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World of Warcraft: A Look at Low Level Battlegrounds
MMORPG.com contributor John Haren writes this look at low level PvP battlegrounds in Blizzard's World of Warcraft.
Editorial By Guest Writer on February 15, 2010
I started playing World of War craft about six months ago. My wife started about eight months ago so I gave it a try. I must admit I was skeptical at first and had never played an MMORPG. Why would I want to leave my platform games? I play those games on my big screen T.V., with a wireless remote, lounging on the sofa. Why on earth would I want to leave all that to sit in front of my computer and use a mouse and key board? (I am not great at typing either) The answer is simple, once I hit level ten I was able to enter the Warsong Gulch battlefield, I was hooked.
advertisement While there is a pretty steep learning curve, PvP is still fun at low levels. There are a lot of things that make it fun. A huge plus is the camaraderie. It is really fun to work with a team of other players. You will get to learn tactics and strategy in a real-time environment. Since these scenarios are broken up by level blocks of ten you will go in at level ten as the lowest, but will eventually work your way up to level 19 at the top of the tier. These scenarios will also give you honor points that will let you get really good gear later.
Warsong hold is basically a game of capture the flag. Simply put, the goal is to capture the opposing team's flag and return it to your base while preventing the other faction from doing the same to you. The winning team is the team that captures the other faction's flag three times. If this condition is not met within the 20 minute time limit, the side with the most flags wins. In the event of a tie the side with that took the flag last, wins. If nobody gets a flag at all the battle is a tie. The battle is a minimum of five per team and a max of ten per team.
Okay so you're probably wondering how you get to the PvP battlefield. To get to the battle field you have to visit the battle masters. The first thing you need to do is go to the nearest major city and locate one of the guards. When you mouse over him, a scroll of paper will appear. You need to left click the scroll and a window will open up, left click on the "battle masters" option. Once you have done this a small flag will appear on your map. Just keep going until you get to the flag and once the flag disappears, you have arrived. You can left click on the battle masters and they will either tell you that you are too low in level or a window will open. At the top of the box, if there are multiple options, (Warsong Gulch 1, Warsong Gulch 2 ect or first available) just make your selection. Once you have decided which battlefield instance you want, you need to look at the bottom of the window and select, join as a group, join battle, or cancel. This course of action will put you into a queue, so you can go hit the quest circuit or whatever you want to do while you're waiting to be notified that there is an open spot for you in the battle. A window will open asking if you want to enter the battle. You can choose to enter or leave the queue.
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Once you choose enter the battle, you will be placed in holding area with the other players on your side. Watch the chat box in the left corner it will come up in the raid orange color to let you know the battle is starting in one minute and then 30 seconds. I prefer to click on the chat bubble and select raid so I can communicate with my teammates.
If you look to your left you will see the icons of the players you are teamed with, try to keep near them and fight with them as much as possible. Before the battle starts look at your map and make a note of where you base is and where the other faction's base is.
Okay so the battle has begun what do you do? The most important thing is teamwork. You need to stick together. Don't misunderstand, sticking together does not mean clumping together so tightly that you are all getting blasted by area effect spells or are in each other's way. You should be close enough so you can easily assist a teammate. This also does not mean to stay stationary. You can use this same tactic on the move. If you are all in the same area you can come to each other's aid faster.
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Another thing that is very important is local superiority. Once you engage the other side it is important to, as quickly as possible, get local numerical superiority. For example you are engaged with a unit of five and you have five and your tank is fighting, don't engage another enemy, help the tank dispatch his, now it's five against four. If another player joins in he falls that much faster. It is a classic divide and conquer strategy. There are exceptions to this rule however and that depends on the scenario and what character class you have chosen to play. These basic rules modify them to suit your style of play, character and or group.
Situational awareness is also a huge factor. It helps to know the terrain and what types of obstacles and blind spots it has. What areas just scream ambush or where is the best place to set up my ambush. Know the cool down time on your specials so you can use them effectively. What specials do you have that could help you get away or prevent someone else from getting away? Different spells have different animations if you know which is which you can take action against them. The last thing I would like to touch on in situational awareness is other character's racial abilities. All characters have different racial abilities that can make them immune to certain things. If you know which of your attacks which races are immune to, then you will not waste them. If you die, it is the same procedure as it is in the rest of the game, (unless somebody resurrects you then you can chose accept and rise where you died) you will be sent to the graveyard and be resurrected.
If you go into Warsong Gulch at level ten, you will probably die a lot. You have to remember that you are getting experience playing against other players. This type of experience will help you when you do instances in the game. Teamwork takes practice and it is not the easiest skill to learn and once you learn it there is no substitute for it. I have given you many reasons why you should PvP better gear, experience, but the most important reason I do PvP is because its fun even at low levels.
Battlegrounds are just another way Blizzard creates a carrot on a stick.These are nothing more than loot chasing with zero challenge,there is no challenge because you do not really die,there is no penalty for dying,you just respawn in a different spot then run back ,rinse and repeat,grab your rewards,rinse and repeat,very shallow design.
Blizzard has an extremely hard time creating challenging content,EVERYTHING they design is just easy mode to have players coming back for rewards/loot,EVERY single aspect of Blizzard's design always points to this.This might be working well for them,but it does nothing to make players think or create some new ideas or content to the genre,it is just the same old same old every time,MORE instances chasing loot rewards.
This might be all the MAJORITY of WOW players understand and know,after all WOW was their first game,but Blizzard is NOT helping this genre move forward,they are just reliving what makes them money,nothing more.This is called MONEY development NOT game development.
The problem for Blizzard is that their game engine is so weak,there is nothing more they can do but continue to create instances with carrots on a stick,keep those subscriptions coming back to chase rewards.Instead put some MEANING into the content,even a weak game engine allows for meaning,but Blizzard just does not have the ability it seems in their management,they are one dimensional designers.
Example of MEANING.I will let Blizzard slide and continue their cheap Instances design,but how about have players die and they are booted out?You die you get no reward?How about have reasons inside the instance that relay into the real game world?perhaps have bosses that drop rare recipes or rare crafting items?how about players that get the most kills inside the battle get a certain reward and those that heal the most get a certain reward?How about the player that defends the structure the longest gets bonus rewards?
How about you fight to gain control of a certain structure,then once you win you have a certain amount of time to unlock secrets that take team work,that offer rewards or perhaps you can unlock the ability to set traps,why does it have to be so simplistic as to just PVP each other and win that structure,grab your reward and thanks for coming out?How about a ranking system for successive wins?or just successive survival in each Battleground?The rank can continue into the real world giving players bonuses to speed or bonuses to battle,after all it is called Battlegrounds make some bonuses to battle,makes sense.
Before they introduced PvP experience and the Dungeon Finder, I used to play WG all day when nearing the end of each bracket, at least until I could purchase that bracket's bow.
WOW!
Maybe folks like the iwin apsects of WoW. I for one like the game the way it is. It is a casual game that was meant to be just that. If you want challenge, there are other MMO's for you to play. I have a full time job and WoW is great for my work schedule. I used to play MMO's that were hard mode and time consuming and it was a hardship to keep up with the demands of the game with crafting, vendor management, etc...
WoW is working as intended as far as I am concerned.
The article is very blank and doesnt cover the most important thing about BGs - twinks. Casual player who joined BGs even at 19 or 29, has no chance against top geared and enchanted PvPers. You cant even scratch one of those, while they kill you in few hits.
If you're casual player, ignore BGs in WoW till lvl 80
WoW maybe working as you say, " AS INTENDED" but I doubt it was ever intended to lapse into nothing more than imbicile low intelleignece mode.
Blizzard mat as well make this game free to play and let everone just buy the stuff they need and do away with any effort whatsoever.
It's a shame 'cos a once great game is now just a bag o' shite (TM) that's little fun to play. Blizzrard should give us real gamers a server to ourselves so we can earn our gear instead of being given it.
You and the author of the topic are wrong.
First off hes playing as it is now, where twinks cannot exist because of BGs giving XP and such. And you are wrong because you played before that and know nothing of the game in its current incarnation.
BGs at a low level even without twinks is still retardedly lame. While not as bad as they once were, and can be enjoyed at times, the rewards in them are pretty dismal.
While I admit the game has gotten a bit too easy, thus why I play on a PvP server so I can actually die instead of on Normal one where I never even come close unless I do something like pull 10 things for a challenge.
If you find the game way too easy then work on some raids, you won't find them too easy.
I thought this problem was rectified with the twink only brackets? I had several friends who bitched and moaned a month after the change because they were no longer able to pwn every match.
WoW, they rly got rid of twinks with gaining XP bullshit? Thats a shame, I loved the community and twink battles.
My 29 hunter died maybe 1 time in 50 games :D
Well there are separate BGs for them, you can turn off XP gain and when doing so you will only get into BGs with other twinks.
I just love the completly random screenshots. Well, at least they are from game mentioned in the article.
Okay so you're probably wondering how you get to the PvP battlefield. To get to the battle field you have to visit the battle masters.
...or you just hit "h" while running arround anywhere you like.
The biggest problem with bgs:
>>>WoW Bg's below lvl 80 are death!<<<<
At least on EU i don't see any in the range of 61-79
Lol, so true.
I wonder how many hours that "writer" played BGs. Like 2?
I haven't been in BG's in a while other than WG once in a while. BG's I didn't mind as much as Arena's which is a different thing altogether.
I actually quit wow because i consider it completly inflexible, HOWEVER most of your post is contradictory, just doesnt make sense, or rehashes old problems.. first you said: "These are nothing more than loot chasing with zero challenge" BUT almost every suggesting you made to improve the game was about ways to get loot..:
"perhaps have bosses that drop rare recipes or rare crafting items?how about players that get the most kills inside the battle get a certain reward and those that heal the most get a certain reward?How about the player that defends the structure the longest gets bonus rewards?"
then you said "there is no penalty for dying" EXCEPT that if you've PLAYED bg's then you know that dying is bad as you die, you respawn and you have to run back... during that time perhaps the tower you were attempting to hold caps to the other team and you lose it! HENCE you have a penalty for dying in the loss of the tower which potentially leads you to the loss of the match which leads you to less honor for the match which makes it TOUGHER to get the aforementioned "LOOT"
you also said "Instead put some MEANING into the content" but some of that is lost to POPULAR DEMAND.if you ever played "pre-battlegroups" you might remember the 4hour que times to get into ONE AV match. You might remember actually spending the time to collect scraps for rewards/upgrades, you might remember escorting the NPC'S back to your base to make sure they got there. this is a problem with gaming public, NOT bliz as people complained about it. Now people dont care about getting every bit of honor/rep out of an AV cause you could just que again. The CONTENT of AV was lost to popular request. (side note, some of the best times ive had in WoW has been 3hours into your match when your last hope is keeping Lok alive, etc. so i'd scrap battlegroup for av or something)
And really in the end, name me games that DONT have loot chasing being a part of the game?? Unless your talking Halo then im pretty sure "upgrades" are all we really do in games..oh wait..i think people choose weapons they find in Halo over the rifle you start with sometimes too..i guess all we do is try and upgrade.
I still hate blizz for how they run the game, the manipulation of classes to generate interest, the complete inflexiblity in talent trees/glyphs, and whatnot but your post just doesnt make sense.
Nice article. It would have been nice with some WG (Warsong Gulch) pics to go along with it.
As for the twinking, it's long gone as the twink community is still alive and no longer have to bitch at the scrubs/noobs/etc. The highest geared players now in every bracket are the die hard PvPers that are leveling and generally in good BoA (Bind on Account) gear. The BoA gear (shoulders/chest) give extra XP too, so those players tend to level fast thru BGs or questing.
Warsong Gulch is actually fun again (played two twink - lots of fun too), as you now have more variety of people queueing, less bitching and the team makeup changes game to game. Only at 80 when you hit WG with premades can it be a rugged battle. Also the level 80s that are in BGs are often really well geared.
All the BG's have their good/bad. Personally I'd love changes to AV as the zergfest is boring and repetitive, although this is generally only in the level 80 group. AV shouldn't be consistently 5-6 minutes long!
Having a 'daily quest' for the BG offers gold, more xp, honor, etc. and the 'honor' gear is necessary to compete in PvP at the higher levels.
Overall the latest changes to WoW have made it more fun as there are more variety of BGs (Warsong Gulch, Arathi, AV, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest and Wintersgrasp) Although I wish they'd fix Wintersgrasp make it Battlegroup wide and get rid of the damn tenacity. It doesn't work.
Someone had mentioned that WoW should have rare recipe drops - they do. There have always been rare recipe drops in the instances and rare world drops. The new LFG tool, you get a loot bag at the end, always something pertaining to you class. So LFG is no longer an issue, queues are short 15 at the outside usually 1-3 minutes for a tank, 5 maybe for a healer.
It's a fun game and there are endless things to do, I know guildmates that only arena/BG, those that only raid, those that do world events/chase achievements and the blend that is the majority of WoW players that enjoy the variety.
I've played a number of MMO's over the years and other than EQ, EQII, I've not enjoyed any other MMO for any length of time as much as I do WoW.
So, if you don't like WoW don't play it! Pretty simple.
what i dont get is if they want to be eilte at lvl 19 ,29,39,49,59,69,79 bracket ,why they dont ALL lock lovel and leave the regular bg to the regular people?
what i dont get is if they want to be eilte at lvl 19 ,29,39,49,59,69,79 bracket ,why they dont ALL lock lovel and leave the regular bg to the regular people?
The twinks do level lock and are only in BG's against others that have locked XP. The only time you'll encounter a true twink in the 'regular' BG's is if they're leveling out. I did that on my two as I'm heading them towards 80. For those that hate twinks you should really study up on what is involved to craft a well made twink. It is alot of work and dedication - and fun!
Well geared players still put effort into getting good gear, so if I run dungeons, pvp for rewards, craft and enchant my gear - I'm likely well geared even at the lower end of the bracket, that and knowing how to play (both the specific battleground and my character) I'm going to have high survivability even against max bracketed toons. If your toon is properly specced, wearing appropriate gear (ie strength on tanks, not on the clothies), enchanted, have useful crafting skills you will have that much of an edge. Knowing how to play as a team, knowing the map, checking the makeup of the other team - all go to making it a better experience.
Having a level 80 to get the BOA's is useful, although most of us have those for leveling purposes not to be OP in a BG. It's equivalent to having good 'blue gear' with the added bonus of 10% xp gain on your chest/shoulder pieces.
If on the other hand you're in grey or white gear low level gear (had this recently in the 20's bracket), don't understand the difference between ranged and melee fighting. Do not understand the simple mechanics of the game and your class you'll spend alot of time in the GY.
The other day in WG with a guy, level 24, carrying a level 12 grey weapon! It's a WTF moment? He's hurting himself by not having at least something close to his level and greens drop everywhere! Enchants at the low level are free in any city. I'm not a BG snob at all as I do see the truly talented players in PvP, but I enjoy them and want everyone to enjoy the match. Being dead for fixable reasons isn't fun.
"what i dont get is if they want to be eilte at lvl 19 ,29,39,49,59,69,79 bracket ,why they dont ALL lock lovel and leave the regular bg to the regular people?"
Oh...but you miss the point of being a twink: they don't want to fight other twinks...they want to pwn noobs....plain and simple. The same mentality exists in other games also - it gives the twink a feeling of power in their otherwise powerless world.
Also - I played Wow for 2 years and eventually got tired of the game because it stopped being challenging. I moved onto Darkfall now and love it. There are so many people playing Wow and not as many players wants to play an MMO 'round the clock - as hardcore players do...they're casual and Wow fits their play style just fine.
To the Wow bashers: In other words....you're not going to convince Wow players that it sucks just because you think it does :)
Teamwork and camaraderie in BG? Please tell me what realm you are playing on I would like to play there to.
My wife and I played BGs quite heavily with twinks for our two-year WoW stint. Playing BGs as a pair of twinks was one of the best parts of our WoW experience, and some of our fondest memories of WoW come from BGs.
The toons we liked to play most were a pair of 69 twinks. We had been collecting Marks of Honor to purchase our Season 2 Arena gear, when Blizzard decided to remove the Lvl 70 PvP gear from the vendors. Apparently Blizzard was more interested in "encouraging" its players to buy WotLK than it was with allowing them to enjoy the pre-existing game.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned this. You only get XP from battlegrounds if you COMPLETE the objectives!!!!
Like in warsong gulch you will ONLY get xp if you cap the flag. But most twinks dont like to cap the flags, they prefer just to sit in the middle of the field 2-3 shotting people.
The twink community as far as ive seen is very much alive in NON XP LOCKED battlegrounds. On my low level chars the BGs are still completely unplayable.
What a bunch of nonsense. Adding more penalties for dying does not make a game more challenging. After all the combat and enemies you fight will remain exactly the same, regardless death penalty.
Adding a death penalty only increases the timesink of having to regain lost experience or items or haviing to play through the same content again they already beat. Thats not challenging, thats just increasing the timesink.
Also, your description of WoW is very inaccurate. There are instances but WoW has much more to offer than just instances.
As this is my first post, although I have been lurking for quite some time, thanks all for the great input that has educated and encouraged me on my search for the perfect game.
As for the op, right on! I am currently waiting for cataclysm, but one of my favorite activities was battlegrounds. Not just for the marks and the gear, but because it is heart pounding fast paced fun. Sometimes people like to play because they just want to have fun, some of us have family , jobs or school so we don't have the time or interest to invest in raid progression. (although I am not downing those of you who to like to raid :D) For a casual player like myself, battlegrounds fit the bill.
And op, if you love warsong wait til Arathi and AV :D and Wintergrasp is pretty cool too.
I like the PvP in WoW too, it's fun and endlessly entertaining. I once won Wintergrasp as part of a team of two, when I had absolutely no idea what WG was about - it turned out the ten allys facing us (early morning European server time) were bigger noobs than me I guess.
Warsong is my least favourite BG mainly because it is endlessly camped by snobby know it alls at higher levels, who don't seem to understand that people want to have fun with their tactics (winning Warsong is pretty easy) protect your flag carrier, hide them near your base but not in it and then kill their flag carrier in their base, giving them no chance to retrieve it before your flag carrier strikes home.
But... it's not much fun that way, and lots of people just want to farm the middle (they want the honour not the BG marks) and it#s ugly watching them get berated by those who believe in order to have fun, you have to win.
As for the article here, it was OK, too much focus on the mechanics of button clicking for me (left click here, there and everywhere - really as much as some people need a few pointers I felt you were leading the horse and then trying to breathe water up its nose).
But yeah, PvP in WoW is fun, not serious business - they left that kind of stuff to the specialist market where it belongs, my only real complaint about the PvP is the need to be a level ending in 8 or 9 to make much of an impact, I thought the balancing system in WAR was better designed for people to have continuous fun in the BG's (though WAR had it's faults too).
Looking forward to a write up of the finer points of Alterac Valley and the endless "come on, let's rush and lose" arguments it brings...
A quick overview for some old WOW players: (as some made comments about feauteres long gone ...)
1. Since BG's now give experience, twinks - who stay at level x9 - no longer exist in their old forms. They have their own BG's (players with experience gains turned off are put into seperate BG's).
2. Since BG's experience gains, a lot more people level sometimes through playing a BG. This was streamlined by the fact you can now join a BG from anywhere and there's a daily BG quest - giving gold and honor - adapted to your level (motivation).
3. The experience gained is by taking objectives, not by kills. It reduces the mindless farming of honor and gives a motivation to the group.
4. 6 BG's total now (with 2 x 40vs40), and Wintergrasp is NOT a BG. It is a seperate open world PvP zone - even on PVE servers - . Owning the Lake Wintergrasp zone gives awards in all end game dungeons and gives you access to special vendors for gear and a seperate VOA Raid which drops mostly PvP gear. The ownning can change every 2.5 hours. LW - although open and single server based - is limited to 240 players or 3 Raids each on each side.
5. Starting with Cata there is a complete new BG competition with a return of "the old titles" and based on rankings. Both individual as GUILD (!) PvP ranking. There will also be 2 more Bg's and a new open RvR zone on server.
6. Started in patch 3.3 you can now also gain Arena points by winning the daily BG: 25 arena points. The first arena gear through Bg's can be had at 440 arena points etc ...
7. The cross server BG's mechanism (clustered servers in numbers (from 7 to 17) ensures all Bg's open in all levels on a decent basis (approx 1 to 10 minutes). It was introduced in August 2006.
Be sure to play on a Realm with a high clustered BGroup and dungeon system (as the new cross server dungeon system uses the same system).
I hope it gives some info for the old players who left. (skipped the arena info here).
Aren't video games in general a giant carrot on a stick? Trying to treat an MMORPG like WoW as a big waste of time is a bit ironic because that's the whole point of video games to begin with. Rather than sit at home and be bored, you could play video games like WoW or <insert favorite MMO here> to help you pass the time. If these aren't entertaining someone enough, they either need to find something/somewhere else to have fun or they can just sit there be at a complete loss while everyone else enjoys their respective game/genre. In the end, we're all trying to chase a big carrot on a stick and many people seem to be enjoying every bit of it.
PvP in Wow is an afterthought, especially the battle grounds. At least they removed the twinks from the lower level ones because the average gamer would not have a chance otherwise.
The problem with pvp in Wow is that death is such a non event. You cannot have good pvp where death does not impose decent penalties.
what i dont get is if they want to be eilte at lvl 19 ,29,39,49,59,69,79 bracket ,why they dont ALL lock lovel and leave the regular bg to the regular people?
The twink queues are atrociously long. You can queue all night long and not get in a game in some brackets.
They did the same thing to premade teams awhile back. They made it so that if you join the BG as a team (in a multiplayer game?!) then you basically didn't get to play because the queues could be over two hours long.
It doesn't sound like you've played the game at all. Just compile everything you've heard and carry on the hate.
Finally someone who sounds like they've actually played some wg recently.
Another big issue that ruins these low level bg's is the fact that EVERYONE is in those freakin' heirlooms. But don't stop there, if you have heirlooms that means you have an 80 with gold. What does that mean? Crusader, 15 agi, stam up the butt.. at least mongoose was moved out of that gear's range. I rolled up on a new server for a dungeon group with my friends, and there's no way I'm shelling out $25 to move my main over so that means I'm left to the mercy of these no skill semi-twinks.
Instead of having three or four invincible super-people per bg, now it's an army of almost-invincible clickers :/
What a bunch of nonsense. Adding more penalties for dying does not make a game more challenging. After all the combat and enemies you fight will remain exactly the same, regardless death penalty.
Adding a death penalty only increases the timesink of having to regain lost experience or items or haviing to play through the same content again they already beat. Thats not challenging, thats just increasing the timesink.
Also, your description of WoW is very inaccurate. There are instances but WoW has much more to offer than just instances.
Adding more penalties for dying creates consequences for DUMB play.
All I have to say is this....
Arathi Basin
I was perched at Lumbermill in an Arathi Basin, directing traffic, and saw the same guy run SOLO into a group of 4+ at Blacksmith.......only to burned down in an instant. Same guy rezes up and runs RIGHT BACK to the same group at Blacksmith and dies AGAIN.
Instead of this guy helping out another group that might have been slightly outnumbered or outgunned.....he's off doing his own thing, engaging in combat where it doesn't matter or engaging in combat where they have ZERO impact on the match as a whole.
It happens time and time again....
Warsong Gultch
I got thrown into a WSG match that was already in progress and the Horde team had wiped the majority of our raid. As everyone rezed at the Graveyard, they ran off the cliff into a waiting group of Horde in a single file fashion....getting picked off one by one. NO ONE had the presence of mind to maybe GO AROUND the group of baddies as a collective group.
Why?
Because no harm no foul for dieing.
Arathi Valley
I capped Ice Wing Bunker by myself and called for support. There were atleast 15 fellow Horde players fighting RIGHT OUTSIDE of the bunker and NOT ONE of them responded to my calls for help to burn it to the ground and progress the game. Finally 3 Alliance got into the bunker and easily took it back, despite the 15 Horde standing just outside the bunker...mindlessly killing and dieing.
Why?
Because no harm no foul for dieing....
The common theme among all of these scenarios is that people don't PvP with purpose other than smashing a few faces in until they get the scrap honor / XP for lossing the match. They queue up for the next Battleground and repeat the same mindless process.....and complain that it takes too long to get the rewards.
I'm not saying that you need to loose XP or inventory items for dieing........but some kind of stick to rap someone on the knuckles for playing STUPID would go along way to increase the overall enjoyment of the experience for everyone.
It doesn't sound like you've played the game at all. Just compile everything you've heard and carry on the hate.
What he said is true.
Queue for any Battleground you like and just look at all the TERRIBLE play on display.
You know why people continue to do the same FAIL things in BGs, even after they have been in existance for over 3 years? Because not only are people not punished for death....they are rewarded for failure.
If its easier to play "If its RED, its DEAD" in some random field and get scrap honor / xp for losing than it is to work together as a team and coordinate attacks and tactics for maximum honor / xp......people are going to take the easy route so long as it eventually yields rewards.
It's the reason there are so many people are AFKing through Battlegrounds. It's the reason so many people who have no interest in PvP are taking up raid spots in BG PUGs. It's the reason that people who genuinely enjoy PvPing for the sake of being able to fight something smarter than the crap monster Artificial Intelligence have quit playing out of pure fustration.
I'm not saying that you have to lose XP or items upon death to make it meaningful. Something small as taking away tokens & Honor from Honor Kills for the loosing BG team would go a long way. I think you would find more people will be working the objectives in a team objective based PvP senario more if the Honor gained from COMPLETING the objectives was the only gaurenteed honor in a BG.
I gave wow a try late last year and recently closed down my accounts. The game really is not challenging in and of itself. The only way it becomes challenging is if you limit yourself in some way. The bg's were great when I first started playing them but as I found out, a group of people that know what they're doing have no challenges there. Same with pve. The only thing I found challenging in pve or in pvp was running with a pug. More times than not the challenge was trying to overcome another player's stupidity. For the life of me I never could figure out how someone made to 60+ and still had no idea how many of their class's mechanics worked or how to fulfill their role in a group. Pre-mades that knew what they're doing know their roles, know when to kill and when to stop. Doing those simple things allowed me to go from 40-80 with maybe a hand full of deaths. It was when I ran with a pug that our holy specced priest would dump all his mana using shadow magic, (after having queued as healing), then scream at our pally for not healing. The same things happened in bgs. That guy just standing there healing the guy that everyone around you is attacking with no effect? How can he not be your primary target? Because stupidity prevails.