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Warhammer Online: A Talk about 1.1 Open RvR
MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the chance recently to sit down and speak with the folks from Mythic Entertainment about yesterday's update 1.1 and specifically about the changes that were made to the Open RvR system. In this interview, the team discusses the changes, ORvR vs. scenarios, their intentions for feature balance and more.
Patch 1.1a, the biggest update to Mythic Entertainment’s Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning since the game’s launch back in September, has made a number of additions to the game, including: the introduction of two of the four classes that didn’t make the cut at the game’s original launch, new open RvR rewards, scaled difficulty public quests, and quite a bit more.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to sit down with a number of developers from WAR to talk about the changes to the game. In Part one of the interview, we talked about the changes to open field RvR.
“We’re very confident that this will be an even better version of Warhammer Online, Post 1.1,” said Associate Producer Josh Drescher when asked how 1.1 would impact the game. “We’re very excited about the positive response that we’ve been getting.”
The first thing that I wanted to address in an interview about 1.1 was the addition of influence, another form of reward, into the Open RvR system. For those who might not be familiar with the game, WAR is built on the premise of, well, a war between two factions. One of the core designs of the game revolves around RvR lakes; areas of the game where players on opposing factions can fight one another in an open environment (rather than in instanced PvP “game” scenarios).
Since launch, the game has had difficulty attracting players into those areas en masse and as intended, with player preferring to play scenarios or PvE. The developers, we were told, have found that Open RvR players (or would-be open RvR players) complained about not being able to earn the same level of loot that players earn in scenarios or PQs, for example.
“What we wanted to put in,” said Brian Wheeler, a Designer on the project, “was a method of keeping up with those guys and making sure that the RvR players weren’t left out when it came to itemization. Players who just want to kill other players, we want to make sure that they are still getting geared out well at the same time.”
“What we’re adding with RvR influence into the RvR campaign,” added Jeff Skalski, a Producer on the game, “is one small step toward a lot of the major changes we’re going to be making over the upcoming patches. We’re really trying to make sure that players have clear goals and clear rewards and they understand what they can get when they go into open field RvR.”
So, how do the rewards work? Is it just like in public quests?
“The rewards work a little bit differently from regular chapter influence,” answered Adam Gershowitz, “because we’re basically spanning ten levels of player rewards, because it’s a whole tier, what we did when we went back and itemized it, we made a basic, advanced and elite reward but we did it a little differently. Now, for RvR influence, you have a couple more choices that you had [in PQ influence rewards]… We have two sets of rewards at each point. One that is geared more toward a casual RvR player and one with higher renown rank restrictions.”
So, what comes out is the fact that in each tier, I can choose my reward and if I don’t have a high renown rank, I get a blue reward while a higher renown rank will reward you more greatly with a purple item. Oh, and from what I saw last night, the basic reward doesn’t seem to be simply potion or crystal based.
The actual reward is different based on which pairing you are playing in, while the level of the reward stays the same. In other words, it doesn’t force you to stay in one pairing to earn your rewards.
Are you hoping that these new rewards will help to draw more players into Open RvR on a longer term basis than the previous events (ORvR PQ and “kill 15 enemy players” task)?
“Those were different ways of testing what the players’ interests were and different way and options we have of drawing them into the lake,” said Skalski. “We are continuing to look at other ideas, to think outside of the box. What it really comes down to is that we need to have better predictability and convenience for players to really draw them into the lakes. That’s why players just love hitting that button and going into scenarios. We’re definitely battling our own creation, but we want to make sure that the rewards that players can get out of open field RvR are just as rewarding and as exciting as doing any of the other content in the game, so I think you’ll be hearing a lot about additional features and systems that we’ll be adding into the live game.”
At this point, Drescher added the fact that the game, because it has so many different forms of gameplay (ORvR, scenarios, PvE, etc), it becomes a kind of balancing act where you have to return to all of the systems and make sure that they are “vibrant and fresh” and provide incentives for players to enjoy all of the content. He was also quick to point out that sometimes, it’s hard to keep everything at the level you’d like, all the time.
“Philosophically,” he said, “we believe that the right way to encourage players to focus their attention on something we feel is being under-utilized is to incentivise that part of the game. You give them a reason to want to be there that isn’t punishing them by making it less effective to play in a scenario or do quests. You always want to be giving them a positive reason to be engaging the different parts of the game. We understood that you’re always going to have to be making changes to something that is as exciting and unpredictable as the RvR experience. No matter how much attention you pay to those systems prior to launch, there is no way to fully predict how your game is going to behave in the wild after launch. So we were completely prepared in terms of the structure of the team and the ideas that we had in the queue to respond to whatever way that content breakdown happened to go after launch and as it happens, the scenarios were wildly successful and the Open RvR content, while very enjoyable and something players were really into, we felt that it was not getting the attention that it deserved for the quality of experience that it potentially offered.”
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Some people feel that scenarios are drawing people away from open RvR. Why haven’t you guys tried reducing scenarios instead of trying to bring more incentives to Open RvR?
The answer that I got to this question revolved around the idea of nerfing or not nerfing the systems. They didn’t want to nerf the scenario system, because that’s going to cause a problem for people who enjoy that particular play style. It’s much better to give as many high-quality options as possible.
Skalski jumped in at that point and said: “Another thing we’re doing is looking into why players love the scenarios so much and trying to figure out what elements of that we can introduce into open field RvR that won’t break the real core experience of ORvR.”
They want to preserve the mystery of not knowing what you’re going to run into when you enter ORvR (20vs 20, 40 vs 40, 10 vs 3, etc) while at the same time providing some predictability in terms of what you’re going to get.
“There are basically two reasons why scenarios are popular, “added Drescher, “and they are two distinct populations of people: You have the people who, for personal reasons, prefer that style of gaming. For those people, we don’t want to take away a part of the game that they enjoy on a fundamental level. If I’m the kind of person who only has half an hour to play each night, I might not feel as attracted to a keep siege that could last an hour or more. I might want to play a couple of scenarios and then go about my business at home. The other group of people, and this is really the group that we’re attempting to target, are the people that under different circumstances, would love to spend more time in open RvR but they are feeling some kind of systemic pressure that drives them into scenarios. Primarily, that comes down to rewards. They feel that the amount of effort and time that you’re putting into it, if you spend an hour in scenarios versus an hour of defending a keep, you’re going to get better loot, better experience, etc. going into the scenarios, so they go into the scenarios. That is why we feel that is was very important to make changes to open field RvR… that made it feel like ‘if I’ve got an hour of gameplay available to be tonight, I am just as likely to be rewarded for playing Open RvR as I am if I play an hour of scenarios.”
“There may come a time,” he continued, “where we decide to do a server that has no scenarios or limited scenarios (we’re not thinking about doing that right now), but we certainly wouldn’t make an across the board change where we go ‘That’s it, we’re taking away scenarios because you people are playing the game the wrong way’. There IS no wrong way to play our game. We want players to feel like everything is equally rewarding, and everything is equally engaging. It’s up to them to choose the right place to go for them at that time and we feel that if we can add that sense of parity, that sense of fairness, that players will disperse themselves through the different content we have in the game in a way that makes more sense.”
It really is difficult to say how these changes will end up affecting the overall game and how ORvR is seen by the players over the long term. That being said, I logged on last night with my T2 character on the Ironfist server to see the changes for myself and ended up walking into a large scale ORvR battle, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in quite some time. So, at least in the short term (and possibly for longer as folks strive to earn those rewards), ORvR seems to have gained the boost that Mythic was looking for.
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Great! I can't wait to get home from work! :)
Alwways cracks me up, Mythic's insistance in using the RvR acronym verses the normal PvP one. They are essentially one and the same.
You want to know why people aren't RvRing?
BECAUSE EVERY DAMN SERVER CRASHES AT >>>>>***EVERY****<<<<<< FORTRESS SEIGE!
Stop focusing on giving us rewards to a system that is broken. Fix that shit, and people will be inspired to take part in it. Right now those players think "what's the point?"
And those defending say in /region "need more players at the fortress to crash the server". What kinda damn defense is that!?!?!
FIX
THE
SERVER
STABILITY!!!!! (and actual fix it. Don't just tell us you did)
I've been in a number of keep sieges and haven't crashed once. Maybe you're talking about something else and I'm mistaking, or maybe it's not a universal problem?
um i havent had one crash in two months. can you tell us what server you play on? maybe its your computer or your internet. cuz while i might get lag i never get ctd's
It apparently happens with the FORTRESS seiges. But keep seiges have no problems and are running less slide show since the patch. Which is a great!!
Destruction recently fully sacked Altdorf on Skull Throne and there were no crashes. If your still crashing your either getting a CTD, your system sucks, or its like any other game..patches = (usually) temporary stability issues.
that sacking was 300+ destruction againsta bout 48 - 100 order since many from order (admited on WHA boards) didn't show up figuring it would just crash and cause the siege to reset. Haha sucked to bethem when their city went down and they logged on the next day and had to Pay Taxes to Use the AH, pay taxes to Bank, and pay well extra fees just to train at the Refugee camps rofl :) Sucka's learned that losing your city is a real bitch.
um i havent had one crash in two months. can you tell us what server you play on? maybe its your computer or your internet. cuz while i might get lag i never get ctd's
what the heck are you talking about? crash? ctd? you understand that you are the CLIENT, don't you? it doesn't matter if you run warhammer on a high end PC or on a potatoe, your answer is not relevant. Jpizzle talks about the SERVER stability, and he is right.
I've been in a number of keep sieges and haven't crashed once. Maybe you're talking about something else and I'm mistaking, or maybe it's not a universal problem?
Not Keeps. Fotresses.
I've been on 3 servers. It's happen on all of them. Drifting Castle, Averhiem and Ungrim. I'm one of the few in my guild willing to stick around while they fix it. And I'm only willing to stick around until the end of the year.
Well, lucky for you. It sure isn't eh majority of servers w/ no issues. Ungrim can't field 6 total WBs at the fortress (destro/order combined) w/out the server shitting out on us.
Not Keeps. Fotresses.
I've been on 3 servers. It's happen on all of them. Drifting Castle, Averhiem and Ungrim. I'm one of the few in my guild willing to stick around while they fix it. And I'm only willing to stick around until the end of the year.
ah ok well that sucks hopefully they can fix it before you leave. hey stradden are you order or destro on ironfist? im destro so i was just curios to what you were
The big issue with these ORVR items is that it CALLS OUT FOR ONE SIDE FACTION SERVER !!!
Thus its no longer PVP ! Its 10000 against 1 ..... And you all know what faction is beeing played !
Fortress sieges are prone to crashing -- not client crashes either. So this is only affecting the T4 players. However, since this is the major focus of the game, it's a pretty critical topic. (keeps are fine -- just laggy)
Mythic has provided more incentive to be out in oRvR. However, at T4 they need to *quickly* resolve the stability issues if they want this to be effective for the T4 players. From what I saw last night, the new oRVR influence system was bringing out players in large numbers from both sides in T1 and T2 (didn't have time to check out T3 or T4). Hopefully, it will keep bringing them out regularly.
I'm glad to see content and rewards being worked on but I think the technical folks need to step up to the plate and deliver. It seems like every patch delivers something about "increased stability and performance" but I haven't seen any increase in performance (and I'm well above the minimum spec). Honestly, I don't have the time to do much with the T4 campaign so the fortress issues don't hit me as directly as the do the rest of my guild. But the issues are so aggravating that I'm not sure how many people will stay around if this doesn't get resolved quickly. My limited playtime has reduced me to a more casual player so I can generally keep busy with the T1-3 stuff and only do T4 on the weekends.
Well, lucky for you. It sure isn't eh majority of servers w/ no issues. Ungrim can't field 6 total WBs at the fortress (destro/order combined) w/out the server shitting out on us.
QFT!!! This happens on Ungrim constantly.
Yes stability would be a major improvment for sure. Another thing i wish they had fixed was bright wizzards and Knights of the blazing sun. Because on the Ironfist server those guys are still over powered. So all the patching they did is still not enough to offset the imbalance from all the stat boosts they have.
Well, lucky for you. It sure isn't eh majority of servers w/ no issues. Ungrim can't field 6 total WBs at the fortress (destro/order combined) w/out the server shitting out on us.
I play on Badlands and I've personally never experienced a fortress siege that didn't have the zone crash at some point. It's getting better, last time it was Destro's rush through the fortress door that did it as opposed to it happening before the first door was down and we did in fact finish the siege out after the restart. It's getting better, but even the full on siege we saw from start to finish was in essence a slide show for all involved (this was a problem for everyone so it's not just my less than uber rig)
They need to
delete the GOA from totality of existencefix GOA issues first.So much for this game being less gear dependant....... I mean that was supposed to be one of the boasts before release. What happens to the RvR lakes when people fill the Influence bars and get the gear they want? Then they'll go own everyone in the scenarios with their new "phat loot".
Not quite. It hardly owns anything. It's better, but it won't tip the scale.
The article doesn’t mention one another problem with oRvR compared to Scenarios. Scenarios have more variety. In each Tier you have different Scenarios with capture points or murderballs or other different mechanics. Also the terrain and scenery is different and distinct in each.
From what I’ve seen, keeps sieges all end up being the same. Stand in front of gate, attack gate, charge in and kill NPCs while opposing players try to stop you. The keeps might look different but the layout is the same, just different number of gates. Once inside the keep it’s the same - one bottom room, one stairway, one side door, one top room, same keep lord with same guards.
There needs to be more variety of mechanics and layouts for each individual keep. You should feel like each keep is unique, not just a copy of every other one you’ve already seen with a different skin. There should be distinct mechanics for each keep - falling boulders, exploding armories or whatever.
Dungeon bosses each get their own unique personalities and need different tactics. Scenarios have their own unique personalities and need different tactics. oRvR keeps don’t have any real personalities and attacking them always feels the same. Giving Keep lords distinct mechanics doesn't help because those get lost in the zerg that streamrolls them once that gate is down. It should be the keeps themselves that are made to be unique.
I'd like to do more oRvR rather than Scenarios. Better rewards will help but it already feels that after having done several keep sieges, it's all pretty much the same. I have different Tactic abilities set up for based on which Scenarios I get into. I have yet to see any need to use different tactics when attacking a keep. Mythic should make attacking a new keep as unique as entering a new scenario.
I agree with every fucking thing you just said. There needs to be some variety and special mechanics for each keep, just like there is for each scenario!!! Give us some falling boulders at the keep in bad lands, or maybe some exploding dwarf armories at a keep in kadrin valley!! Something so that each keep isn't the same shit! I haven't got to T4 to experience the stability issues , but mythic used to have HUGE battles in DAOC i'm talking hundreds vs hundreds, so they need to get that shit fixed quick.
Ok, while I understand people getting frustrated about the fortresses crashing, they only crash when there are over 500 plus people in that small zone. That being said, do you really think that Mythic is just twiddling its thumbs hoping you won't think about the crashes? Give me a break and stop the griping, let the company work on this and practically have to invent new technological coding for their servers to handle this many frigging people. Even consoles can't handle this amount, not even the PS3 with that new M.A.G game coming, that still only supports 265 players in a zone at once.
While I agree with you, I can already see the counter-argument. People are going to flock to a particular Keep because 1) It's the "easiest", 2) It has the "coolest" effect, etc. That's why you're stuck grinding certain scenarios over others, because people like those the most. While I agree there needs to be some variety (the easiest thing Mythic can do is add destructible wall sections, or ladders...give melee some more purpose other than banging away at the door...siege towers?? There's alot of possibilities, they had them in DAoC...), I think you can't change things too much. People will just have to take Keeps because they're important to zone control, not because it's their favorite.
Good post though.
As for Mythic, I think this is a step in the right direction, and I heard him mention it's only one of the many changes coming for oRvR. I predict 1) More ways to take/defend a Keep, and 2) MORE INCENTIVE FOR DEFENDING STUFF! There HAS to be more motivation to the defend the Keep and the BO, and the Influence is just a start.
what the heck are you talking about? crash? ctd? you understand that you are the CLIENT, don't you? it doesn't matter if you run warhammer on a high end PC or on a potatoe, your answer is not relevant. Jpizzle talks about the SERVER stability, and he is right.
keep your pants on little girl i now know what he was talking about since i re read it. my mistake it was in the morning when i read it and i read it wrong. still doesnt apply to me i really havent run into that issue yet at all. maybe better manners might get you futher in life rather than coming on here to bitch after getting off your shift at mcdonalds tho
Excellent point. Mythic was able to rotate Scenario queues to direct players into every scenario even if some were more popular. That can't be done with oRvR. Or can it?
How about this - Have a unique monster/boss spawn around a random keep or BO in each Pairing - A dragon flies down or a giant appears, or some kind of special programmed 'event' that occurs at the randomly selected keeps with (and this is CRTIICAL) a Tier-wide announcement.
People will see that something special is happening at keep X and that will draw players. You can have the mob/events occur simultaneously at keeps in different pairings in the same Tier to spread players out and give them a tactical choice about which they want to go to.
This could at least add more variety and it might allow the unique keep designs if the mobs offer rewards to draw players to less 'popular' keeps when they randomly are selected. Perhaps after killing the unique mob, players are given a buff that will increase their rewards if they *then* take the keep so players will try even less popular ones for the better rewards (and because they're already there).
Apart from the lack of variety, the problem with oRvR is that the game relies on players wandering around and finding each other. Some way for the game to direct players into the same area (like we saw with the Halloween PQ) would help a great deal.
Ow really? Go read and get a clue.
Nice action last night on kep.
Destro is still complaining?!? It's not enough that you overpopulate order on almost every server 2:1. You must have a total blowout by having superior mirrors also.
my feeling is the biggest problem war has is that it feels dead even on a good server because people spend a lot of time doing the scenarios . the best way to sort this is to reduce the amount of influence you get from doing this and totally end any kind of experiance points that allow you to level your character . this way players would have to do open rvr and pve to get anywhere . the game has been little more than a glorified version of team fortress , i think this patch goes some way towards changing that but not far enough. it also now desperatly needs a free trial to lure new players in.
Its a sick joke?, destro player is complaining about order being owerpowered, lests think: squig herder much beter than shadow warior, maruder beter than white lion, witch elf vs witch hunter i will not coment how much better dps hawe de female ower our witch hunter. Tanks more less equal, we hawe ib destro hawe bo. Sorc and bw are now close to compare in dps after last bw nerf. And whining about Kotbs and its on your guard aura, i dont think 100 dmg will kill somone on 40lv ad yes this aura do not stack. Not saying that on almost all serw destro hawe more numbers than order
With the new changes to the Open RVR system, action has been non-stop ! I can't explain to you how much fun its been the past 48 hrs unless you have been playing.
I made a new toon and i've had more fun in the Tier 1 RVR areas today then at anytime previously in Warhammer. I was just plain giddy today. There were zergs, 2 on 1's , 1 on 1's , just every combination of battles you can think of. Groups attacking different objectives, running back and forth. It was insane and this is only in the Tier 1 area !!
Today was the best PVP experience i've had in an MMO since server wars in Ultima Online. I'm so glad I stuck it out and put faith in the potential this game had to offer. I have full confidence they will continue to improve the game. Learning from mistakes and tweaking all aspects to make us all happy.
Finally I have an MMO I can enjoy for awhile.
Cheers
"That’s why players just love hitting that button and going into scenarios. "
Oh yeah, I really "love" hitting that f..king button. Last time I had the opportunity and time for that joy, I waited two f..king hours in queue, with my heart filled with pleasure. I logged off after hose two hours, but dont you dare to think it was out of boredom, it was because I couldnt stand the powerful stream of joy from the game. Pity me.
Ive been on my t2 character and been having great nonstop ORvR action for the past few days, its been great!
In the past few days, ive seen more t2 keep sieges than in the rest of the time this game has been out.
Had a few 50v50 battles at keeps, it was insane. Having a line of 4-5 tanks at the open keep door blocking the 30+ enemy from coming in, while hot oil is being poured on them all
Was getting tired of WAR but now im back into the game thx to the new action in the RvR lakes.
Mythic has my respect for that
I am having so much frikking fun since the patched launched! Orvr is so fun now, when you hear ppl shouting in regional chat " is there any orvr going on?" and the answer is " Yes but the warband is full" keeps popping up you know there alot of fun. When fullwarbands stand rdy and you look back and see a horde of Order comming at you and think "oh shit!" that is whats got me to thinking this is a awsome game. And i havent crashed yet and the orvr isent laggy after i did remove all the spell animation exept my own. You know all the glitter and stuff when you cast spells.
And all that + i get infamty for doing open rvr and can get awsome gear for defending or taking over keeps is just great. Like im beeing rewarded for having fun
Thats just how i feel about the patch!
Well, fixing RvR is a step in the right direction, but I still think it's too little. Why do I want to run to a keep and get equal rewards as I do when grinding scenarios? Might as well grind scenarios instead. Faster and easier. Mythic is missing the whole bloody point here. Offer greater rewards and make it as easy to get to the rvr lakes as it is to enter a scenario queue. People will always choose the path of least resistance. It's the same in all mmo's. Got a few other issues too with the game, but they don't belong in this thread.
Great point man... Mythic did/has missed the point. One of the reasons I retired the game to the shelf.
Rewards? Its not about gear or rewards, its about competing against another side to accomplish something. You 2 should stick with a SOLO RPG or something if you don't get the point.
A lot of people dont need the rewards, we just need the thrill of PVP. Glad you both left the game, you have the wrong attitude. Go grind elsewhere, we play in WAR !!!
Rewards? Its not about gear or rewards, its about competing against another side to accomplish something. You 2 should stick with a SOLO RPG or something if you don't get the point.
A lot of people dont need the rewards, we just need the thrill of PVP. Glad you both left the game, you have the wrong attitude. Go grind elsewhere, we play in WAR !!!
That is where you are wrong my angry little friend. Most people do it for the rewards, not the thrill of pvp. You are in a sad minority I'm afraid. Even in other mmo's where you got 1 side against the other people do it for the rewards, be it a global bonus or personal gains/profits. That some find it fun is just an extra bonus. If you don't stand to lose or gain something, then what is the point of it all? It's at the core of all conflict.
That is where you are wrong my angry little friend. Most people do it for the rewards, not the thrill of pvp. You are in a sad minority I'm afraid. Even in other mmo's where you got 1 side against the other people do it for the rewards, be it a global bonus or personal gains/profits. That some find it fun is just an extra bonus. If you don't stand to lose or gain something, then what is the point of it all? It's at the core of all conflict.
OK I don't play this game but coming from a multitude of PvP experiences I'd say he is right on that PvP is not about *spits* 'rewards'. The reward comes in the form of WINNING!. PvP oriented titles are NOT about grinding for rediculous amounts of gear but about crushing your enemy! The only CRPG I've played (forclose to 3 yrs) is guildwars and countless hours of GvG had not a damn thing to do with 'rewards'. WAR is about the pride that cmoes with the defeating those that apose you. If that's not your thing then go grind gear in countless other games.
BTW they only reason I don't play WAR is because the PvE is weak. LOL Who'd a thought. :)
Warhammer PVP these days?
"You are disabled, you are disabled, you are disabled, you are knocked down, you are disabled, you are disabled, you are disabled, you are knocked down, you are stunned, you are dead".
Too much crowd control is what Warhammer is, and this patch hasn't truly helped ORVR because of the reduced exp and renown gains after a player is killed.
The zone control is still bad, and the best way to prevent someone from locking a zone is to not show up. You don't give them kills for victory points, and that's lame.
Fortress fights just need to be taken out of the game. I don't know what server the editor is playing on, but on Azazel we've crashed the fortress since the 1.1 patch. Its crazy to see a lot of hard work go to waste when that happens, or the fortress fight is so laggy that no one can get anything done in under 60 minutes.
This game still has major problems on many levels.
That is where you are wrong my angry little friend. Most people do it for the rewards, not the thrill of pvp. You are in a sad minority I'm afraid. Even in other mmo's where you got 1 side against the other people do it for the rewards, be it a global bonus or personal gains/profits. That some find it fun is just an extra bonus. If you don't stand to lose or gain something, then what is the point of it all? It's at the core of all conflict.
OK I don't play this game but coming from a multitude of PvP experiences I'd say he is right on that PvP is not about *spits* 'rewards'. The reward comes in the form of WINNING!. PvP oriented titles are NOT about grinding for rediculous amounts of gear but about crushing your enemy! The only CRPG I've played (forclose to 3 yrs) is guildwars and countless hours of GvG had not a damn thing to do with 'rewards'. WAR is about the pride that cmoes with the defeating those that apose you. If that's not your thing then go grind gear in countless other games.
BTW they only reason I don't play WAR is because the PvE is weak. LOL Who'd a thought. :)
Well, I pvp'd alot in Anarchy Online in it's glory days. There we got what was called tower fields and we could set up towers of our own that gave us various ingame bonuses. The side that had most of those fields got the better global bonus too, xp in this case. It was a bundle of fun but in the end I protected those tower fields cause I didn't wanted to lose the tower bonus cause of equipment I twinked on my toon. In other words I pvp'd for my own gain, and so did most of the other people in that game. On another note, AO had the best pvp drama I've ever seen in a mmo
One of the other games I spent an ungodly amount of time in, WoW had the same personal goal concerning pvp. You pvp'd to get better gear, to get better gear, to get better gear, to get better gear, to get better gear....ok, I'll stop now.
In WAR I did the same, so did alot of other players. We pvp'd in scenarios to level relatively fast and easy not for pride of winning or whatever lofty goal some of you have convinced yourself you got while pvp'ing. That is one of the reasons why scenario grinding is such a big problem in this game. Endgame is a whole another chapter concerning pvp though and I never got to that before I put the game on the shelf to rest and mature a bit.
Anyway, my thoughts on the matter. Calling GW a mmo is a stretch aswell. It's more like a competitive online multiplayer game like Team Fortress 2 or what Fury was and got some fundamental differences from traditional mmo's and is hardly comparable. In those I pvp for the fun of it.
The only encouraging thing I took from that interview was that they will consider making servers without scenarios in the future. I dont think I am alone in saying that when that happens I will resubscribe for a month to see if its any better. In the meantime however I dont feel its worth my time or money to play this dead empty open world game where everyone stands around waiting for a scenario to pop.