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Your flavor of PvP
Findariel
Member UncommonPosts: 222
Hi all,
After playing mmorpgs (and other games) for years now I was wondering why some games have one kind of PvP while others have a very different idea of how PvP should be. It can have a huge influence on the player population, especially in PvP centered games like WAR.
I distinguish 3 types of PvP:
1. Equal teams: like you encounter in for instance Guildwars. As everyone has access to all skills and armors and the winner is based on team tactics, player skill and teamwork.
2. Unequal teams: like for instance WAR RvR battles or EVE fleet battles. The outcome of the battle is usually determined by sheer numbers and player skill and teamwork are but minor aspects.
3. Gear team battles: like (sometimes) WoW battlegrounds, WAR scenarios. The teams are the same size and roughly have the same level but gear differences can make a huge difference.
* I won't include world PvP as it's the same in every game; numbers and level differences will always be major aspects in this.
Now I wonder what's the average mmorpg player's preference in this? And why? Notice that the rewards aren't included in this; the fact that most games give rewards for your battleground participation but GW or EVE don't shouldn't have any impact on your votes, it's a completely seperate issue.
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
Comments
I'm into all kinds of PvP but my personal preference would be unequal teams. When fighting the enemy and being outnumbered gives me an adrenaline rush heh.
I remember in DAoC old frontiers running around with a 8 man group, looking for those huge zergs. Even if we were able to kill only 15-20 of them, it was still lots of fun! Or in UO, luring blues to the house i had built near Yew gate then kill & loot them:P
For me, open world PvP is the key to enjoyment. I've played WoW for 5 years and while i enjoyed raiding, I never got any satisfaction out of running BGs.
Meh gear differences and numbers aren't really challenging, well in World PvP it's ok of course because we're not all the same level. But WAR gear differences are horrible, I'm not surprised so many people quit because the gear grind is a chore and is to the advantage of the unemployed no-lifers who can play 24/7 in their parent's basement! :P.
I didn't know what to say so I chose all PvP equally.
I really love World PvP the most. I love the shock factor that happens when you ambush someone who wasn't even thinking of PvP because they had their mind on something else. I love the tension that rises up afterwards after they're ready to fight. I love how more players start showing up and then the fight starts going back and forth. It gets crazy and random. It takes place all over the place. People of all levels but generally the same.
I get upset sometimes how world PvP can get ruined by a max level cap player coming in and ruining the natural balance of things in lowbie zone areas. Warhammer tried to fix it by turning high levels into chickens, but if you had a lower level friend it meant you can't play with them anymore.
I really just love uncoordinated and unorganized PvP the most.
Coordinated & organized PvP is fun too but I don't know I just like spontaneous unpredictable pvp with relatively balanced sides more.
Warhammer RvR seemed to be about fighting your enemies until they retreat to their spawn. I never got why Mythic didn't allow us to destroy their towns.
WoW arenas always got boring to me.
WoW Battlegrounds were random at times but premades always began to screw things up. Same thing happened in WAR Scenarios when premades figured out how to stomp PUGs over and over.
As for Guild Wars equal pvp... I never got to try the guild vs. guild unfortunately. But I did play Random Arenas a LOT. I loved randoms. It just sucked how teams with a monk would normally win. I think that ArenaNet should have created a matching system that if your team doesn't have a monk it won't make you fight one that does if it can help it maybe.
Well these were my favourites. In random arenas or 4 vs 4 premade GW or lvl20-29 CTF in WoW with equal teams (even though I had a twink, if the other side had an equal number the teams were still balanced). I loved GW's different maps and I loved the CTF part of WoW BGs, too bad GW only had "last man standing" and WoW only had one map.
Long (45-100 minutes) and very close battles where the outcome was really determined by teamplay, coordination and individual playerskill were by far the best PvP experiences I had thus far.
So I voted "Equal Teams".
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
I like objective PvP as well as Team Deathmatch PvP.
I only like pure deathmatch (free for all) if its in a FPS game since bias is everywhere. Team Deathmatch PvP tends to have more structural maps for players to enjoy themselves.
Now what I do despise about PvP is when a game is made oriented around PvP to the point you are forced into it and the PvE experience gets wiped out. If I wanted a game that was 100% PvP, that is what FPS games are for. ^_^
I voted Unequal Teams.
PvP is only interesting to me when it feels like participating in a war. Arena matches feel to "gamey" to me.
I play for immersion in a virtual world not to demonstrate my twitch skills. I like the immersion that comes from a realistic strategy of arranging to have the strongest possible military force at the right place at the right time to achieve victory.
Equal terms sound so right and correct. But the most laidback and entertaining pvp I have taken part in, was when I hung out for hours in Diablo 2, chit chatting and discussing gear and fighting both big and small.
All this all equal all one on one, has done little but create frustration and make people take a game serious, when in reality it's blatantly unimportant.
Random, sporadic open-world PvP is the best. I never understaood games like GW where everyone was equal. Might as well play a FPS if I wanted that. The point in a RPG to me, is to get better skills and equipment to get a better character to kill others with. Anything less that that destroys the key aspects of playing a MMORPG in my mind.
I wish devs would stop trying to combine PvP styles with PvE styles too. They need an all or nothing game. Either you have open PvP or no PvP, not a combination of the two and switches you turn on and off and areas you do or don't go. You can't balance a game from the design aspect if you're constantly siwtching between the PvE play and the PvP play.
Hard-core, open world PvP or "carebear" PvE. That's really the only question there should be without any conditions thrown in.
Come on people, we need more votes!
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
It depends on mood, but most of the times I like my oponenets to be equal.
But on laid back sunday evenings, I just wanna join some large group, and go hunt and beat the **** out of small ungeared grups
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I am all about Guild Wars style pvp, everyone has access to all skills and all equipment, leaving strategy and how good your build is to determine the victor.
I have played pvp in loads of other mmos but nothing quite matches up to Guild Wars for me.
Just 18 votes? Come on people, voice your opinion - or at least vote!
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
Just 23 votes? You can do better !
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
I would love to vote in this thread, but unfortunately, I don't understand half of the options. "Gear Teams".....wtf is a gear team? A team wearing gear? Well I should hope ALL teams wear gear......I mean.....wtf???
Make your poll clearer and I will gladly vote.
EDIT: Sorry if I sound snippy. I am a bit crabby. Please excuse.
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I enjoy all kinds of pvp so long as the underlying mechanics are handled well within the game.
I do though think Option 2 needs fleshing out or dropping completely as that is effectively open world pvp and a large part of the 'skill' comes in the organisation of it.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I voted that I like all types of PvP equally. I prefer open world PvP with factions because it is more unpredictable, but I also enjoy instanced PvP as long as there are no queues (i.e. hot joinable servers like in online shooters). I prefer equal gear and teams, but some of my most memorable moments during PvP were overcoming the odds.
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Warfare/Conquest gameplay. A preference for PVP combat like EVE's, UO's or Puzzle Pirates isn't necessarily a preference for uneven teams but for warfare gameplay as opposed to arena sports.
Didn't vote, as the poll has a very strange set of choices.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
EVE PvP outcome is not determined by size. EVE is a game that has proven MANY, COUNTLESS times that small groups of organized players can take out much larger groups.
'Blobs' are common, but often lose all the same. To say that skill and player teamwork are a 'minor' part of EVE's PvP is flat out wrong, and uninformed. EVE's PvP is the definition of teamwork.
Your poll choices are far too broad, and your descriptions of certain game's PvPs are simply an outsider's perspective.
I like PVP area's and Arenas and normal instanced matches, where the rest of the world is non PVP. Duelling upon request.
What I would like to see is MMO Arena fighting. I'd like other players to be able to bet on player fighters and watch the match, sorta like in Oblivion except it would be MMO. Y'know the whole arena scenario except it's MMO.
Add another level to that and let me train a warrior or whatever for an arena and they fight on their own or I can control them.
I can watch and bet on other players. Y'know, choice.
Godspeed my fellow gamer
my option wasnt there so i will tell you.
I like open world PVP i like being able to fight from level 1. I want no safe places on the map what so ever ( not even towns ). some looting but not full loot nobody wants to run around naked.
I like pvp were more skill is involved instead of gear and levels.
and no carebear flagging system either let the players police their own server.