The Joys of World PvP

. . . or rather, the unrelenting frustrations with it.

I don’t know what kind of gamer “World PvP” exactly caters to since most of them that literally demand it be present in their MMOs are the first ones to complain about getting “ganked” or “camped”. I’ve never personally enjoyed World PvP and I especially despise forced World PvP. However, I am very involved with instanced PvP in MMOs, much in the sense of Battlegrounds, Arenas, and so forth. I find this sort of gameplay much, much more appealing for the simple reason that it is overwhelmingly more balanced.

World PvP is never balanced. Regardless of what anyone argues, I have been playing MMOs long enough to remember the “good ole days” of PvP back in Ultima Online and original EQ, and World PvP is not balanced. I have never experienced such a phenomenon as World PvP ever before in gaming. On one hand it is utterly despised by nearly every single gamer I have ever met (for one reason or another) while simultaneously being blindly and quite loudly embraced by those very same people. The most common argument is that the sides are never even. This is almost always true and in the event the sides are ever even, they are quickly unbalanced once one side starts winning and the other side calls in “backup”. That really isn’t a show of skill, it’s a show of how many PvP crazed gamers you can convince to come help you overwhelm other PvP crazed gamers.

The next problem is ganking, and yes, it is a problem. The problem with open World PvP is that about 50% of the so-called “PvP” that happens is between someone of level “A” and someone of level “A times 5 with better gear than you can ever hope to imagine having”. And trust me, as soon as I am high enough to actually “gank noobs”, I’m right there with you. Now, by itself that isn’t a problem, but in fact a game mechanic. It teaches you early on in the game to hate the opposing faction and the players on that side and creates more animosity for high level PvP between them. It purposefully creates a reason for the players to want to PvP; to get revenge for all the times they were just questing and got insta-killed by someone they probably didn’t even see coming. The problem lies in the fact that the people getting ganked are new players. Gamers that may or may not continue playing the game, and “getting ganked” is a big part of that decision. So, when having only World PvP in an MMO, you alienate literally hundreds, if not thousands, of players from your game rather quickly while the power gamers get their quick fix to satisfy their own superiority complex.

I can’t completely bash World PvP though. I have personally experienced some truly unique moments in some very fun PvP in many different games. However, the majority of it is simply a lesson in getting bullied and beaten by those you can’t really compete with. That isn’t really fun. Actually, let me rephrase that. That isn’t really fun, for anyone except the bully.

I guess I can say to game designers, specifically MMO designers, is to have World PvP be an option. Or at the very least have “Normal” or “PvE” servers with optional World PvP. Personally, I’ve started playing exclusively on PvE servers for the simple reason that it eliminates the temptation of spending my free time in the lowbie zones slaughtering everything that moves. It also removes the need to have my “main” logged out wherever I happen to be questing on my alts (just in case I get on the receiving end of the stick). It’s easier to quest too, because you aren’t constantly being pulled into ultimately pointless battles, running back to your corpse or running back to your quest mobs, looking over your shoulder, getting camped, cursing at the screen . . . you get the drift.

It is just . . . many, many gamers do not like World PvP (many do, as well), and continuing to make games that force it on people is insanity (doing the same thing and expecting different results). Having only optional PvP won’t ruin the game for PvPers since they will be constantly taking that option, but having forced PvP ruins the game for those that don’t really want to get involved. It’s a matter of choice; having a choice is always better than having no option. When you remove options, you remove the possibility of different gamers enjoying the game in different ways.