Okay, that’s not entirely true. I like WoW battlegrounds. I like WoW Arena. I even like flagging myself for PvP and going after various PvP “world objectives.”
I especially like the way they implemented PvMP in Lord of the Rings Online.
So how exactly am I done with PvP? I’m done with PvP-servers in WoW. I transfered the last of my characters from a PvP server to a ‘carebear’ server last night.
Here are the things with the PvP that I like: It is challenging and it is a very different kind of game than the typical PvE “Kill Ten Rats” missions that you run over and over and over again with gradually improving special effects budgets. Playing against other players is fun.
It’s also NOT what I want to do ALL THE TIME. If I sign up for a battleground or an arena — that’s what I want to do. If I flag myself PvP so I can take back the town of Halaa — fantastic — that’s what I want to do.
If I’m riding around the open plains of Nagrand, hunting clefthoof bulls for their hides and meat while I get caught up on my newsreader, then PvP is NOT what I want to do. Setting up a game so that anyone who wants to be a jerk can interrupt what I’m doing just for the hell of it is not fun for me. It’s like reading a book on the edge of the playground and having some other idiot decide that — whether you want to or not — you’re playing Dodgeball.
Right. Now.
So the deal with the WoW “PvP” servers is that, if you’re in a ‘safe’ zone, you can’t be attacked unless you specifically say you can, and if you’re in any of the ‘contested’ areas (read: 85% of the landmass in the game, and almost 100% of the area you’ll be in for 96% of your character lifespan) it’s automatically Duck Season.
Switching from a PvE server to a PvP server is like learning how to play an arcade game in a regular video arcade, and then visiting an arcade where all the other players are allowed and in fact REWARDED for walking over while you’re playing your game and SCREWING WITH YOUR CONTROLS. Nevermind that they could just wait until you got in line to play one of the player vs. player games there — they want to screw with you while you’re doing one of the solo race car games.
Thank you, no.
What bugs me the most about the PvP-server-players’ attitudes is that it’s more realistic to play in a setting like that.
Because, well… no. No it isn’t. If ‘realistic’ means ‘like real life’, then I disagree. The two major factions in WoW are currently observing a TRUCE. Moreover, both sides are being assaulted by other, more powerful forces. The SAME ones. Enemy of my enemy? Hello?
Secondly, people don’t just randomly see another hunter on the open plains and say “he’s not bothering me, but I want to engage in a life-or-death struggle with him RIGHT NOW.” Why? Because they might DIE. And, realistically, DEATH IS PERMANENT, and not to be engaged in between two people over who gets to kill the next clefthoof cow down the road (when both the people in question have thousands of gold in their pocket to buy food).
People go PvP for objectives. Important ones. Otherwise, realistically, it’s not worth the risk.
Or, coming back to the game, it’s not worth the TIME WASTED. Having some level 40 guy following my level 20 character around to kill her over and over again, then /dance, /spit, and run off? That’s now how I want to spend my 15 bucks or my time.
However…
You want to get me in a battleground with that guy?
Bring it on.