A Level Playing Field

By John Zinser
AEG President

I feel it is appropriate for my article about the level playing field of the Race to go up around the time we revealed the first temptation. As you can see we have raised the bar and we expect this will be valuable to players who win it in many ways without taking away value from other parts of the game. The Clan leading at the end of this first leg will have an interesting decision to make, take the temptation or take the bonuses for the next round.

First, let me weigh in on this. Take the temptation. At least now in the early portions of the Race a bird in the hand is surely much better than two in the bush.

So let us look at a snapshot of the Race as it stands today Monday April 9.

Military - Well, it is easy to see which two Clans are dominant in the current environment. I hate to lead off an article about balance with an obvious imbalance, but it does help prove my point. Dominating Military has certainly helped the Mantis and the Dragon jump off to an early lead in the Race, but it has not guaranteed them victory. In the old days this would have spelled certain doom to a contest such as this. Thank the fortunes there is still hope. (Note: Our recent announcement has changed the value of boons and they will not add points to the other spheres for the Race.)

Economy - This sphere is being completely dominated by one player!!! The power of one Lion even if he is not victorious in battle is enough to keep the Lion in the Race. The Mantis have kept themselves in striking distance through numbers alone. The question here is, will the rest of the Lion Clan take the example that their one Samurai is setting or will they allow his efforts and his travels to be wasted?

Politics - As expected, this sphere is hotly contested and as the first leg comes to a close. Lobbying support for your Clan may be just the edge you need to steal victory away from one of the leaders.

Knowledge - The toughest of the spheres to dominate during this first leg. The online knowledge tests could very well swing this sphere in your direction, and at this point no Clan is so far behind that they could not end up leading in this sphere.

Spirit - There is some separation between the haves and have-nots in this sphere, but all of the leaders except the Lion have held pace in the Spirit sphere. The Dragon and Mantis domination of the Military can easily be explained, but they are also leading in Spirit so they must be doing something more than just playing well.

So with two months to go, even with a slightly imbalanced military environment, it’s still anyone’s Race. The Dragon have the most balanced attack right now and are within 3 points of catching the lead in 4 spheres. The Mantis are shoring up their lead in both Military and Spirit with points in all the other spheres. Lion and Crane are 3rd and 4th in total points and are both leading a sphere. The Lion need to continue to dominate the Economy Sphere and pick another one to try and steal a victory, and the Crane still looking pretty good. My Crab boys, the Phoenix, the Scorpion, and the Unicorn have certainly not acted themselves out of contention.

And what of the lowly Spider. Where is the Evil?? With only 13 total points they are surely out of the race for this leg, right?… or are they just lurking in the shadows staying in striking distance of two of the spheres, and when the rest of the clans least expect it…Bam, a last-minute push in Politics and Knowledge to earn the prize?

With 25 Kotei still to play and a few bonus points still waiting to be had, it truly is anyone’s Race.

The Holy Grail of CCG’s has always been a completely balanced play environment. I am around staff and industry professionals much smarter than myself that debate that issue all the time. And while the L5R design team continually strives to find that Holy Grail, the brand team has created a new Holy Grail “one we feel we have a firm hold on” with the Race for the Throne. That Holy Grail is a balanced community environment where your actions as a person in the community can outweigh your actions as a player.

We hope you are enjoying the Race. We also hope that now that we have revealed the first temptation and a sneak peak at Dojo Days, that you can see that clan loyalty and your enthusiasm for the game and story will count for much more as we get into Samurai Edition and beyond.