Hey.
One thing I’m curious as to the reasons behind, and opposed to as a whole, is the idea that ArenaNet put forth with regards to the removal of the rank system.
I can honestly see no reasons behind it’s complete removal, and as far as I can tell none has been provided. Considering the obsession with any-and-all kinds of progression being added in all parts of the game, the removal of such a system is an enigma.
There is not a single, recent multiplayer game out on the market without some form of overarching progression system in the shape of e.g. Prestige and XP (shooters), levels (RTS) and ranks (MMO’s). The reason is simple, it’s an inexpensive means of providing players with an incentive to continue playing; older games without these progression systems, such as Counter-Strike 1.6, original RTS games and so on, relied more often on a revolving door community, with groups of friends competing against other groups until boredom and adulthood set in and they stopped altogether.
I’m a Jack of all Trades-kind of player, I enjoy the sense of progression in PvE through Ascended crafting and Legendary hunting, the cosmetic aspects of the game, achievement hunting, gathering materials, dungeoneering and progressing in fractals and so on. What initially made me interested in trying out sPvP wasn’t the fact that I wanted to kill people, since that I can do in any other game, but the rank, glory and reward system, as an alternative for when burnout set in PvE-wise.
I enjoy advancing in ranks at my own pace and seeing the bar fill out, I don’t see any harm whatsoever in retaining the rank system and am yet to see a valid reason for its removal.
A suggestion, as an alternative to removing ranks, if ANet feels compelled to somehow reward veteran sPvP’ers, which I’m all for, is to lock down the finishers associated with different rank intervals and remove those from the game, whilst retaining the rank system itself as a purely cosmetic, personal and individualized progression system, something to work towards at your own pace and something to motivate people to try out and keep playing sPvP, aside from “fun”, which is all well and good, but is at times put forth by people who are organized PvP’ers or play with IRL friends, and so are unable to relate to solo’ers, casuals and hot joiners.
