This change finalizes the change in ANet's focus, from the nice, attentive game company we all believed they were when Guild Wars (the original wasn't called
Prophecies until they made Factions) first came out. Back then, it felt as if every little thing ANet did was giving players more options; Sorrow's Furnace alone is a testament to that. But with Factions and later products, the aim doesn't seem to be "give them new things to keep them entertained." Instead, it falls much closer to "give them something so they can keep entertaining themselves."
Factions gave us "persistent warfare," which on paper was a game designer's dream. Theoretically, it was supposed to keep players occupied
and let them "create" their own content via PvP - a solid, well-tested concept proven to provide hours upon hours of entertainment. Because humans on the whole are infinitely more imaginative that any AI we've been able to program, PvP creates a challenge that effectively keeps the content fresh each time through, taking the burden off the programmer.
In reality, however, the "persistent warfare" Factions staked so much on wasn't nearly as popular as expected. Much like with Heroes' Ascent, people who liked PvP for the PvP experience did it for that reason, but people who did not enjoy this type of gameplay saw no benefit from it. Of course, the initially inflexible faction control line and the faction farmers and the bots and the griefers all contributed to this, but the result was the same: a game feature that designers believed would extend gameplay did not, in fact, perform as expected.
Now we see the very same thing happen to the Favor system. True, it was initially tied to a feature even further apart from its apparent function than the territory control in Factions, but now it is being tied to something that is no closer. The title system, also introduced in the dreaded Factions, mimics the "persistent warfare" concept in purpose if not in form: it is designed to keep the players interested in the same repetitive actions that they have already performed.
ANet is betting quite a lot on this little feature. First and foremost, titles are supposed to give players something to do until GWEN and GW2 come out. Second, they're supposed to make players buy GWEN so that the titles carry weight in GW2. Now, they're also supposed to determine Favor of the Gods. This tidy little system falls together perfectly: players keep going after titles because of GWEN/GW2/boredom, and since a lot of them are doing the same Favor of the Gods will trigger constantly. This is a brilliant way of letting players create their own content instead of spending valuable programming time already occupied by GWEN and GW2.
The problem with such a solution, however, is that by including the players in the equation, ANet is effectively relying on the unpredictable human factor, exactly the way it did for the "persistent warfare" in Factions. Lots of people looked at the Allegiance titles after Factions came out and said, "This is not for me." Lots more looked at the Allegiance-tied skills more recently and cried, "I'll never get this to be as good as I'd like!" And while some did indeed put in hard-core hours to accomplish such in-game goals, most casual or less dedicated people simply turned away.
If players start becoming just as disillusioned with the title system, Favor of the Gods will suffer. GWEN and GW2 sales might suffer too, so the only logical explanation for this change - especially with Passage Scrolls that have been introduced so recently as alternative ways of entering the Realms of the Gods - is that ANet is trying to estimate player participation on the title front. If the Favor is constantly on, it means people are going along with the plan. If it's not, someone needs to crank out a better marketing strategy, pronto.
Either way, people are still going to complain about Favor, except now they won't have anyone specific to complain at. Before, they could have blamed "the enemy," be it Europe or US, for preventing FoW/UW entry; now, they'll instead think something along the lines of "No one is going for titles!" and "Is this game is already dead?"
And, of course, blaming ANet for the change... even though a change is precisely what they've been asking for all along
