Loading... For the Love of PvP

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Posted Tue, Nov 10, 2009 by B. de la Durantaye

Welcome to the 1,205th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

PvP has become such a large part of our games, and yet, disappointment with the results is abundant. Almost every game launch in the past few years has had at least some focus on PvP, and it is little wonder why. PvPers are a large, vocal audience. But why is it that no recent game has been able to hold its own for very long on the PvP field? Today we take a look at some problems and potential solutions in Loading... For the Love of PvP.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers over the past week:

Diablo 3 (UP 170 to #19)
Lord of the Rings Online (DOWN 5 to #7)
Global Agenda (UP 4 to #5)

Recent Releases

9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/8 - Cities XL (release date)
11/3 - Dragon Age: Origins (release date)
11/10 - Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection (release date)

Upcoming Releases

12/1 - LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
12/1 - EVE Online: Dominion (expansion)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
12/15 - EverQuest: Underfoot (expansion)
2/2 - Star Trek Online (release date)
Early 2010 - APB
Feb. 2010 - EverQuest 2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)

Loading... Daily

Where's the PvP?

We saw Age of Conan, which promised some epic PvP battles, yet shortly after launch, PvP was scarcely even recognized on most servers outside of the open PvP servers. It was hard to get a PvP game going and you would spend hours, sometimes even days in the queue before you’d get a match. The “massive PvP battles” were nowhere to be seen, and any attempt at them resulted in system lag to the point of unplayability.

Warhammer Online launched, and this time, there was more focus on PvP right from early development. Mythic built their game around a huge PvP battlefield, and in planning, it was sound. The problem, as with any mostly-PvP game is that when you go that route, you become more and more reliant on the player base to keep wars entertaining. Shortly after launch, we saw server merges, and population juggling to try to keep the forces of Destruction and Order balanced. Unfortunately all the balancing had its toll too, and more and more players left the game in search of something else.

So how to make a successful PvP game? There are certain elements that are often forgotten, or all together ignored. First, the game must be developed with one focus alone – will it be a PvP game, or will it be a PvE game? Trying to hybridize a game to appease both audiences rarely, if ever, works well. Invariably, either the PvP game will suffer from overpowered PvE combat systems (which may work in a PvE environment, but become too weighted in PvP combat), or the PvP systems will water down character classes and roles so heavily that there becomes very little differentiation between classes at all, and thusly the PvE content begins to become very shallow and unfulfilling.

Secondly, it’s important to create a system where the distribution of teams is not controlled entirely by the population. As we saw in WAR and other games, when left to the players alone, servers become too lopsided in faction balance, and eventually the overpopulated side has no one left to fight and the under-populated side quits in frustration of never standing a chance against such massive numbers. I don’t know if there’s an easy solution to this problem, as you want to leave players with a choice, but perhaps it would be more successful if games saw three to five factions to choose from, instead of two. Some games already do this, and it leaves a door open to temporary alliances and less of a black or white result.

Lastly, there needs to be critical mass. Throw in some NPCs to fight for one of the teams in an under-populated region. Eliminate levels, and allow beginning players to fight seasoned players if they so choose. Having a level spread on top of trying to balance teams just adds to the problem. Why create more tiers that rely on critical mass instead of keeping it to a single tier? I’m not saying tiers should be all together eliminated, but a few months after launch, most games aren’t going to see an equally healthy population at levels 10, 20, 30, etc. Players will be bunched together in one main tier, and that’s the way it needs to be focused. Perhaps opening up new playfields to different ranks, and not levels, would still allow for a competitive game without drawing important population from other battles.

Or maybe I’m wrong all together. Maybe the right mechanics are in place somewhere already, and the only reason why these games aren’t coming to the forefront as blockbuster successes is because there’s not as much of a PvP audience as the community lets on. I don’t think that’s the case, myself, but what do you think? Let us know in the forums.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our PC & Console Games (Non-MMO)

Sex with an Elf in Dragon Age Origins

This thread isn't epic yet, but I predict it will be. After all, it introduces the term "Gay Wardens," and answers the age old question: boxers or briefs? For the full story, you'll have to check out the epic video Ralsu posted in this thread, and then be join the conversation. Would you change your character's sexual orientation for a codex unlock?

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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"Think I'm gonna pass on male-male unless there at the very end it appears there is a codex unlock, then I'll have to pursue it to get that. I love reading and trying to find them all cause of all the extra rich details they provide!"

- Khalus
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

5 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 34 in November! 3,006 in 2009!

Today's Exclusives at Ten Ton Hammer

Many Games on ONE Card - A Q&A with Pete Grubb
Open Network Entertainment recently launched the ONE Power-Up Game Card, a universal prepaid gift platform, and cooperative marketing system that supports online game developers, publishers, virtual worlds, and social networks. ONE's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Pete Grubb, sat down with Ten Ton Hammer to discuss this new venture and how it will affect the future of online gaming.

New Features & Guides Today at Ten Ton Hammer

Aion: Spiritmaster Spell Rotations for Maximum Fun (Levels 1-25)
The Spiritmaster is truly the aristocracy of the classes in Aion. Standing away from the fray in elegant robes while the “help” take care of the dirty work, the Spiritmaster almost breaks a sweat while giving orders to the pets and lobbing damage at the bad guys. The optimal balance of direct damage and managing the attention of the enemy play large parts in determining a spell rotation. The goal to the rotation is to defeat the enemy yet expend the least amount of energy doing it, thus we can move on to more enemies (and loot). Read on for more information on the optimum Spiritmaster spell rotation for maximum return on your time and very little downtime on your march to level 25.
The Lore of Star Trek Online – The Romulan Star Empire: Part 1
The Romulan Empire may very well be considered the rogue or assassins of the Star Trek Online (STO) universe. Through stealth and cunning, the Romulans have always managed to stay a step ahead of their enemies, but the great empire has fallen. After a series of events, the Romulan Star Empire was drawn into civil war and decimated further by a nearby star going supernova and destroying their home planet of Romulus. The events leading up to the beginning of STO is rich with lore and intriguing plot twists, but who will restore the empire to its former glory? This week Ten Ton Hammer takes a look at the lore from the Romulan Star Empire perspective and how it has changed in the universe of STO.
WoW Editorial - Class Discrimination
In the World of Warcraft there is a huge number of classes, these are further divided up into more sub-classes through the talent system. With all the various types of characters out there, are some players left out? Are some turned into the peons, toiling away farming in the fields, while others get a free ride to join the reigning elite? Jump in and see what Byron “Messiah” Mudry has to say on this topic in his Editorial: WoW Class Discrimination.
WoW: The Overpull - "WoW + Micro-transactions = ???"
The Overpull, our World of Warcraft newsletter, is here again this week filled with news, blues clues, and more. We've got talk about WoW turning to micro-transactions, the awesome Tirion leader of that tournament in front of Arthas's house, a WoW related comic, and all of this week's WoW news. Join us each week as we bring The Overpull online and in your inbox.