Is favor a skewed concept?

Yeah, same in GvG, although don't overstress it because there are plenty of good American PvPers. There's just more Europeans. (And most of them are GvGing, HA is somewhat dead of late)

Once upon a time Anet imagined people would play through the PvE, build their characters up, then go own halls until they opened up the only endgame area, then run through that for more stuff on their chars. Then Anet came up with PvP only chars at the last minute, then they found out that most players tend to gravitate towards only one gamestyle, then they cave in and make some alternative end-game areas, sorrow's furnace and tombs. They tried to force this PvE/PvP joint vision onto factions and it mostly failed in terms of popularity, and the rediculous faction farming for elite mission control. Finally they gave up and just let the two modes seperate in NF with no elite mission limitations, no PvPvE (HvH doesn't count), PvE-only skills, and giving full versatility to PvP chars. I think they have seen the light as far as the future of PvE and PvP is concerned, although whether that will result in any changes to the existing WaW is anyone's guess.

Doubt they'll make any changes to the system.

It was one of the features that they were avidly promoting, on the box of Prophecies itself no less, and frankly, I doubt common sense and the knowledge of what the vast majority of the playerbase wants, will ever make them change the system.

To do that, they'd have to swallow their pride, and their words. And I doubt that would ever happen, even though it would benefit everybody. Pride > Common sense

PS : Has Taiwan or Japan EVER earned favour before? Feel kinda sorry for the poor sods over there.

I didn't see americans whine about favor when america held it for the better part of the day. Neither did I see europeans whine about it too. Furthermore, there a two more areas that are tied to pvp/faction and you can't get into them. So, why not whine about the Deep or Urgoz?

In any case, you can always move your account to Europe server. That's what a lot of europeans did back in the days. If you're scared of being stigmatised as a "yurop-hugger", don't tell anyone. I won't.

yep exactly. Noone whined about favor year ago, when korea or americans were holding it for 24/7. SO many europeans moved at american servers at that time but now it seems they are back so...

The Taiwanese got favor............once......or twice......

Japanese? Never


Anyways, taking favor is part of HA's appeal. Of course, HA is so elitist PvErs will probibly get told to go back to the hugbox if they even TRY to get in....

Europeans whined all the time... search here or GWO, and you can probably dig up countless threads.

People whine off and on about Urgoz/Deep because Anet still hasn't added the second entrance they said they would. It's just less people go to the areas now, so there's less people to whine about now having access. FoW/UW have always had high traffic though.

Taiwan, Korea, and Japan rarely hold favor, and I feel sorry for them. I almost bet Anet removed their WaW linkage awhile back, but that's probably not the case.

WaW was a wonderful idea on paper, but it fails horribly when the PvP-oriented population of servers aren't relatively equal. It should have been abolished back at release, but I think it might have been one of their selling points.

We could let each area group have access for, say, three hours a day, and then the rest of the time could be contested.

I'm not a big fan of the current favor system either. It's a strange idea that committed PvPers (who often don't PvE) have to work hard to open something that committed PvEers (who often don't PvP) can enjoy. And it sucks that there's such a big unbalance that one region has favor 75% of the time. On the other hand, I like the idea of players being able to make a world effect on the game. There's already very little you can do to change the world or do things that make you feel a sense of accomplishment. Once you're at a point where you have access to everything including the "top" (end-game PvE areas / high-ranked GvG) it's limited what you can achieve.

So I'm all for a system where you can "win" something other than a lower number in your rank score. It should be something that doesn't affect people who have nothing to do with it, and doesn't sway too much in the favor of whichever region has the most amount of players. Don't simply remove another area of competition, the game doesn't have a lot in the first place.

this has been brought up a dozen times and my answer is the same

i enjoy the fact favor is a consequence action from pvp.

i do not understand why people want to farm a game that has no relevence to farming, this isnt wow. my crafter's axe with 15^50 +5 armor zelous is just as good (prob better) then your dumb 15^50 sundering +30 health chaos axe. this game takes farming out of the logic of gaming. this isnt wow. im glad pve is getting mad about favor, maybe for once they will actually play the game anet wanted them to and go do pvp.

I've seen many European players on this site whine about Favor when America and Korea used to have it all the time and Europe hardly ever had it. If you look at the really old Favor system threads on this site you would find plenty of that.

Although "whine" isn't really a fair word in this case since it's a legit point regardless of region.

Plenty of people also "whined" about Factions' elite missions, then Anet said they would make alternative access to them which stopped the "whining". Then Anet never delivered alternative access, so people gave up complaining about them or playing in the missions at all. They are now dead areas.

Since UW and FOW are "core areas" that apply to every Chapter (unlike old Chapter-specific areas from old Chapters that no longer get support), there is a much greater chance that the Favor system might be scrapped if enough players speak out.

No doubt a ton of people did move to the Europe server due to this issue, which just compounds the problem even more. They shouldn't have had to though.

Farm farm farm farm farm farm

Wake up, there are things much less boring in the game.

I enjoy doing FoW/UW quests..easy XP

Favor needs to be removed but there has to be another system put in place to stop FoW/UW becoming seriously over farmed.

An idea...charge people more if they wish to enter when they don't have favor. Make it 3k instead of 1k. This will only truly effect those that dual farm, a group of 8 would only have to pay 375g each.

Easy XP... for what really. I'm guessing a survivor? No offense, but there's two ways of getting that title: doing it for the little letters and doing it for fun. If you're doing it for fun, you're taking on the challenge of actually playing through the game and meet the challenges it presents. If you do it for the title, you look for the easiest way to get a lot of XP fast. No matter if it's boring and repetitive, as long as you get the little letters soon. Guess which way I respect.

My point is: there are more places where you can go and have a fun PvE experience... make money even. People who complain about favor are those who NEED to go UW/FoW ALL the time to farm those shards/ectos. People who play it from time to time for the challenge and profits are not that bothered.

If you're worried about farming then the best change would probably be a 30 hp damage minimum on prot spirit. Remove that -50hp thing for good measure. They capped deep wound at 100, they could have done this for ps a loooong time ago. Anyway, you can't get those shards and ectos anywhere else except for ToPK for the latter, so it's probably alright as it is.

Survivor title lol no I'm not that sad. I only use the 1 char these days and he has died many many times.

I do FoW/UW quests because they are good fun and present a modest challenge. I'm not bothered about farming I can make money quicker then any dual ecto team if needed.

I can't speak for ANet, but as a been-paid-for-it game designer, I have a theory...

In ANet's original vision, the GW end-game is PvP. Once people are "done" with PvE, they're supposed to move on to PvP. Having "favor" was intended to foster interest in PvP, in the same way that AB, FA, and JQ were designed to mix PvP and PvE.

My guess is that ANet believes/believed that PvE could not hold people's interest through the six months between chapters, and that getting people into PvP was the only way to sustain a player base.

The reality has been somewhat different, and PvE has shown remarkable staying power. And ANet may be learning... after all Elona has no link between PvP and PvE!

PvPers don't care one whit about borderlines and favor, just like PvEers don't care about the ladders. Both communities can exist happily, side-by-side -- IF ANet is willing to remove artificial links between the two forms of the game.

What is galling me is that PvP players can now ignore PvE completely via the "PvP only" editions of the chapters. Yet PvE players are not given the same privilege!

Again, I think this goes back to ANet's apparent belief that they need to "funnel" PvEers into PvP. And as long as they do that, we're stuck with an unfair and illogical "favor" system.

I'm in "favor" of replacing the current system with one based on the Protector titles. If I have Protector of Tyria, I can access UW/FoW from ToA at any time for the 1 platinum fee. It would give those titles meaning; surely saving the world should earn me a bit of respect from the Gods?

I have no interest in farming UW and FoW, but I find the current system annoying. Why? Because I can not explore UW and FopW with guildies and family due to the limited access! I just want to see the sights, do the quests, and check both realms out -- and I can't do that if I only have a few hours of access in the wee hours of the morning. Not everyone is a farmer.

I was against the whole favor linked to regions from the start. I moved from the euro server to the american one, not because america had favor all the time, it was to escape all the german, french, italian and other non-english speaking people. I also think the dropped the ball by giving them their own district but that is another discussion.

I was suprised that there were also 2 quests linked to favor, which eventhough I had finished with 3 characters had never done or heard about. Not that they were game breaking or anything.

In one of the suggestion threads just before or just after Prophecies was released I had already forseen problems with regions holding favor most of the time, my solution was simple, link guilds to a certain god and whichever god holds favor those guilds can enter FoW/UW.

No problems adding more regions this way, the only problem would be guild hopping so a solution should have been found for that, maybe a 1 day cooldown before being able to join a new guild. I wasn't the only one who put such an idea forth, I do believe I was one of the few that had worked it out pretty much all the way.

IMO being shortsighted is no excuse to stick to your original idea, when clearly it is severely flawed.

No links?, Battle Isle is for all campaigns including Elona, elona has the sunspear Arena too, no its nothing new but its still a link to PvP.

Ironically this comment is evidenced by the existent of the very thread it was posted in.

Personally I like the "world at war" setup and never really took issue with having to wait for favor. Take that how you will.

Because American PvP in GW is dying and the fresh blood is too fresh. Many of the top guilds and players have left the game for WoW (for PvE ironically) and other PvP based games (BF, CoD, CS, etc).

Look at the GvG ladder. Americans appearance in the top 50 is lower compared to previous seasons. Only [Cow] is on the top 10 (izzy is often just a PUG). Treacherous Empire for all intent and purpose is gone. Yep - the well known guild [Te] is dead. Their supposed heir - QQ - is barely active right now - supposedly playing a lot PvE in WoW.

There are some fresh blood but they will have difficulty competing with veterans from Eu who have played this game's high-end PvP for a longer period of time.

When the new GvG system is implemented this might change. But I doubt it will like it used be around pre-Nightfall era - where both continents where heavily active (including Korea, which is basically gone from high-end PvP except for RenO).

Well, in the first game when Favor was made Anet had this radical (and turned out WRONG) idea that people were supposed to make a pve character and progress through the campaign learning skills and tactics as they go and then eventually move into PvP with the character. (Source: Interviews with Anet staff at that time)

If people actually did this, then Favor is awesome. Since logically the people would get their character up, move on to the Tomb of the Primeval Kings (was HoH at the time), and fight for favor so they can get the last standing challenge in pve - The "elite" god areas in UW and FoW and the armor/weapons that accompanied.

But....Opps....It didn't turn out like that. There were PvErs that never wanted to move on to PvP, and there was a growing number of PvP-onlys that resented the fact that they were forced to pve.

So slowly through all the chapters they have seperated PvP and PvE so the relationship between them is more friendly but still at some level linked for those that prefer their original method.

[COMPLETE HOPE/OPINION]I would not be surprised if HA's revamp at the end of the month included some change in influence in the Favor system over PvE[/COMPLETE HOPE/OPINION]

actually not too long ago america used to have favor 24/7 7 days a week all month long, this lasted for about 6 months b4 europe caught up to us, and quite the opposite happened, ecto prices went up to something like 17k each so opening it further probly wont have this effect