste in their mailbox.

3) (and yes, I know that this will bring out howls of derision from many, but...) Many players have come to the conclusion that since reward is only loosely tied to effort, they will put forth the minimum amount of effort required to achieve the reward that they want.  Or the reward that seems possible.  It looks like the community MAY achieve crystal this time, so I'm hearing a lot of people say that they are stopping at crystal.  Or that they are stopping at gold until AFTER the community unlocks it, and that they will then get an extra 1000 kills to qualify.

I've been involved in every one of these events since the beginning.  I've narrowly missed top 100 a couple of times.  So yes, I understand that we're "supposed" to be doing this for the community, and that it "shouldn't" matter what we get in return.  Well, folks, if you're going to encourage more widespread participation, you're going to have to realize that altruism just doesn't cut it for a lot of folks.  You can't force self-sacrifice.  If you want to get more output out of many of them, you need to use a bigger carrot.

Accordingly, I would like to make the following suggestions:

1) Don't award potions directly.  Make them available after each event in a "Defenders of the Realm" store. 

2) Award points for participation in the Global Events, similar to but separate from PvP Ladder points or Reputation Points.  These would be used by the players to purchase potions from the Defenders of the Realm store.

Already, this would improve things for lower-level players, since they can get potions when they WANT them, and not have to hold onto them in their limited backpack spaces forever.  Furthermore, they can opt to purchase, perhaps, a larger quantity of bronze potions, if they so desire, rather than a smaller quantity of crystal ones.  Which gives them more incentive to keep going - now instead of working toward a gold potion that gives them no appreciable benefit, they can work toward 2 or 3 bronze potions which do!

3) The potions available in the defenders store would change after each event.  So you can only purchase the potions linked to the most recent event.   This would keep them somewhat more desirable and uncommon.  

4) The potions available at any given time would STILL be dictated by the community's performance.  So if the community only reached gold this time, the crystal and ruby potions would be out of stock.  Better luck next time, guys...put forth more effort.

This makes the community performance relevant, while at the same time allowing more active players to reap more of the rewards.

Not quite the altruistic utopia that I know a lot of you would like.  But it should give some of the more self-oriented players more of a reason to participate and participate long and hard than "take one for the community."