A simple definition of meritocracy is “a system in which such persons are rewarded and advanced:” I myself as a sociologist worries whether the game has been properly rewarding us; through various in game and forum events, acquisition of items through hard means (grinding and rolling cubes), a fair and balance pvp, class issues, silver acquisition, bugs and fps improvement which can be summarized to overall happiness or mood of the game.
With the recent unrest which can be seen through out Tos forums and in game, helping to clarify the state of Meritocracy can widen the perspectives of individuals whether the game is fun to play or they’re merely gambling and wasting time.
Q: But Ynirie, what does meritocracy do?
A: It derives us a certain pleasure, in which we reciprocate our eagerness to play the game.
Q: Is meritocracy even needed to keep the game’s population?
A: Yes meritocracy is needed, as an example; the reason why Moba games are popular is due to immediate reward someone can harvest, whether a kill, an outplay, a game changing move, a win? It could all be done within a matter of minutes. Thus making you psychologically inclined and hooked, you feel that certain “specialty” which most of us confuses with having fun.
Q: If I am not rewarded, what’s the most common scenario?
A: It’s either 1. you’ll quit 2. get bored of the game 3.still play but less than before 4. Masochist your way through luck. 5. Endure pretty hard to get rewarded. (Whereas it has been discussed a lot in this forums, It’s 2016 and having a grindy game isn’t suited for today’s demand.)
Q: Why was the game so popular before? Contrary with the recent patches? Does Meritocracy has something to do with it?
A: Yes, definitely meritocracy has something do with it, besides the anticipation of players and their growing interest, those few months keeps our emotions bottled up; making that sweet feeling like “hey this is a new game, this is pretty awesome, I haven’t experienced this before” In turn would subtly fade as you reroll into more characters, you have to repeat every quests (worse case, adventure journal is not shared) and things are just repeating, that first feeling in which you first hand experience everything without prior knowledge can be called meritocracy and excitement.
Q: Does meritocracy has something to do with the popular class reset argument?
A: I have two notions on this argument
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The legit reason why people are asking for class reset is that they can’t derive or have fun with their classes (balance changes, nerfs, play styles), thus if you are an off-meta class there is a wide invisible thought in your head telling you, that you aren’t useful or needed. Good for you if you don’t totally mind this, however perhaps human nature is just fixed and can’t be necessarily avoided, people pick support classes not because they want to dps but to feel appreciated, people pick dps classes because they want to feel good that they’re actually necessary (combined with the new Dps ranking system which is bs but can be useful regardless with the proper implementation), on the other hand the reason why most swordies reroll or pick peltalasta scopes within the same reason; you want to be useful.
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People who are happy with their classes at the moment chooses to decline class reset because they are in a safe spot, they enforce ideas that we have to work hard and reroll if you’d want to start a new class, this is a feeling of meritocracy, why would you want people to actually steal a good position without doing anything? It feels like being rewarded while doing nothing. Would it kill the game if class reset is implimented? No, and it will not kill the game, most people who are contented with their classes will feel disappointed due to the reason that others who haven’t really spend a lot of thought in building their characters gets a free bail out, they might quit here and then but as new ranks are being released they might consider it.
Q: With the upcoming rank 8, rank 9 and godknows rank 10 or more hidden classes, how should I pick my classes?
A: It’s either you pick a class because you love it and you benefit from the perks of the class, or you enjoy the entitlement in the current meta in which translates again to fun. Either ways if you feel like you’re not having fun and rewarded? Just drop the class.
Q: The event sucks and is barely giving us motivation to play? Where is meritocracy there?
A: It’s honestly stupid, the feeling of being rewarded through hard work is being disregarded at the moment, if by not IMC releases harder events, people would have mixed emotions on why people get free stuffs like stat reset potion or skill reset potion, i’m not saying it’s bad however the feeling of once again being unique and having that entitlement in which you work hard for or you were early before other people looses it’s value (that’s why some complain with the poor choice of words used by IMC in the recent stat reset argument)
Q: How about team battle league and gvg? They’re not fun anymore.
A: With the class issues + the poor fps optimization, we don’t get any value of having fun unless we won the said match, people would complain about unbalance classes because they are loosing to those class; I do know the current state of pvp is ■■■■■■ up unless you have a decent cc or you have a pvp built character, other than that you’re not having fun anymore because you always loose, you experience some shitty bugs in which disables your gameplay, you deem a class as over powered, the state of meritocracy in pvp can be fixed once a decent fps (which could potentially save your ass in running and avoiding skills), more bug fixes, decent class rebalance (not heavy nerfs).
Q: I don’t have silvers, and I feel tempted to Real money transaction (RMT)
A: It’s common if you aren’t really acquiring enough silvers, you get this feeling that you want something but you can’t really get it through hard means, with the mobs lessened and channels reduced you get less options, that’s why the recent instanced dungeon bug is crucial because a lot of people rush 130 dungeon just to get satisfaction in acquiring silvers, there are no decent means or easy means to acquire silver, would you want to click and be active mindlessly grinding or click a few potions here and then or just auto bot. Or make things worse just buy silvers through rmt. Chances are if you aren’t really rich and you can’t stomach market prices you would feel discouraged playing the game.
Q: I don’t have good equipment, I always get talt, how can meritocracy keep my interest within the game?
A: With the low chances of acquiring a good weapon, a randomized equipment which may or may not be suitable for your character, different market pricing, and 2-3 instanced dungeon runs, totally kills how you’re are willing to stick for the game. The more you don’t feel rewarded in rolling cubes and doing dungeon runs the lesser reason to even play the game, your mind tells you you are not keeping up with the good equipment, you are basically a second rate, again it’s human nature which tells us you want to actually matter. If by any chance IMC decided to change how getting equipments in rolling cubes, that’s fine as long as you are rewarded.
Q: DPK is killing my chances, what’s your thoughts?
A: With this issue, yes you could kill a thousand mobs yet don’t feel rewarded at all, the mere low chances and dpk drops create an unfair state in which you are gambling towards drops, add your frustration every now and then and people stealing your mob kills, you would definitely feel discouraged on playing the game.
TL:DR; Tree of savior is a pretty hardcore game, luck has something to play with it and you can’t harbor immediate feeling of happiness if you are restricted for 1-3 hours a day. what the game merely lack is good socialization which can reduce the harshness of the game nature. If IMC decided to change things a little bit with drop chances, more fps and balance optimizations, more socialization events, more idle stuffs you could do within the game i.e fishing, horse riding competition, planting for food, and other basic human stuff you feel like necessarily needed. Would the game die anytime soon? Probably not until 2-3 years, if IMC haven’t addressed those issue with rewards and current problems, expect to have a lower playerbase.
Post notes; just have fun and socialize!
