PvP as a Requirement
Observe the reviews–in magazines, on websites, on television. Many find common ground when citing the drawbacks in modern MMOGs: the lack of Player-versus-Player combat. In nearly all early WoW vs. EQII comparisons, for example, EQII lost out in one category consistently: PvP. In order to remain competitive in the massively multiplayer market, I believe it is necessary that virtual worlds implement some form of PvP combat in their world.
The ultimate feeling of combat-oriented achievement comes from defeating another player or players in combat. Sure, there are complex AI routines or difficult raid mobs that can be faced, but challenges are created in MMOGs to be overcome. The one thing that can’t be overcome by mere strategy, planning, and experience is the defeat of a fellow player. Players are smart. Discovering that you are smarter or more skillful than another player is a major stroke to the ego, and it really gets the heart pumping.
That leaves us in an interesting quandary: How do you integrate PvP into a PvE-centric environment? How do you create a PvP system that can coexist with PvE without having any effect on the PvE game? Is it possible to make PvP desirable without having any impact whatsoever on PvE? Is it possible to make an interesting PvP mechanic without dedicating many resources to it? I believe the answer to all of these questions is “yes” (except the questions in which that answer is not valid, in which case I would answer “you can do eet”).
Most games are not going to be designed from the ground-up for PvP . Most games are PvE games at heart. Whether they are item-centric, based on character advancement, or involve other forms of achievement, PvP doesn’t generally meld well with a PvE game.
Unfortunately, many players have developed an overwhelming sense of adversity to the very concept of PvP–whether that’s based on prior experience or simply feeling threatened by it, it’s hard to say. In a conversation with Aggro Me, he pointed something out that piqued my interest and let me to the following hypothesis:
Players may not be adverse to the concept of PvP’s existence, but instead by bad gameplay experiences or the likely subconscious desire for the comfort zone that lies within predictable AI.
Is that true? That’s a topic that probably deserves an article of its own, so I won’t delve deep into it here. Nevertheless, I do feel there is some merit in this hypothesis. It may be that players want to have control over their circumstance–the introduction of PvP removes that element of control and adds a random variable that could prove harmful to their character’s well-being. Maybe some players like fighting AI because they know they can overcome the challenges presented by it, but I’m in the boat that feels the additional challenge presented by other PCs is where the real fun lies.
The integration of Player-versus-Player combat in a majority of virtual worlds does not need to be part of the core of the game. I do feel, however, that features such as dueling or PvP arenas add much greater market appeal to nearly any PvE-based game. And players expect it. Many players, like me, enjoy the wholly different feel of gameplay that PvP presents, and desire the ability to test our PvE characters’ mettle against human opponents. I already know I can own any NPC that the game was designed to let me own, but I’m not entirely confident that I can take every player out there mano a mano.
The PvP component of most MMOGs can remain limited: It should be more like a competitive sport than warfare. It must be easy to develop, cost-effective, and kept very simple overall. Most importantly, it must be fun. After all, isn’t that what we’re after? Fun. Presenting as many options to allow as many people to have fun playing our games. Player-versus-Player combat is one of many pathways to fun, and it’s one that players have come to expect in massively multiplayer games.
I’m going to give you two experiences in two games which put me off PvP for the longest time (now i’m an avid fan but it took literally years).
1. Asheron’s Call. Darktide. I thought “sure! why not!”. Logged in, created a toon, did my first mission, went to the shop to sell the loot. I was Level1. Killed instantly by a Level93 mage stood in the shop doorway. Rezzed at the Lifestone. Tried again. Dead within 60 seconds. It became impossible to actually start the game so i, like most, gave up.
2. SWG. I decide to follow SOlo’s route of getting Imperial training before going full-time neutral smuggler (this was before JtL, i had no clue but nor did anyone else. Shoot me for expecting some kind of consistant design when i should have just been grinding jedi as the designers wanted). So, i take a mission. I go out there, shoot the rebel commando, head back to the mission terminal. Nothing had changed for me at all. I was something like Marksman 0402 at the time.
Get the the terminal, guy in perfectly ordinary clothes is there who shows blue on my radar. Blam, i’m dead. And sneered at for it, too. He was listed as a Teras Kasi Master. I had acquired a “TEF”, a temporary enemy flag. It didn’t show to me.
Now, at the time i remember being outraged. No indication to me at all that this would happen. I wouldn’t have minded if i’d got to the terminal and a rebel in rebel armour had killed me for wasting his comrade but some jerk in underpants and a cold-weather hat who showed Blue to me?
The point of all this is – PvP is fantastic. If a) you’re expecting it and b) it’s fair. lvl1 vs lvl93 is patently unfair. Master TK vs Clueless n00b is also patently unfair (and worse because the n00b was never aware it could happen).
Level games are simply never going to supply a satisfying PvP experience. Most people get used to the PvE when they start (and would die as i did in PvP) and therefore PvP becomes the Elder Game requiring months of pointless grinding to even think of competing. I have my own ideas on changing this. Doubtless you have yours.
There is another take on PvP that you should consider. The dedicated PvP MMOG. There are a few out there, but foremost in my mind would be Planetside.
Planetside started with such great promise. I was hooked into in the last weeks of it’s open beta. This was, and remains to this day, the ONLY game I’ve ever “Paid to Play”. Before Planetside, I mocked anyone who actually paid a monthly fee to play a video game. But Planetside changed all that.
The massive battles with tanks, buggies, and aircraft zooming all around while footsoldiers swarmed across open fields in a hail of laser fire was more than enough to get me to shell out 12 bucks a month. And I stayed on for more than a year.
I’d be there now, if Planetside hadn’t fallen victim to the Nerfbat. Each faction complain endlessly about the strengths of the others weapons. And the devs eventually relented into nerfing each and every weapon, one after the other.
The devs also made the original blunder of giving too many abilities to individual soldiers. After level 12 or 13, you simply became a swiss-army-knife. The equivilent of a warrior/mage/theif/cleric. There was no real inter-dependance on other players. It degraded into a massive game of team deathmatch.
And then the robots came. Big mechs that gave a single soldier massive firepower. Nobody drove tanks and jeeps anymore because they relied on teamwork and didn’t have the firepower the mechs did. That’s when I called it quits.
The moral of this story is that there IS a place for a dedicated PvP MMOG, but it must offer more that you can get from quake, halo, and half-life. I went in looking to become part of a persistent team and came out just another burned out zergling.
D-Gen
In order to remain competitive in the massively multiplayer market, I believe it is necessary that virtual worlds implement some form of PvP combat in their world.
There’s more to this. PvP is required not on a personal preference or selling point, but because PvP is the essential nature and potential of these games. Instead of just being a drift of the single-player/cooperative style.
In particular one of the biggest problems for every mmorpg is to keep up with the production of new content. This is an hot topic today.
The PvP is the best possibility available to have that “satisfying repetable content” that today is still an utopia.
So, in the case it’s possible to reach that myth, it becomes a need for the industry even before it is a need for the players.
[...] PvP as a Requirement [...]
[...] PvP as a Requirement [...]
This is a great read, and I’m glad I found this sight.
A game that integrates pvp with a dynamic world, will create an ever replenishing source of end game content.
In its later stages, Shadowbane made a valiant effort to create such a game world.
Initially Shadowbane touched on dynamic game worlding by allowing the players to stake a claim to territory by dropping a seed, building a city, hiring merchants, and building defenses around their “flag”. This was itself a bold step forward, however it fell short, as one of my rl friends that tried the game pointed out “ok you’ve got a kick ass R7 tree city with full merchants and double walls, but why would anyone care to ever attack it?” The cities initially held no strategic value beyond replenishing your guild with equipment fromt he merchants housed within.
The game had to evolve quickly, and this is where most agree the developer failed. Resources were the logical next step, but it took far too deliver and the majority of the player base moved on.
With resources, Shadowbane created a high end content, in a limited form, that was not only desired by players, but exclusively controlled by player guilds. Suddenly you have a reason to square off on the field of battle nightly, to gain control of rare resources that hold the key to crafting all high end gear. Resources were the key component to crafting the truly epic gear that all players, in every game, eventually want.
The player guild conflicts and politics that developed around the struggle for obsidian(the rarest and most valued of the resources) outshined any high level quest content or story line you could hope to code into your PVE world. And the best part is that this content that evolves from player guild conflict and politics is extremely dynamic, recycling itself, renewing interest of the players through grudges, betrayals, and allegiances.
The social dynamic of the community is the most powerful source of content, and harnessing that dynamic should be the ultimate challenge for any developer. That social dynamic cannot realize itself if it is overly restricted(ie non pvp game worlds). Player conflict must have a way to manifest itself for the social dynamic to thrive, and the logical manifestation of player conflict is pvp.
PVP indeed is a requirement.
Great points, Thomas. I have a post planned about recursive content created by PvP conflict, political struggle, and social standing, and you covered most of the points I planned on touching in yours. I’ll still write it when I get back to the whole epic PvP commentary series, but I’ll basically regurgitate what you just said in my own words.
” I was Level1. Killed instantly by a Level93 mage ”
here we have the classic example from the mmorg FLOCK ;
Its 1st mistake was in NOT reading the warning label when logging into the DarkTide server.
Its 2nd mistake, the apparent LACK of common sense that the gawds gave a desert bunny.
( run away from town, its a PvP world. )
20% of any population will be preditors,
80% are sheep, armor hording crafters .,
who’s only knowledge of PvP is that of a tourist.
UNfortunitly, the 80% weld the power of subscription money.
and the weakness of developers is to cave to the dollars.
Its natural selection. $$ > PvP > o.0
like the archer mage warrior formula…
PvP draws the interest, o.0 come and bring in the revenue,
but they dilute the PvP that was the draw in the 1st place.
There in lies the problem, bringing back the Interest to a MMORG
is like trying to earn someone’s trust back after you have lied to them.
Saddly 7 years later, developers have yet to learn from mmorgs or PvP.
The promise of PvP lures them in and disappointment as layer upon layer of
Nerf, safe zone, and no drop dilutes the very point of PvP.
Developers continue to water down the actual abilities of players to attack other players.
And continue to reward the apethetic and lazy, NOT ONE mmorg in 7 years has had
any PvP to even equal that of the DarkTide server in year one and two.
Shadowbane was a dismal failure, promising PvP and neglecting Individuals,
in favor of usless guild mechanics. Shadowbane’s death was in catering to the 80%
and turning its back on PvP. It continues to falter, wallowing in misguided industry concepts
about what is or is not PvP …. well gentlemen the bottom line is the PvP player base,
which you REFUSE to listen to, and whom have left for good.
PvP is about player skill, NOT point and click combat,
PvP is about knowing strengths and weaknesses ,
of your skillz and weapons, and your opponet.
PvP is about using common sense, and tactics.
PvP is about survival skillz, and practice.
It is NOT about, easy kills, or game balance, or safe zones and no drops.
PvP is about white knuckeled excitement of battle,
knowing that there is Risk and a consequence for that risk.
Any REAL DarkTider will tell you, they have never be as alert about their
gaming environment than when they were running to a town vendor on DarkTide.
Cael was not prepared to pay the price for his risk.
eh did NOT read the warning label when logging into the server.
In a PvP world, just existing is a combat situation.
Set the players free, they will create their own content and conflicts.
“Greifing” of “farmers” and powerlevelers should be encouraged.