While I agree that paying to be superior is a terrible business model for a free to play game to use, I already know the counter argument. Something along the lines of "Training Grounds PvP is unregulated as it does not provide any rewards and is simply an open pvp field to test in". That being said, it's still not true.
The removal of the Clan Wars [while warranted due to exploitation] immediately handicapped Clan vs Clan competition, one of the biggest draws to online MMO PvP players. Now, clans are forced into a situation where every zone they can reliably PvP in, is unregulated and therefore becomes a situation of which ever clan has more paying members automatically wins. This is even more of a put off than the fact that Clan vs Clan combat used to be supported but was removed in the first place. It's like sucker punching someone in the gut [removal of clan wars] then spitting on them while there down [allowing P2Win Clan Fights to keep occurring]. That may seem like a harsh analysis, however for those player whose only interest is Clan vs Clan combat, that's what it truly feels like. All the effort put into grinding the levels, grinding the honor points, grinding the refines, grinding the passives, grinding the gems and subs, and grinding the king sets literally goes out the window at the cost of 50cents a booster pack. How trivial and lowball that is I cannot attest to enough.
And all of that also goes for 1v1 fights. Testing yourself against someone else can just as easily be manipulated by boosters as the above situation.
This post deserves to be pinned at the beginning of this thread.
Edited by VisitorX, 17 June 2015 - 07:16 AM.