While I don't mind spending money to support a game (I am considered a light buyer) that I like as honestly there's no such thing as a free lunch to me and a business main objective is to make a profit. This tournament is the wrong way to get your customers to spend.
I do not blame the mods personally for only espousing the so called benefits in public as very few companies especially large public ones will openly acknowledged that they screw up or are trying to milk more money from customers with a dubious offering especially in their official forums. I do however expect the mods to at the very least take in customer's feedback/criticism and sort out the valid ones be it good or bad and forward it to the upper management.
It is the mod's job to act as a intermediary between players and the company and to submit constructive feedback. Yes, I know some people will complaint non stop but in this case one can clearly see the combine conflict is a very bad idea and here's why.
One, you cannot force your customers to participate in a event that they don't like especially when the main goal is to get people to spend more money unnecessarily. It's very obvious that the short prep time is meant to get people to spend money to build up their forces as not all combines will be in battle ready shape. It's one thing to get people to spend money to buy the new armor units but it's another thing forcing them to buy diamonds just to boost their basic forces or just to purchase total protection.
This is a very bad PR move by Plarium and will only chase away players in the long term. Yes, Plarium has to make a living but don't stoop to such a level as a bad reputation is hard to get rid of.
Two, there are already pvp, location, etc combine tournaments and I don't see the relevance of this one especially when the rewards offered are so basic. No new units as rewards or even strategic/rare but basic units and in a low number as far as I can tell. Amt of diamonds not enough to justify the cost of purchasing/reviving units. Other rewards can be earn in other tournaments, nothing special.
Three, no option to opt out of the tournaments and a so called special selection algorithm that is flawed at best and broken at worst. It's like pulling a random name out of a hat and pairing it with random player. As another player wrote, how is a 2 man combine going to survive against a 29 man combine?
I am a one man combine and my opponent have 18 members and quite a few are high lvls and they have a lvl 5 HQ while I don't even have one. Even if only half the players are active, I still be beaten through sheer numbers. Yes, I can contact the leader and try to arrange a truce but there is no guarantee he will listen.
Even if he agrees, I can still be attacked by his members as being a former second in command combine in another game (not Plarium). I had to deal with rogue players who despite being told countless times not to start fights unnecessarily without permission regardless whether they are allies or strangers will still do so.
I don't mind pvp if the match is on even terms but not where it's so one sided that the other side can just roll over without breaking a sweat.
Also, Plarium is going to create a lot of unnecessarily drama/tension especially when allies are pitted against one another. If you are not careful Plarium, you are going to end up chasing away your big time customers considering there are plenty of other online games that people can play. The so called prizes are definitely not worth breaking alliances.
I sincerely hope that the mods will submit the negative feedback to the management to let them know this is bad decision on their part and definitely not the way to earn more money.
