Would it hurt VTES to lose Contesting Titles??

Obviously present contest rules are dumb - city contests are just missed, contesting star vampires just made random players lose for no reason and both of them don't matter in 95% of games.

And obviously they must not be just removed - self contest must still not be allowed.

Contestation and 'Unique' is one of the core concept of the game.
Contesting unique recources/vampires/cities/allies/etc was done to make vtes a self balancing loop.

Look at the current meta of other cardgames: You have 3-4 archetypes that are tournament viable. Say Yu-gi-oh(yugiohtopdecks.com/top_decks)
As you can see over 50% of tournament decks are made up of only 3 archetypes. (36% is Nekroz, 17% BA, 13% Shadoll)
Contesting is what balances vtes by making these decks immidiatly less tournament viable. You play something too popular and contest your star vampire on a table? You probably lose that round and lose out on the final.

This make vtes games more unique and interesting each time.
It also rewards the players that go out of their way to find something unique.

As for city titles

1. It is a part of the balancing unique recources aspect of the game
2. it's a penalty for the title

You want to run an 8 cap with a prince title and all the prince benefits?
Not the 7 cap primogen? because 1 vote doesnt cut it and it doesnt get 2nd trad and parity shift?
Not the justicar or the IC because they are 10-11 caps and take too much turns too influence?
Well, then you get the minor inconvenience of having to contest the city you are a prince of with other clans and sects trying to move in to take your spot. This is the drawback of your title, you don't want the drawback? Play a vampire without the title or with a different title.

Yay, lose contesting and it is Ivory Bows for everyone -hooray!

Lönkka wrote:

Yay, lose contesting and it is Ivory Bows for everyone -hooray!

I'm not against the idea of Methuselah's contesting important places or equipment... but it seems like title contesting is quite haphazard.

Nobody seems to have a strategic reason (i.e. there is no particular way to plan to use it as an ousting method).

Nobody seems to have a tactical reason (i.e. there is no particular way to enact the strategy).

So it seems to exist for theme, 'game flavour' and to prevent everyone using the same cards.
But as the pool of cards grows, the 'preventing similarity' fades. And Game Flavour feels like a code for nostalgia.

in my opinion contesting titles is not an issue worth changing. Vtes could lost or gain something in the process but the impact is to small to bother. On the other hand... Costesting vampires have BIG impact. If we wan't to change some rules about contesting let's talk about this!