by ZeroAerey25 . on Oct 30, 2007
Player versus player mechanics were at their height in the days of Rock'em, Sock'em Robots.
Cryptic Blog's latest blog update takes a hard look at PvP design. This is the second article which discusses the topic from them.
As touched on in the previous article in this series, modern MMORPGs are overwhelmingly based on a number of conventions, one of which is that a players character gets better based on time played. Yes, there are some games such as Final Fantasy XI where a character can de-level, but even there the long-term trajectory is always one of more time leading to a better character. Generally this takes the form of levels first, and items secondarily.
In a (basically) non-competitive, cooperative PvE raid context, this causes relatively few problems as the PvE gameplay of most MMORPGs tightly controls access to specific dungeons or zones by character level. Increasingly better items follow naturally from the successful completion of progressively more difficult dungeons.
Keep reading at the Cryptic Studios Blog.