In the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, there is a new trend: the Emperor Farming. A guild dominates a campaign, appoints an emperor who abdicates, and the next one takes the disposable crown.
It’s quite a strange title that appears on reddit: “I am Taifuu, I am Empress and I want you to help me stop the farming of the emperor title.” Apparently, as indicated in the letter, a game mechanic that TESO introduced is bearing unwanted fruit.
There can be only one, but many ex-emperors
The emperor title is the highest goal that a PvP player in Cyrodiil can aim for. Whoever becomes emperor receives massive bonuses. The PvP player Pryda, whom we interviewed on the topic, mentioned that it is indeed possible for the emperor to deal with an overwhelming force. There are still videos circulating from the early days of TESO showing vampire dragonknight emperors keeping entire armies at bay, as if they had just emerged from another MMO where they acted as raid bosses. The fact that one individual can be so powerful is not something the players have much to complain about, after all, it is not permanent, and there can – like Highlander – always be only one.
However, former emperors retain a hint of their power, a glimmer of past days. This is now becoming a problem: Apparently, it motivates guilds to crown everyone in as empty campaigns as possible: The bonus is simply too tempting.
Taifuu, a member of such a guild, is annoyed by the behavior of her colleagues and now calls on the fighters to join her. She has long waited for this behavior to be condemned by Zenimax with bans, but nothing is happening. At the moment, she has tricked her guildmates into giving her the title under the pretense of wanting to give it back soon. But that was a ruse. Taifuu wants to stay in power and urges the fighters to support her.
Besides, this “putting on the throne”, “abdicating”, and then the next comes, seems to be quite widespread. In the Overdrive campaign Celarus, her entire guild was crowned emperor one after the other.
[intense_testimonies][intense_testimony][intense_testimony_text]The emperor title should actually be the highest goal that a player can strive for and one that requires a long effort. When a guildmate pushes like at the free beer stand, saying everyone should hurry, now it’s their turn, this effect dissipates or even turns into its opposite. The current “ghost” campaigns can be dominated by a small number of players. They then decide the fate.
Changes are expected in a few weeks. Whether it will improve with half of the campaigns and shorter play time remains to be seen. A well-intentioned bonus for “former emperors” is currently turning into a farmable mini-buff. This can only be detrimental to the fun of the game and the reputation of the emperor title. Certainly, the participating players are not breaking any rules in the literal sense, but they are against the spirit behind it.
