Iceclad

In the past games came out and people enjoyed them, and then in addition to enjoying the game people also played the PVP version (assuming it had one). Today, this is no longer the case. New games are announced to be in development and are instantly bombarded with questions about PVP, balancing, and freedoms therein.

I have a problem with this. It used to be that in a game you used your skills playing that game by it’s own inherit rules and guidelines to show said skill in the field of battle against others. Now games are developed wholly with PVP in mind right from the get-go. No longer do we see a finely tuned game with optional PVP. Now we have a half-assed single player experience because the game was built with balancing in mind for PVP.

This is one of the major issues I had that made me quit WoW. At WoW’s introduction, PVP was a joke. It was an optional thing you did with very little to no reward. And yet, still it was fun. You’d run into a specific class and, based on your own class or gear, know IMMEDIATELY if it was even worth trying to beat them. Sometimes you decided you’d stick around anyway to discover they have no idea how to play their class, and even though their class has a huge advantage over yours, their lack of skill seals their fate in your favor. THIS IS HOW PVP SHOULD ALWAYS BE MEASURED – IN SKILL. You win some, you lose some, and it’s not always the person’s class, abilities or gear that is the determining factor.

People who felt they had the AUTOMATIC RIGHT to solo anyone and never be damaged, challenged, or have their feelings hurt started huge petitions to cure the “injustice” Blizzard had handed them. The forums exploded with unwarranted bitching (the only way to describe it). Blizzard responded with revisiting/rebalancing classes and abilities so that situations like “Oh, he’s a Paladin, I might need help” would never exist again.

Here’s where I became angry: THEY WERE UNIVERSAL CHANGES. Allow me to clarify – The changes made effected both the PVP and PVE environments. Suddenly some of the abilities I used had extra little stuns, bleeds, procs, and other effects that had absolutely no application in the PVE experience whatsoever, and in some cases made the abilities annoying or pointless. Of course the changes kept coming, and in some cases whole classes were entirely revamped turning them into something completely different – ALL for PVP reasons. That’s just inexcusable.

I have presented the point many times that WoW could be JUST AS POPULAR IF NOT MORE if they’d only separate the two aspects of the game. Make PVP only and PVE only servers so that you can be free to balance/revisit any class or ability you want and the changes to the two aspects won’t effect each other. The PVP in WoW is shoehorned in at best as it stands, it doesn’t fit with any lore in any believable way I can fathom, and it crowds PVE servers with useless kids that have no idea how to play their class in raiding.

Another way PVP has adversely effected PVE in WoW is in the armor models and weapons. Before the PVP infection took over you were able to look at someone’s armor and know EXACTLY where it came from, how hard someone worked for it, and who dropped it. Nowadays the models for armor are shared between 3 or more sources. PVP armor looks exactly the same as high-end raiding armor. There is NO excuse for this at all. The only way you could get away with this and not present the feeling of wasted efforts – IS TO SEPARATE THE REALMS! EUREKA!

I quit WoW for the second time almost 2 years ago now, and it has changed even more since I left. My friends that still play tell me that classes are basically turning into generalized clones of each other. All classes are getting some variety of the same ability. “This class gets “A” so we should also get “A” because that’s an unfair advantage!”. So ignorant. And that’s what’s happening to nearly every new game I’ve been following the development of – rabid PVP infections.

PVP can be a lot of fun…if it’s actually based on skill. Everyone needs to realize that during PVP someone is going to die, and that it’s ok if it might be themselves. It’s just a game, kids. Instead of complaining because “Class A” has an ability that can “instantly kill you” – how about you find a way to work around that using YOUR OWN abilities instead of trying to change the world so you can feel better about yourself? If you can’t handle the fact that classes are diverse and that you MIGHT have to think about what you need to do as well as actually be good at your own class in order to defeat someone in a PVP situation – shut your computer off and go read a book, you damn kids.

Darwin!