Taco Tuesday: No Benchwarmers!

We had a couple members opt out for war this weekend.  This is unusual for Evil Queso so I thought I’d talk about it. 

With very few exceptions, all members participate in clan wars.  Before the opt out feature was implemented this was because I got tired of remembering who would be in or out, reminding people to leave or, more often, kicking them before war prep, and, if applicable, recruiting a replacement.  After the opt out feature was implemented, people started to use it and I decided pretty quickly I didn’t want to go down that path, mostly because every time someone opts out I have to recruit, recruiting is annoying, new members who can’t get it together to follow our strategy and help us win make me cranky, and when I’m annoyed and cranky I don’t enjoy the game.  When I stop enjoying the game I clean house and I start with those who aren’t helping the clan. 

Now that clan perks are in play, I feel more strongly than ever that everyone should battle.  Check out the perks that come with level 5 status:

We get and can hold more war loot, request troops more frequently, donate more and better quality troops, and we get a donation refund.  These are awesome perks, they are earned by participating in war, and they are only going to get better.  Anyone who wants to enjoy them must help earn them, period. 

There are really only a couple of scenarios where I think it’s okay to opt out: 1) international travel that limits access to a data plan and…. uh, that’s about it.  Even so, we have had members opt out for camping, illness, family trips, etc. and as long as it’s not a regular thing it’s not my hill to die on, but people need to remember it’s a burden and I will not drag anyone through this game.  If our clan culture changes over time I might look at opting out differently, but right now we only war twice a week and we have a bunch of members who have never once opted out of war (or even missed an attack) since clan wars came along over a year ago. I feel pretty comfortable with our approach for now. 

PS. Every now and then a noob comes along and argues that players should be able to opt out when heroes are upgrading. Hell. No. Heroes should be upgraded whenever possible until they are maxed and planning war around the hero upgrades of 30 different players would be a logistical nightmare.  Also, people need to harden up!  This is war!