The PvE/PvP Conundrum

It's not about easy targets. It's about ALL kinds of targets. Easy targets are a huge part of the immersion. I find it a source of moderate amusement that you can't understand that.

@Isaiah

Thank god we got games like Shards coming out soon...

Hey, I'm still a predator! I've been a dota player for some time now. In Dota I fight well prepared and equipped enemies all the time. Sure it's good to kill an equally strong opponent in battle once in a while but meh. It aint my main interest.

 

There will always be easy targets. There may not be as an abundant supply when all players can have both crafting and combat skill but there will always be easy targets.

 

More or less what I've always suggested: monitor the rate at which PvP and PvE players progress and acquire riches, and then tune the game to bring both play styles as close together as possible. Make it so that whether the player chooses PvP or PvE is based just on what he finds more fun, not on speed or efficiency concerns.

 

Oh don't get me wrong. I do understand. Every once and a while I like to run around in Watch Dogs and pull out my gun in a few civilians' faces and watch them cower, and run off crying and screaming. It's very similar.

It's funny to watch a totally defenseless character freak out, and not have a chance. We all have that desire to have power over people. Some of us feel it more than others, but I have to admit (eventhoug I was never a PK) I can see the draw for something like that. There's a kind of excitement to look for people to bend over and make them call you master.

In fact I felt this excitement when I use to play the THQ UFC games online matches. Whenever I fought somebody who didn't have any skill I loved it. I liked that probably more than being challenged by a tough opponent. I liked it even more if they sent me HATE EMAIL. LOLOL SO I DO UNDERSTAND. It just can't happen in SotA, and I hope you understand why people also feel strongly about hunting down a PK who does stuff like that. It's the thrill of bringing justice to somebody who thinks he's badass when he's beating up on women and children.

EDIT: NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT. I ENJOYED THE BETTER FIGHTERS MORE, BECAUSE I WANTED TO INCREASE MY RATING. I JUST ENJOYED WINNING I GUESS.

 

Depends on the person. I find it simply disgusting and would never do it. Anyone I notice doing it goes on my personal black list of players I will never help and, if at all possible, never interact with. I had other players kicked out of raid groups I was tanking for in the past over this kind of behavior (though, of course, it helped that I found a guild of like-minded individuals that would kick out anyone caught griefing without a second thought, with griefing often expanded to include any kind of corpse camping or repeatedly attacking lowbies).

Edit:

I'm the opposite, actually. I'm likely to either intentionally gimp myself, or even concede the fight, if I'm facing an opponent much weaker than me. Wiping the floor with my opponent is just not fun for me, and if it happens too often, I'm likely to just go find another game to play.

 

Yeah I guess you're probably right. I wanted to play the best players because I wanted to prove myself. I also wanted my rating to improve.

I was ranked in the top 10 for submissions, and I was in the top 25 in ranked match play so I did actually enjoy fighting quality players.

However I still did enjoy the easier matches because they provided a guaranteed win, but now I think about it I did like the higher ranked matches better because I wanted to increase my rating. Regardless I enjoyed winning. So if I won I was happy whether or not it was a good player or a bad player.

 

There's no shame in inflicting suffering on the weak. You don't need to make excuses to look more socially acceptable in the eyes those who are many levels below you.
It is only natural to crave slaughtering of virtual avatars. That's what really good virtual worlds are made of. And made for.

 

Pking , was the bread and butter of excitement , the thing is its ok to be Good ,Bad or just ok , If you pk , one seconded 8 pluss people will run from you just at your presence , on the other one will spank you so bad , you spend an hour reflecting ........ what did i do wrong lol

 

Admittedly, this is where I'm not really a common player: I don't see much value in winning per see.

Don't get me wrong, I love being able to go all out, I would not intentionally gimp a team effort, and my favorite fights are the ones where I have to really excel in order to stay at the same level as my opponent; but, in the end, as long as the fight was hard fought, I don't care, at all, about whether I won or lost. I'm playing to have fun, and for me the fun is in the hard fought battle, the win or loss in the end being a mere footnote.

Incidentally, due to this I tend to dislike team based PvP unless there's a good matchmaking algorithm guaranteeing fair fights. Since I will not abandon the team in a team match, it means that, contrary to a solo PvP game, if I end up against an opponent either much stronger or much weaker, until the match ends I will be stuck in gameplay that I can't actually enjoy. It's also why I prefer games with strong catch-up mechanisms built into the PvP, ways to push the losing side ahead and make things more challenging for whoever is currently winning.

I bring this mentality to the PvE side too, BTW. My ideal PvE game is one that I will have to try each part perhaps a dozen times or more before I master it enough to get through, one where I lose a lot but every step of the way is hard fought. It's why I often enjoy playing games with self-imposed restrictions to make them harder, like in the Arkham series where I would pretend that I didn't have a health bar and restart the level if I took any damage at all.

 

nah just being real. I cared about my rating, and after that my win loss ratio more than I did about beating people up. Most people avoided fights they might lose. That's why I was ranked in the top 25 and not higher. I fought everybody. I didn't duck fights. As to enjoyment, when I think about it I felt much more satisfied defeating a top tier opponent, than beating on a weaker person. Although like I admitted I did enjoy beating the easy guy too. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was a different thing though.

 

I hope that kind of playstyle is in SotA. I won't likely be a PK, but I want that excitement in the game. PK's are strange people, and they make things interesting because I always felt a bit weary around them if they say they want to be your allies. Some PKs were trustworthy allies, but not most of them. lol

 

Yea...so yesterday I accidently found this guy's home deep underground, and...

 

It would be nice if they can make sure that there isn't some kind of exploit by rushing to get as many of your players into one instance of the battle to keep the opponent from being able to defend it fairly. Then it just becomes a race not a PvP contest.

That being said, many of the most memorable battles happened when a group is able to defeat an opponent that outnumbered them in battle. It would be wrong to say there should always be a fair fight.

Also I would like to be able to travel alone sometimes and I shouldn't have to expect that I will be ganked all the time, but also I shouldn't expect never to be ganked.

 

It's a matter of preference. A reversal like that is really interesting and fun when it happens, I agree, but it also tends to be quite rare, and from my point of view having a single great experience when it does happen is not worth engaging multiple times in imbalanced fights that will really displease me whenever they go as expected. I would rather play 20 hard-fought battles, regardless of the result, than play 20 imbalanced ones and have an unexpected result in maybe 5 of them, if that much.

Preferences. If I can't expect to never be ganked while doing some PvE content I will simply not play that content, at all. I will instead find another piece of content, or even another game altogether, to play.

Part of why PvP can't be generalized. I love PvP — as long as it's instanced arena and battleground PvP with good matchmaking creating balanced fights, or something else along similar lines. Many here love other kinds of PvP, but seem to have a deep seated distaste for arena-like PvP. And so on.

Also why I'm really interested in seeing what Portalarium will do with the PvP missions they hinted at. Depending on the rules I might really enjoy those; they appear to be unpredictable, but self-contained and short, just the way I like my PvP.

 

I remember the times back around 2000 when I overcame the odds. I don't remember every PvP battle, but the ones I beat multiple players I remember. I do recall the fact that in UO you could flee if you saw a group of enimies that charge you. It wasn't until factions got started that I felt like I couldn't escape a gank attack.

I hated UO factions because it was just a game of numbers. You needed a good team, and use some voice conferencing software to really be effective once factions started. Going back to the old order vs chaos thing was useless since most PvPers were in factions at that point so there was no way to go back to having a good fight mono a mono. After that I quit UO. There was nothing left for me.