I've been thinking about this feature of the game for a long time. It has caused frustration, anger, and jeering in some quarters. For me, it has caused some real frustration the last 24 hours at least. We saw EP in last place and immediately got to work last night. The entire time, DC has had a low pop bonus, which afforded them the advantage of having, God and ZOS only knows, the numbers with minimal resources to have more potential points than any of the other factions. After several hours of EP working their butts off, they again took first place but only by a small margin. This morning we log on and DC still has a low pop bonus and because of it are in first place.
Now, let's consider this as I have. I began to wonder about why this feature is even allowed. Several thoughts came to mind. I'm trying to wrap my head around it and no matter what reasoning road I take, I can't find anything that makes sense. This low pop bonus encourages ANY faction to not even show up on the map. How? Well, humans are pretty much the same all over. In this matter the developers of ZOS have done what most developers do. While they are very able to consider the codes, the graphics, the w/e of developing games, there is a factor they never seem to consider and that is the human factor and human behavior. If you reward a certain behavior in people, that is the behavior that you reinforce. ZOS sends with this unspoken message, "Don't show up and we'll reward you for it. We'll help you win it, even if you don't show up.
Let's look at the human side for a second. Is there anyone here who has played sports or anything close? Let's say for a moment that the Cardinals and the Cubs are up for the World Series. The Cardinals decide they would rather play soccer instead. They immediately fly to Brazil and start training, never stepping foot inside the stadium to battle the Cubs. The MLB decides that since the Cardinals are otherwise engaged, they'll just let them have the wins. So, in order to win, just don't show up. Everyone knows that if a team doesn't show up to a match, whoever never showed just forfeited their chance. The team who did show up, wins.
Not so in ESO. Don't show up, and you're team can win anyway.
ZOS really needs to add human behavior to their equations when coming up with these kinds of features. I've seen even a "low scoring bonus". Really? So, people are not showing up, are sucking at the game to win a campaign as designed, so let's just give them free points anyway? In what universe is this EVER acceptable except in a Kindergarten class? Time to put your big girl panties on and show up to the fight. Get rid of any kind of bonuses and keep the playing field as it should be.