Welcome to the 7th Edition of Lifetap

Random babble for your MMO gamer brain

Large-scale PvP can be a pretty awesome sight to behold. It always surprises me that relatively few MMO developers have made it a staple of gameplay, but that’s slowly begun to change over the past couple of years. PlanetSide 2 and Guild Wars 2 in particular have helped remind us why these massive battles between three opposing factions can be so much fun in the first place.

Following in the footsteps of these juggernauts – and more directly in the spirit of the original RvR of Dark Age of Camelot – Elder Scrolls Online will feature a similar system with its Alliance Wars.

Yesterday, Elder Scrolls Online Lead PvP Designer Brian Wheeler was awesome enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer fan questions about the PvP system over on Elitist Jerks. This was our first attempt at a live “ask me anything” session with a developer, and barring a few hiccups at the start, the Q&A went incredibly well.

Rather than rehash the entire discussion here, I’d definitely encourage you to check out the Q&A thread over on EJ. We’ve also rounded up the following direct links to the specific topics Brian was able to address during the Q&A session for your reading enjoyment:

• Collision Detection: http://forums.elitis...-3#entry2271448
• PvP Skill: http://forums.elitis...-3#entry2271455
• Alliances Communication: http://forums.elitis...-3#entry2271456
• Organized Teams vs Zerg, Guild Emblems, and Guild PvP: http://forums.elitis...-3#entry2271466
• Cyrodiil Geography: http://forums.elitis...-wheeler/page-4
• Faction Capping and Balancing: http://forums.elitis...-wheeler/page-4
• PvP Ranking and Display: http://forums.elitis...-5#entry2271494
• Emperor Status & Skills: http://forums.elitis...-5#entry2271507
• PvP Campaigns: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271511
• Guild Ownership: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271513
• Frame Rate & Accessible Areas: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271515
• Passive Abilities: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271517
• PvP Builds & Gear: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271519
• PvP Realms: http://forums.elitis...e-6#entry227152
• Is PvP Gear required to be good at PvP? http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271525
• Emperor's Armor, Siege Equipment, and PvE in Cyrodiil: http://forums.elitis...-6#entry2271530
• Guild stores and perks: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271533
• PvP Leaderboards: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271534
• Zergfest & Queues: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271539
• Home Campaigns & Switching: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271541
• Combat Style: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271543
• Map Size: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271545
• Guild vs Guild war: http://forums.elitis...-7#entry2271547
• AOE Effectiveness: http://forums.elitis...-8#entry2271554

It will be interesting to see how well this aspect of Elder Scrolls Online is received by franchise fans. On the one hand, it represents the biggest point of departure for the Elder Scrolls series, and may not necessarily be their cup o’ tea. Then again, if done well, a robust tri-faction PvP system has the potential to engage elder game players in ways that traditional dungeon and raiding progression can fall short.

Having spent a massive amount of time in GW2’s World versus World - especially throughout the Season One push – I can absolutely see the appeal in that type of gameplay. At the same time, WvW does have a number of areas that could use some love, though many of those are potentially being addressed with the introduction of the Edge of the Mists map.

(As a quick side note, I recently had the opportunity to preview the new WvW map and will be weighing in on my impressions shortly, along with an interview with ArenaNet on how Edge fits into the bigger WvW puzzle.)

Will the large-scale PvP be a major draw for players in ESO? I guess we’ll all have the answer to that question when the game launches next April, but in the meantime I’d definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject. So let me know down in the comments, or there are also some active discussions brewing over on EJ following the Q&A session with Brian Wheeler that I’d encourage you to dive into.

That wraps things up for today’s nail-biting episode of Lifetap! Drop a comment below if you feel so inclined, or you can also do the whole social thing and follow my babble on Twitter and Facebook. I promise I won’t bite. Hard.

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