I think the issue is not that PvP as a game mechanic is a bad thing. It's how it's implemented. There will always be a group of people in these games who live for nothing more than to grief the players who just want to play the friggen game and have a good time. PvP should come with disadvantages. For instance, in the real world, if you walk up to someone wearing a coat or pair of shoes you want and you kill him for them, you have commited murder and, in cases where the death penalty is in effect, you get put to death. End of story. Because there's no penalty within the game as severe as permadeath for your character, or any other meaningful consequence for that matter, you have to contend with people PKing you just for the lulz of it all. Might be fun for the PKers, but it's certainly no fun for the guy who just wants to go out and experience the game world.
This is why there is such an insistence for PvE. You can't change people's attitudes and developers seem to be unable or unwilling to implement meaningful consequences for PKers. Better to have a non PvP environment if you can't depend on individuals' sense of right and wrong in a game world.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
PvP encourages people to relate to each other... as enemies or as allies.
I have seen in several games attempts to generate 'RP/PvE servers' and 'PvP servers' however each time they do it I find that RP is more prevalent on the PvP server where people care about what the person next to them is doing. I believe that the other problem with 'RP/PvE servers' is that it actually encourages cowardice by attracting those type of people that like to kill or insult people then laugh that they can get away without penalty On a 'PvP server' you insult someone at your own cost, only idiots or the very powerful risk making lots of enemies, thereby encouraging constructive RP.
Personally I would rather have servers called'no safe zone server' and'safe zone server', then leave how much RP happens to the players.
Comments
I think the issue is not that PvP as a game mechanic is a bad thing. It's how it's implemented. There will always be a group of people in these games who live for nothing more than to grief the players who just want to play the friggen game and have a good time. PvP should come with disadvantages. For instance, in the real world, if you walk up to someone wearing a coat or pair of shoes you want and you kill him for them, you have commited murder and, in cases where the death penalty is in effect, you get put to death. End of story. Because there's no penalty within the game as severe as permadeath for your character, or any other meaningful consequence for that matter, you have to contend with people PKing you just for the lulz of it all. Might be fun for the PKers, but it's certainly no fun for the guy who just wants to go out and experience the game world.
This is why there is such an insistence for PvE. You can't change people's attitudes and developers seem to be unable or unwilling to implement meaningful consequences for PKers. Better to have a non PvP environment if you can't depend on individuals' sense of right and wrong in a game world.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
PvP encourages people to relate to each other... as enemies or as allies.
I have seen in several games attempts to generate 'RP/PvE servers' and 'PvP servers' however each time they do it I find that RP is more prevalent on the PvP server where people care about what the person next to them is doing. I believe that the other problem with 'RP/PvE servers' is that it actually encourages cowardice by attracting those type of people that like to kill or insult people then laugh that they can get away without penalty On a 'PvP server' you insult someone at your own cost, only idiots or the very powerful risk making lots of enemies, thereby encouraging constructive RP.
Personally I would rather have servers called 'no safe zone server' and 'safe zone server', then leave how much RP happens to the players.