Whats the purpose in this game?

[Gandhi]

It's not just about winning, it's about having large scale goals that go beyond "capture this base" or "defend this hex". Continent locks might not have been the ideal goal, but at least it was something.

Things like "This is our home continent, lets kick these fools out" or "Lets boot the TR out of Oshur so we can have vec repair benefits". It's another layer of objectives laid on top of the constant, passive motivation of "get resources". It's the reason why every professional sport has a championship, what's the point in playing 50 games each season if they're just isolated 1 vs 1's? You play those games to secure a playoff spot, then you win the playoffs to secure a spot in the final. Throughout the entire season there's these long term objectives that give a solid reason for playing each individual match, one that goes beyond just "lets beat the other team".

I think every game needs goals like that, especially one with a persistent world without the traditional raid-for-loot mechanics. It's really tough to get right, and like I said I wasn't totally happy with the cont lock mechanic either. But it was a start. And who knows, maybe PS2 already has this covered. I guess we'll find out in the beta.