Using Power-Level to Determine Fights

[Jarka]

When you joined the power discrepancy was not what it had been in the past and by the time you joined CA was, more or less, not being used to determine the outcomes of fights at all. It was a symbol of accomplishment, and I've stated in other threads that I like how it fulfills that role. So, frankly, your situation is not comparable at all to a system where the newbie has no shot in hell with competing with the established veterans.

And comparisons to WoW are pretty useless, in my opinion. People are going to be more willing to play video games, etc. than they are to come on to a website and actually have to sit down and work at something in order to play, like writing a roleplay for instance. The need to create incentives and avoid disincentives is different. The situations aren't even close to being similar.

Hasn't there only been one Chubbs reset? Since there's no way to lose CA, wouldn't it mean that, when I joined, the power discrepancy was at its greatest point since the reset? While I agree with you on the sense of accomplishment given by CA being important, I have always felt that CA should actually have a greater impact than it does (none of that "CA doesn't matter in this" bullshit unless a good reason is given). Since this is a debate about the current system, my experience would actually be considerably more comparable to a discussion about newbie intimidation than your magical universe where the newbs are CA 500 and the established are CA 543,296,463,349.

Besides, you are ignoring the fact that there are almost always people in a similar range to a given character, and people don't always NEED to fight the person in the top slot - you can stay in your range (or just do a lot of personal RP to catch up). That was the point I was making with the WOW comparison. I don't think there's a single person on this site who thinks fights should be pure CA, but it makes sense to have that kind of benchmark. Watch out, I'm about to make another WOW comparison!

You can beat higher level characters in WOW if you team up or if you play better. But, it would be absolutely ridiculous if a level 1 player could, by sheer virtue of button clicking harder, beat a level 85 player. Nobody would ever want to put energy into grinding levels because what would be the point if the number meant nothing? This also ties in with the community example I gave: if you write like Shakespeare, the older community members should A) read your work, B) let you know that they're reading your work, and C) tell you you're doing a good job. If you're really that hot shit at writing, you won't have trouble powerwriting to higher levels with the encouragement from others. Also, think of the flip side - the use of CA gives writers who aren't that great a little padding room in fights. Because, let's face it, not everybody is Shakespeare, but that doesn't stop Stephanie Meyer from wanting to write.

In regards to your second paragraph, you're right. I forgot I wasn't people.