Why rotating capitals are bad

A short while after Mythic announced that there would only be two capitals at launch Mark Jacobs began to discuss the possibility of rotating cities when the other two had been patched in. At first it was put forward as just a thought, but with the recent interview with Ten Ton Hammer he use the words “for the long term health for this game I think that is critical” when talking about rotating cities. He name player focus as part of the reasoning; that players need to be forced down to the path of a city to get enough player focus to conquer it. Worrying words, because I like rotating capitals not at all.

MJ mention the issue to get players to focus to conquer a capital, but isn’t that part of the challenge? You have hundreds of people running around all over the battlefield, and if you can get those people to rally and attack as a unit... damn, you probably deserve to win. I admit that I have not experienced the RvR concept for myself like in Dark Age of Camelot, but surely it would be difficult to unite a bunch of random people all there for their own purposes, and more than a few who probably have problem with people telling them what to do? WAR will have things like Standards and Careers with group buffs to get people to fight together, but it will most likely still be difficult.

If you have three capitals to be able to conquer you will get three real battlefronts, whereas if you only have one you will get one main battlefront and two that isn’t as important. I think everyone can agree that capturing a capital is the end goal in RvR, and in a three capital struggle you have three points to accomplish that goal, and likewise three points to be defeated. With one capital you have two sides that, while it’s bad that you lose them, doesn’t make you lose the war (as in losing a capital).

My hopes for WAR was that it would be more war and less competition. From a lore perspective that is just plain silly. The three race's lords can't just sit down around a table and say "ok, this month we will focus on Altdorf. Forgot the other ones, we can take some other next month." For me, the lore aspect and the feeling that I am a part of a war, is one of the biggest things that draw me to WAR. Without it, it would be just like World of Warcraft’s battleground weekends, where there is a different one each weekend. My mind shies away from the thought.

I imagined WAR as a big sandbox, and limiting my goal down to one capital is like taking the sand out of the sandbox.