New Alliance Medals: Suggestions and Observations

the game gives out free prestige, u can earn it too by bringing in new players to the game, u can also buy it, the medals are suppose to be special, they should have worth, i going to bring in dozens of people so my alliance can award medals........log in everyday too not just once a week...oh i forgot, that last tournament gave out lots of prestige....i just think there is a wrong belief that everything in this game should be given out free for nothing in return....great idea devs! these medals are really going to be special and fun! please prosper from them

Albatross, I am sorry I didnt have a chance to reply.  I rushed out the door (after the last post) because I was late for work.  got down there to discover there is no work today. 

Albatross (condensed version) wrote: pay salaries/contracts original artwork content costs a lot to do this project needs to pay for itself

Yes - these are all very real aspects behind the medals.  And I see the reason for the high cost.  The developers would like to create these medals to recognize the players who have contributed greatly to the Illy world (whether it be through alliance tournament, Server-wide tournament, etc....  The reality is that more players would buy at lower costs, but the point is not for every player under the sun to have a medal (Under the sun refers to me of course.  All players above me should have a medal, but the ones beneath me should not...  *j/k - its only an expression).

So going back to what I said in my last post.  I find it discouraging that someone who has the cash could create an expensive medal and hand it out at the same cost of a cheap medal.

E.G.  Someone designs a simple bronze medal to pass out to 10 players, and for only the design cost, another alliance could develop the most elaborate, gold embellished medal anyone has ever seen, and for the same cost (minus the initial design) could give it out to 10 members.  The gold medal should be more expensive to give to players than the bronze one.  Lets say the cost of handing the medal out is 20% of the design cost...  Someone spends 50 prestige to make a simple (single picture) bronze medal and can flood their alliance at a cost of 10 prestige each.  Someone else can design a 350 cost medal and give it out at 70 prestige each.  (An elaborate 700 cost medal would cost 140 to hand out.)  This is more practical when associating the cost of the materials with the cost of bestowing it upon  a player - but then we are still left with alliances flooding the world with bronze medals...  And yet, I see more players buying into this in the long run.  Alliances could create a simple bronze medal for full members (not initiates, since there is no telling how long they will stick around), and silver for the elite members, and gold for their high council members.  (but what happens when a player has been awarded the "gold star" in one alliance and then changes to another....  I am not sure these should be used as insignias for holding membership in the alliance)

Another thought on designs being copyrighted and unique:

e.g.  What if the Worlds End alliance creates a beautiful WE shield medal and only hand it out to their top players.  Now suppose some other alliance comes along and titles their alliance "Words End" (only a slight variation), and title the same medal design with the same name and mimic the WE alliance.  It would be nice to see the system prevent duplicated medals.  However, If someone were to mimic another alliance, you can bet the more powerful alliance would crush them.  Now we have entered in-game, player-established rules and regulations.  I foresee alliances adopting a "no copying" policy and enforcing it.

I know there is so much to think about here, and I hope the community offers more input in this.  (^_^)

Pulling this away to a slightly different issue, which is relevant to the background of why medals exist:

1. Big-picture: prestige exists to pay salaries/contracts, to make ongoing development and upkeep of this game possible. Most people know this.
2. Smaller picture: original artwork content costs a lot to do, especially with a game like this. e.g. each research item, unit type x race, etc, needs some content designing. Cerberus's salary needs to be covered.
3. Smaller-still picture: For a project like 'medals', a lot of time and effort (which has a real-world cost) was spent on something that does not have a real impact on game mechanics; it's a 'lore/meta-game/feelgood' enhancement. As such, perhaps this project needs to pay for itself. Take a guess of how long this took, and work out the total cost a contracted rate (or whatever rate you can guess), and you'll realise that it's a stretch to make it viable if there is no payback for the devs. If this pays for itself, and then some more, then that's a success.

p.s. I'm not trying to work out devs' salary; we should respect that confidentiality.

Rill wrote: I wish my town had a pretty rainbow.  I might be willing to spend 5 prestige a week on that.  Not for newb protection.  Just for a pretty rainbow.

SunStorm wrote: More importantly, I love that these cannot simply be created and given out by the individual players, but are given out by an alliance to those who the alliance feels is worthy!  Wonderful! EDIT:  Perhaps alliances should have a system where three to five leading alliance members must approve each person receiving a medal.  This would prevent the leadership from simply awarding themselves while the players get nothing