PVP Conundrum

GN_Patty and GN_David are anomalies in about a hundred different ways. They are both gamers, concerned citizens, potential kidney donors, and convinced that aliens live and work among us. At the same time, they can't seem to agree on much – as these essays will prove. As always, GN_Kelly is ALL too happy to explain why both of their points of view are just, well, wrong.

PVP – Why Is This So Hard?
GN_David

First, a caveat: everyone believes that I am a God when it comes to PVP. But it turns out that I'm really not.

I have a love/hate relationship with PVP.

First, the love. There is NOTHING more fulfilling than spending a solid evening with my guildies either rolling the opposition or just trying to not get rolled. It causes an endorphine rush that most gamers never get to experience. These things require an amazing amount of patience, organization, and foresight. But, good lord, there is nothing more fun in any kind of game – totally worth it.

Having said that, I also sorta hate PVP. I'm talking about the kind of PVP that is prevalent in most games which takes on the form of some single guy attacking me while I am hostilely fishing in a zone that he has unfettered access to. That's awesome, dude. Weird that I wasn't able to beat you to death with my tackle box – I suppose that might have had something to do with your “Bow of Blinding Retarded Fisherpeople With Lightning Bolts”.

That kind of PVP does exactly nothing for me – well, that's not true – it annoys me.

PVP SO has it's place in MMOs – but it's rarely implemented correctly...which angers and saddens me – it seems like such an easy concept. Come on, Devs – you guys know how to fix this.

I'm tired of killing senseless mobs. I want to kill YOU.

PVP - Person Versus Person – NO WAY!
GN_Patty

I think it really stands for “People Violating People”. Sounds good in some people’s theory – “Hey, what better way to test your skill at this game, then to go up against a real live player?” In actuality, it goes more like “How can my capped toon team up with some of my friends’ toons and keep new players from being able to play at all?” All it succeeds in doing is causing resentment and the desire for revenge. I can’t tell you the number of people that have told me they are setting out to kill the opposing faction because “They did it to me”.

Certainly these are games of skill and tactics. Honing your skill and tactics with others should be part of the game. Being restricted to only competing against computer characters, even with your raidmates, does not generate the adrenaline rush that a good contest among peers can do, but these are not contests among peers. They are gangbangs with no repercussions. PVP doesn’t work the way it is designed.

WTF?!
GN_Kelly

Seriously?! First of all, PvP is awesome – deal with it. Second of all, Dave hasn't been involved in an organized PvP run for five years now. His vote is void. In fact, I'll apologize to everyone right now for having wasted their time reading his fishing dribble.

Now we need to address Mrs Negativity and her latent desire for a gangbang. Maybe if you took note of the good things involved in PvP you'd be more apt to participate in it beyond the lowbie ganking bad memories of your noobihood.

PvP requires people to be situationally aware and knowledgeable about their characters' skill set so they can best handle a variety of attackers. You need to be able to quickly assess things and make split second decisions that come easier with practice. If these things scare or intimidate you ,roll your ass on over to a roll playing server and free up the queue for people who can avoid phrases like “m'lady” and “huzzah”.