The current strategy that Plarium is using of giving miserly rewards, I believe, only causes the game to become stagnant and boring leading to less growth. When players play against each other for any length of time, they mostly become friends  and then, become reluctant to continue to play aggressively like they did before they became friends. I believe that if Plarium would start giving huge rewards, enough to overcome friendship, then the game would again, become interesting and lead to more growth. The secret, I believe, is to make and keep, the game as close to being the "Wild West" as possible and by giving enormous rewards would help accomplish that desire as well as  make and keep the game interesting and exciting.