Loading... For the Love of PvP

by Chris Noll on Nov 10, 2009

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 wh

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 ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

target="_blank">World of Warcraft Dungeons
& Dragons Online EverQuest
2

Star
Trek Online (UP 13)
Age of
Conan (DOWN 1)

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 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">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
- href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">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 youd 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, its 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 dont know
if theres 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? Im not saying tiers should be
all together eliminated, but a few months after launch, most games
arent going to see an equally healthy population at levels 10, 20, 30,
etc. Players will be bunched together in one main tier, and thats 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 Im wrong all together. Maybe the right mechanics are in place
somewhere already, and the only reason why these games arent coming to
the forefront as blockbuster successes is because theres not as much
of a PvP audience as the community lets on. I dont think thats the
case, myself, but what do you think? Let us know in href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47695">the forums.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=689">PC &
Console Games (Non-MMO)

style="font-weight: normal;">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 href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47684">join the
conversation. Would you change your character's sexual orientation
for a codex unlock?

==============================

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

==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">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 style="font-weight: bold;">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

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/spiritmaster_spell_rotation"> style="font-weight: bold;">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. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76457">The Lore of style="font-weight: bold;">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. style="font-weight: bold;">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. style="font-weight: bold;">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.

Today's Hottest Content

- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016