Hail Comrades!
It’s time to approach the subject that I'd like to think is one of the few, most important features in an MMORPG. In this post I’m going to circle around the juicy PvP vs PvE -topic like a hungry vulture and see what kind of pieces I manage to rip out before the hyenas arrive. And once again, while reading, don’t think this like I’m forcing you PvPers or PvErs to think something you don’t agree with. This is just how I see the subject and I’m sure you have your reasons to maybe think somewhat otherwise. All thoughts are welcome!
To me personally, an online game has a very short lifeline if it has no PvP. Oh, and please let me explain myself, since I actually do hate PvP more than occasionally.
Anyone remember the time when Everquest 2 came out and it had no PvP while the same time World of Warcraft was out there too and it allowed the possibility to go head to head against another player. While reading the reviews from both of these games I had a hard time choosing which one to buy. They both seemed like great games and back then I thought that the lack of PvP in EQ2 wouldn’t matter. “It’s still going to be a fun game to play with my buddies”. To me visual side in games plays a huge role so, I went and bought EQ2 first since it just looked better.
I honestly tried to enjoy from the game but somehow it just felt a bit too boring for my liking. Even though I hated WoW’s cartoony, maybe a bit childish graphics, I ended up buying it too and playing it way longer than EQ2 since I thought it was offering more. I just felt that a game with no PvP at all, feels too “safe”.
(After EQ2 finally got it’s own PvP servers too, I kept switching between WoW and EQ2 here and there. They both were good games back then, but got eventually replaced by new, better MMORPGs)
I’ve also played Lord of the Rings Online a bit, a couple trials here and there and I once even subscribed for a month. If that game had a real PvP, not just the silly monster play, I’d definitely subscribe again. The overall feeling in game is very good, it feels very polished and looks very nice, but it doesn’t take very long until the “safe” feeling settles in and I get bored with the game.
“Fear not Frodo! These swamps may be infested with evil Uruk-Hai, but I bet my hat it still perfectly safe to take a nap here. These mobs patrolling 10 meters away from us don’t mind.”
The “safe” feeling that lingers on PvE servers, can be explained with the lack of intelligent, surprising and sometimes very annoying opponents. Of course there are angry NPC mobs everywhere and it’s not even a rare sight to see my character lying on his back, taking a nap. Those NPCs just usually don’t have the “Skillz”, they just run me over with more hit points, better equipment and whatever excuses I can come up with.
“I accidently pulled them all, my bad.”
Mortemia
The mobs don’t use the sneaky tactic of attacking me while I’m AFK or low on hit points while trying to recover from an earlier fight. They lack the intelligence to do that. No matter how finely tuned the AI is, it just can’t surprise you. Of course there might be some scripted events that can catch you off guard – but it happens only once. After that you know what’s going to happen, every time.
There are exceptions though, Left for Dead’s AI, a.k.a. the Director is a rather good example how the mobs in future might work. The game doesn’t use scripts as spawn points for zombies, it just spawns random amount of mobs somewhere the player don’t have a line of sight – and the next time you play the game, the spawns aren’t the same. Of course the game has certain hotspots, places perfect for ambushing the survivors and usually the chances of getting swarmed by enemies there are always higher. I think seeing a MMORPG-friendly Director in use might be very refreshing. Instead of spawning a mob in place X every 3 minutes after a player kills it, the AI could randomize it. Spawn 4 mobs instead of 1, all kinds of mobs, do something very unique.
The PvP feature in games has sometimes caused me to literally beat my forehead, cuss like an angry satanist and sometimes even uninstall the whole game as “a revenge” - and yet I still think it’s very essential part of MMOs. I’m not into those battlegrounds, PvP minigames or anything pure PvP-related stuff. In fact, I participate in PvP stuff very little. Not because I suck at it or anything like it. In fact, I’d estimate myself being something above average PvPer. I just can’t see myself doing the PvP grind for hours, days or weeks. It gets very repetitive and I get bored very easily. Usually the ignoring of PvP content in MMOs means I’m not getting the best PvP rewards either, but I’m okay with it.
To me PvP is at it’s best when it just happens randomly while questing and adventuring. Not by going into battlegrounds etc. Though, I have to admit sometimes it’s just fun to rally your buddies, gear up for a fight and start hunting for enemy scalps. I just think that with PvP, the world gets alive, it adds lots of funny and annoying situations, you must always be aware of your surroundings and if you are interested in your character’s fate, you don’t leave it AFK in the middle of a road and go eating.
(My favorite PvP moments date back to Vanguard era where I had a female Varanjar rogue called Karelian. It was very satisfying if you encountered a hostile player group, planned your moves carefully and managed to pop out of shadows and kill 2 or 3 players near your level. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I ended up on my back while someone’s T-bagging on my face.)
Of course the PvP always brings so much bad stuff in game too. It opens the door for grieving, corpse camping, high level characters camping starting zones etc. and it’s very hard or inefficient to try monitoring these events. You might be able to report a player to GM but an email saying “Thank you for reporting your issue to us, we are currently investigating it!” isn’t really worth the effort. And in few games the PvP even tends to be pretty meaningless. There is no story or lore behind it, no racial hate, the game designer known as The Monkey has been lazy and made the PvP just an extra option to kill a random player you encounter.
In WoW it made a sense if an undead rogue attacked a human, it was part of the story and obvious to happen - in Age of Conan I very often wondered how dumb the PvP in it was. The game made it possible to quest with a total stranger, then kill him after finishing a quest as a “thanks”. It was very common to see blood thirsty people near quest givers, just trying to kill every poor player they encountered - and if everybody got killed or left the scene, they just killed themselves over and over again until a new stranger came their way.
There’s so many badly implemented versions of PvP in games, so it might just be easier to hate the whole PvP concept and stick with the pure PvE instead. It’s easier to play on PvE servers where you don’t have to be afraid of someone ruining your gaming experience and you are practically free to do whatever you want, whenever. In PvP servers there is always a chance that something goes wrong, someone might prevent you from getting the quest done or the area where you are supposed to be doing your quest might be infested with hostile players. I guess it’s understandable if suggesting something towards PvP gets some people on their back feet yelling “No! We don’t want your PvP here!”
Some people demand danger and tension, some people hate surprises and like to pick their fights.
Muahaha, someone ganked the Monkey!
Cheers!
-Mortemia-
