randb wrote:No. Guild members are not bound by nationalities or anything like that. Loyalty to a guild is fake in Valor. MOST members consider survival first, staying with a guild the second.
I am talking about most players, not a special one like you who are willing to sacrifice yourself for your guild. Follow what you have said - yes, in this game, traitors are many and they tip off balance of powers easily and ruin the game. BTW, how many players have ever thought about whether he/she is in a strong guild? - Almost everyone. So the end result is a FACT. As the title says, "Valor environment is an oligarchy". How can the company make money in an oligarchy environment?
My point is for a bigger issue of business model from game mechanics, with general player behavior consideration. The loyalty part is just a small part of it. BTW, I studied a little bit of social games and their business models and I just want the company to know what I have found out through playing the game.
I think it's a very interesting point you bring. I think that you fail to realize that loyalty is not a hard coded value. It's not something tangible or measurable. Loyalty is and has always been through ages about surviving. Individuals survive and thrive in large groups and lone wolves tend to windle and die. Loyalty to a group is no more than one's interest in surviving or expecting the group to survive. Betrayal is nothing more than realizing that the odds of surviving are better when joining a different army.
Spies thrive in the real world and Valor because they're adaptive. They've learned to exploit the system. The good ones will end up with the winning team regardless of what side they originally intended to play. The bad ones are caught, and executed. The consequences in Valor are no different than the consequences in live... If you're caught spying you're sure to be executed if you don't play your cards quick enough. If you can master the game.
I think your concept of oligarchy is a bit flawed when applied to Valor. Guilds are small, but that doesn't mean a single small group can dominate the landscape. You need allies, and sister guilds. That spreads your power thin. It makes you susceptible. Dominating a continent will require skill and if you have it, then you should be rewarded for it. The interesting mechanic about Valor is that any one can rise from the humble village to be a warlord and the great can fall if they're careless. It only takes a night of deep sleep to miss a trip wire and lose your stronghold, a sniped attack to render your army useless and your home open. The fun of Valor is that it's unforgiving...
Oligarchy generally means that the chosen few are safe holding power from their mighty thrones, but there is no such concept in Valor. It's a brutal and unforgiving world. The strong survive, but only as long as they stay awake.