So I posted this on the forums and was so impressed by myself, I decided to right another blog lol.
Sorry, self-butt-kissing moment:
I'm not at all against FFA PvP.
I just believe that FFA PvP doesn't have to be about ganking/griefing others.
Think about it this way...
Say you and your guild role play as a band of marauding Orcs. It's perfectly acceptable (and within the game rules) for you to go around slaughtering everyone that you come across.
But what's different in a MMO is that the helpless people you are slaughtering are other players.
It's like watching a movie, you don't care if the Orcs slaughter some nameless villagers, but you sure do care if they kill off one of the Heroes.
In a MMO, we all want to be Heroes, we want to be Heroes in all the games we play.
It's not fun to be the nameless villager, but that is what we start out as in a MMO. It takes a while to become a Hero. That's really want the RPG part of MMORPG is about, becoming a Hero.
And it's really hard to become a Hero if every time you go outside your village, some *sshole Orc kills you for no reason other then the fact that you were there.
That, is why total unrestricted FFA PvP does not work in MMOs.
FFA Guild vs. Guild and FFA Faction vs. Faction are and should be enough FFA for anyone.
That way your band of Orcs can slaughter all the people you want, as long as they are part of the faction/guild in opposition to you. They are just some random villager anymore, they are the enemy. The real enemy. There is HONOR in killing them.
Anyone who wants to go out and kill random noobs for fun is a pathetic coward, and nothing anyone will ever say will change my mind on that.
Take away the ability to randomly kill some lowbie, some poor shmuck crafting or killing monsters, and you can still very easily have your immersion, your epic, bloody, perpetual conflict, but you don't have to ruin the game for someone else at the same time.
User Comments
I have a better example for you:
FFA PvP servers are like the jungle where the wild tigers live.
Some old tigers love to hunt the newborn, kill and eat. They think it's fun and easy meal. Unfortunately not enough baby tigers are born any more, thus the species is becoming extinct from the inside.
Newborns needed protection until they were able to hunt on their own. Now it's too late and hardly any is getting born these days.
The day of the tiger is coming to a swift end, unless the tigers learn to respect and protect their newborn, as if their own lives were depending on it. Because it does.
next time 'left' or 'write' another blog :)
heerobya: "Take away the ability to randomly kill some lowbie, some poor shmuck crafting or killing monsters, and you can still very easily have your immersion, your epic, bloody, perpetual conflict, but you don't have to ruin the game for someone else at the same time."
Don't introduce lowbies and poor shmucks.
FFA PvP is perfectly viable. But if it is tied to other kinds of entertainment, then some players will emphasize that other kind of entertainment (e.g. some people will want to make baskets). They will be the poor shmucks.
FFA PvP is perfectly viable. But if there is level stratification of the character population, then some characters will be walking around with knives in a game populated by characters with AK-47s. They will be the newbies.
Don't force knives on new players and reserve AK-47s to those who have been around a while. Don't put crafting into a game where if you turn your back to make a basket, somebody is going to stick a knife in your back and then stuff you into that basket.
Those are the decisions that make FFA PvP so frustrating for so many players.
If you want crafting, have NPCs craft. They build the houses. They smith the weapons. The players defend the NPCs. Perhaps enemies 'kill you' in order to kidnap your NPCs, which have to be herded back to their camp. Meanwhile, you can get together a force to rescue them. Because you never died. But I digress.
@ JB47394:
So what you're saying is, FFA PvP is perfectly viable, in a multiplayer FPS such as Team Fortress 2.
I couldn't agree more. It's great in those games, and that is exactly where it belongs.
Agreed.
FFA PvP is an FPS thing.
Player and community progression is an RPG thing.
If you start blocking progression, then people leave. Just like how people would quit playing FPS's if they blocked your ability to kill anything again. Its self defeating.
lol, i just had a funny idea that would never work:
if u pay per month u get to be a hero!
if u play for free u get to be a nameless villager. Forever.
Or u can be a mob that constantly dies for experience and u get paid a small sum per month....
Funny concept, but not viable. It is difficult to create a system of FFA PvP that is fair, unless it is a FPS game where everyone is equal. Unless everyone started with the same gear or lvls, people are going to want to increase their ego by slaughter the noobs. That is why i think war between factions or races is one way for FFA pvp to work if done correctly.
There are two ways that I can think of to provide an RPG with FFA PvP.
1. Make all roles in the game revolve around PvP. Warriors, engineers, technicians, medics, etc. Everyone understands that there's a war on, and they play their roles accordingly. Nobody plans on building houses. They build bunkers. They don't plan to win the fair damsel or quest for a sword of slaying. They plan to join an elite unit of warriors and be in on the hostage rescue mission.
2. Split the world into two parts. One part is guaranteed to be at peace and the other is guaranteed to be at war. There is a barrier between the two such that characters cannot pass between the two. Only materials can. If there are essential materials out in the war zone, then the peaceful side asks the warriors to go get it. They get it because the peaceful side is going to build them shiny new toys to use to slaughter the bad guys.
What is wrong exactly with FFA and non FFA servers both being available? That way the PKers are only going to be "griefing" other PKers who are trying to level up, which seems fine and dandy to me.
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