Testing the new war spoils system doesn't require a certain player level.
It requires people who can provide good / constructive feedback.
+1
Here is some background/links info which IMHO are relevant to the potential "end game" for a new progression system as mention by Kyle in recent Relic stream. To understand how important this is, you've got to see this in context. Now Relic has done a lot to recover from a bad launch and applaud them for that.
Whoever get into the Alpha, please help provide Relic with non-biased feedback. IMO Relic do listen, they have just been listening to biased feedback and by doing so, they have several times misjudged the potential player base (many of which are playing MOBAs).
As a PvP'er, I just finished playing 4 alpha games with an "achievement hunter/PvE'er" that like doing comp stomps. For me, it was boring as hell (I almost fell asleep), but this is the way to learn more about the PvE community within COH rather than just listening to competitive top10 PvP'er. It has also been proven by some big surveys (see link below) that competitive play is primary a youth motivation.
Personal, I'm excited because with the right development support/post-launch monetization schemes there are so many things both Relic and CA can do with a “progression system”, especially for Warhammer. The RTS genre needs to evolve so that they become games that capture players of all skill level, not just a few.
For both COH2 and SC2, MOBAs are soaking up a lot of what might have otherwise been an eSport RTS audience. I suggest checking for yourself the steam profile of players in team games. There are quite a lot CS GO/DOTA players that are interested in COH/DoW. I don't know whether that's because it's easy to transfer to COH from Dota2/CS GO or the other way around, or mutual.
Without breaking the NDA here what I said on the alpha forum;
Cosmetics/Collector items are more or less meaningless for competitive pvp'er but can have high value for PvE'er. As a former MMO trader from EvE Online, I sold many collector items to achievement hunters. Don't underestimate the power of collector items/achievements, just look at CS GO cosmetics. Many "casual players" really love to customize their belongings, to make choices how their property feels, looks and behaves. You see it in their browsers, and more importantly, in their games. Achievements and customizations are here to stay for many years ahead. It's all about making a good sandbox for all players, letting them feel in control of their destiny are things that keep players coming back for more.
Or as Destiny the pro variety-streamer from SC2/LoL has said, if you just want meaningless PvP, go play SC2. If not, go play games with a sandbox. There is no reason why RTS can't have a "limited sandbox" outside competitive 1vs1.
Over 2 million unique users log onto Starcraft 2 a month but only about 500,000 play 1v1 games
http://waywardstrategist.com/2015/08/20/a-multiplayer-platform-is-not-enough-for-an-rts-to-succeed-ready/
As Gamers Age, The Appeal of Competition Drops The Most
"The data we’ve collected from over 140,000 gamers via the Gamer Motivation Profile allows us to see how gaming motivations vary by age."
http://quanticfoundry.com/2016/02/10/gamer-generation/
Gametrics, South Korea’s internet cafe and game ranking stat:
http://www.gametrics.com/ (use google translate to read in English)
SC: BW is more popular (top5) than SC2 which doesn't even make it into the top10 rankings.
Former WoW Lead System Designer, ghostcrawler:
Why are SC2 dying?
https://ask.fm/RiotGhostcrawler/answers/134859308427
BLIZZARD IS HOPING TO FIND THE FUN AGAIN WITH EXCITING CHANGES TO DIABLO III AND STARCRAFT II
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/blizzard-gdc-2015/
Day[9] Special - CSGO and Multiplayer Game Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxix7NJKN0&ab_channel=Day9TV
CS: GO - Autograph Sticker Capsules Opening (ESL One Cologne 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQY_F2G_DDg
How could Blizzard bring the casual players back to Starcraft 2? Adopt something like Hearthstone's ranked system for the lower leagues could help?
https://www.quora.com/How-could-Blizzard-bring-the-casual-players-back-to-Starcraft-2-Adopt-something-like-Hearthstones-ranked-system-for-the-lower-leagues-could-help
Starcraft 2 fans speak up against ‘fast-paced action’ of Void of the Legacy
https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/starcraft-2-fans-speak-up-against-fast-paced-action-of-void-of-the-legacy/
Destiny, The 2014 Blizzard Stream Awards winner as nr.1 Favorite StarCraft II Individual Streamer http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/18313046/and-the-winners-are-%E2%80%A6-3-18-2015
Firstly, I want to establish something that some people seem to disagree with, or at least did back in 2011: the more people you have playing a game, the more people you have watching a game as an e-sport.
Let’s take a look at four of the leading e-sports titles right now: League of Legends, Defense of the Ancients 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and StarCraft 2.
Number of players/accounts for each game –
LoL – 7,500,000 concurrent players, 27,000,000 daily players, 67,000,000 monthly players in January of 2014 [source]
DotA 2 – 960,000 peak concurrent players over the last 30 days, 9,800,000 monthly unique players [source, source]
CS:GO – 348,000 peak concurrent players over the last 30 days, 3,900,000 monthly unique players [source, source]
SC2 – 180,801 or 242,627 total active accounts [source] [source]
Peak concurrent viewers for the “most important” finals –
LoL, LCS Season 4 World Championship – 11,200,000 viewers concurrent [source]
DotA 2, The International 4 – “well over 2,000,000 peak concurrent viewers” [source]
CS:GO, Dreamhack Winter 2014 – 409,368 viewers [source]
SC2, WCS Grand Finals of Blizzcon – 155,435 [source]
Can we put this whole “SC2 is a specator e-sport!” thing to rest, please? Far too often people try to shut down discussion of making SC2 a more accessible game with the argument that there are these multitudes of people who watch StarCraft 2 but don’t play it, but the correlations between number of players vs number of tournament viewers is simply too strong to deny. While the ratio of players-to-viewers is indeed high for Starcraft 2, it is undeniable that the more popular your game is and the more people you have playing it, the greater your viewership will be for your tournaments. This establishes a very important, often-ignored link between the professional and casual gaming scene: more casual gamers means a healthier professional scene.
*SNIP*
https://blog.destiny.gg/starcraft-2-legacy-into-the-void/
The CS GO Article, Destiny highlight
http://web.archive.org/web/20141224123611/http://www.esports.gg/csgos-high-growth-rate-in-2014/
Also SEGA have openly said they are planning to change their business strategy:
Sega Spending More Time on "Higher-Quality" Content Prompts 90% Profit Forecast Cut (December 2015) "Higher-quality content is expected, thus resulting in a trend of longer development lead times."
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-spending-more-time-on-higher-quality-content-/1100-6432822/
"Higher-quality content is expected, thus resulting in a trend of longer development lead times," the company explained. "Sega also has titles whose launches were postponed from the initial schedule and titles that did not fulfill our expectations in terms of market reception."
*SNIP*
In July, Sega Games CEO Haruki Satomi admitted the company betrayed the trust fans put in the company over the last few years. At the time, he stressed that Sega's goal was to improve the quality of its games in hopes of re-establishing itself as a valuable brand.
We Betrayed Fans And Want to Be a Brand Again, Says Sega CEO (July 2015)
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-betrayed-fans-and-want-to-be-a-brand-again-says/1100-6428680/
President of Sega Games Finally Realizes That Gaming Quality Is Important (July 2015)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/08/president-of-sega-japan-finally-realizes-that-gaming-quality-is-important/
Sega May Be On The Verge Of A Renaissance
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/24/sega-may-be-on-the-verge-of-a-renaissance/