Those 8 epics will help your guild get 8 more epics on the next run. And so on. The equipment that drops in these high-end raids helps you with all of the future raids. In a few months your guild will be running the whole thing in 5 hours and seeing 20+ epics a night. Then you'll be equipped to move on to BWL. Rinse and repeat.
As for large-scale PvP, I personally think it causes more problems than it solves. Equipment will always be a deciding factor in WoW because the gameplay more-or-less takes player's skill out of the equasion. And even if you had a level playing field equipment-wise, the better organized team (i.e., all from the same guild using some sort of VoIP program) is going to win because of superior communication and tactics.
Of course, I'm a carebear from way back when, so I'm a little biased against PvP anyway. . .
Shadowbane has offered GvG warfare and player-run city sieges for a long time now, and you can see how that game has turned out.
I think it's a bad idea to allow a group the option to conquer a virtual world, because in most cases any group motivated enough to do so are not likely to be the "benevolent ruler" types. And that's not good for anyone else playing the game, who then become impediments in the way of the ruler's "keeping" the world. It starts the vicious cycle of "clawing your way to the top and then staying there", which polarizes the in-game community and then destroys it.
The idea of "but then the masses could team up, arise, and overthrow the oppressors" is just fantasy.
I do think the original poster is onto something with the idea of a "corruption penalty based on territory controlled", because then the controlling faction would have to fight the game *and* the other players.
Bhoz Mobomeku
Former Dwarven Prelate of Les Carmi Revisor, on the Mourning Server, in Shadowbane
"Carebears never ruled anything; we just try to make things better."
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Those 8 epics will help your guild get 8 more epics on the next run. And so on. The equipment that drops in these high-end raids helps you with all of the future raids. In a few months your guild will be running the whole thing in 5 hours and seeing 20+ epics a night. Then you'll be equipped to move on to BWL. Rinse and repeat.
As for large-scale PvP, I personally think it causes more problems than it solves. Equipment will always be a deciding factor in WoW because the gameplay more-or-less takes player's skill out of the equasion. And even if you had a level playing field equipment-wise, the better organized team (i.e., all from the same guild using some sort of VoIP program) is going to win because of superior communication and tactics. Of course, I'm a carebear from way back when, so I'm a little biased against PvP anyway. . .
I think it's a bad idea to allow a group the option to conquer a virtual world, because in most cases any group motivated enough to do so are not likely to be the "benevolent ruler" types. And that's not good for anyone else playing the game, who then become impediments in the way of the ruler's "keeping" the world. It starts the vicious cycle of "clawing your way to the top and then staying there", which polarizes the in-game community and then destroys it.
The idea of "but then the masses could team up, arise, and overthrow the oppressors" is just fantasy.
I do think the original poster is onto something with the idea of a "corruption penalty based on territory controlled", because then the controlling faction would have to fight the game *and* the other players.
Bhoz Mobomeku
Former Dwarven Prelate of Les Carmi Revisor, on the Mourning Server, in Shadowbane
"Carebears never ruled anything; we just try to make things better."