Is the subtext/implication here that the "fairness"/"fun" discussion on the nerfing passive artifacts thread should not be interpreted as sincere because it's totally inconsistent with the priorities in 5.10? And that the nerfing artifacts/making WZI "fun" stuff was just a pretext for making WZI not a better game but a better revenue generator? If not, I don't really understand what point you're making here.
The problem with any lines we draw between this new update and the discussion about artifacts is, that Fizzer pretty much stated the question about nerfing, then commented a few times about details but never came clear about his intentions with artifacts in the first place. So, no, I don't want to point out that the previous discussion had a wrong focus. I believe that is WAS indeed about fun - or Fizzer's interpretation of fun - and that he had envisioned something else when it comes to artifacts. And as the creator he can totally do so and criticize any wrong ways we (ab)use his creation. I (and others) just felt that there has to be a deeper problem than just "fun". Because if there wasn't a WZIB and idle was just yet another idle game (to have some fun or waste some time between WZC matches) the power level of several artifacts wouldn't really matter. It's only when WZIB is concerned that artifacts matter a lot (more). Only when my single player APs influence how many BPs I can earn, it becomes relevant how much artifacts can improve your AP income (and yes, to me WZIB seems pretty much lottery-like, you would have to be almost on top of every advancement to consistently win battles). But at the time we got to this point, the whole discussion was closed down.
I don't think that this update is about revenue. I can't really see new ways to make money here that don't already exist. I don't assume that (WZI) players will create new clans in order to compete in Clan Wars if they weren't already active WZC players and therefore (probably) already are in some clans. I rather see this update as an incentive or encouragement to break apart the old clan system. Because those larger clans definitely are handicapped. Or rather the members of those clans, the ones in particular that aren't among the first 40 to try a Clan Wars match. Still, larger clans have the advantage that the members can switch, in one Clan Wars iteration some will play for the clan and if any of them don't have much time in the next iteration, other clan members will just take their spot. Smaller clans (and their members) will have to play much more regularly.
To be quite honest, I took my time to not let my post sound like a rant, but you wouldn't be totally wrong if you called it so. From time to time I check the blog for any new updates. And today I saw this blog post and my initial thought was, that this update is more about reducing the "fun" (to use the same term again) for the average WZIB player than nerfing artifacts ever could have been. The thing here is, everyone could adopt the swapping-technique, but you can't just out of the sudden become a top tier WZC player to also get those precious (territory-related) benefits. And as I tried to address in my initial post, I don't believe that Fizzer introduced this new game mode (only) to counteract artifact swapping by presenting options to non-swappers to gain even more benefits. To conclude, there was no underlying intention to criticize anyone or anything. I just felt that I should put my observation out to the public. Especially because there are Clan Wars rewards (the reduced battle attacks in particular) that could easily cause some frustration if someone notices that the attacked players don't suffer as much pushback from attacks than they would if someone aims their attacks at this person. I mean, 20% isn't a lot, but that still means that five attacks only feel like four. So, if someone with this benefit joins WZIB it even more depends on who each and everyone of the players focus their attacks on, than it depends currently. Or in other words, if you are in the lead with this benefit and the others don't "agree" on attacking you, you might be able to consistently win a lot more than today. Then, all your advancements would be almost useless if you don't have this benefit.