Less than one week from the release of World of Warcraft and no server list in sight, many of you are probably wondering what server to select when you begin play. Well, I can't help there, but I can hopefully help you out in your decision to play on a *kind* of server. During the closed beta test, I purposefully chose to play on the PvP servers a little after they started, so that I could experience first hand if I'd like to play on them. Can't knock it until you try it, I told myself. So, with my experiences, I'll share what I learned.
There are three server types: PvP, Normal, and Role-playing. I shall run down their strengths and weaknesses so that you can be confident of your choice when you plunk down money and make an initial decision that you hopefully won't regret six months later.
PvP
On a PvP server, battles between players of the opposite faction are quite common. You are not just testing yourself against the challenges the NPCs of the world present you; you are going up against the toughest, smartest foes of all: other players. The tension level of PvP servers tends to be much higher - those looking for a "relaxing" time playing the game should probably look elsewhere. You learn to watch your back and maintain a heightened sense of your surroundings at all times, because you never know when the next strike might be strolling by.
PvP server zones fall into three categories:
A) "Safe" zones - areas that belong solidly to one faction. In these zones, you are safe from attack by players of the other faction unless you engage them or assist someone engaging them (including NPCs). This is done to obviously discourage the ganking of low level characters - all of the starting zones for the races are safe zones for them. For example, the humans have Elwynn Forest and Westfall as safe zones. Typically, any character can level up to at least level 20 entirely in safe zones, guaranteeing you safe passage through the world until breaking past your teenage levels.
B) "Contested" zones - areas that belong to neither faction. In these zones, it's a free-for-all. Both factions are free to attack each other, and believe me, they sure do. In general, it works fairly well, since in a majority of zones the quests for each side center around the same level range. When the quest level range doesn't match up, well, you sure hear about it. The Hillsbrad Foothills are legendary as a zone that involves level 30-ish quests for the Alliance and level 20-ish quests for the Horde. As you can imagine, this zone is NO fun for the Horde at all and the complaining has been nonstop throughout the beta.
It's in contested zones where the problems start to show with griefing and ganking. High level players will travel to an entry-level contested zone for the night to simply grief lowbies. A level 50 vs. a level 25 is not a pretty sight, and such ganking raids occur on a nightly basis in quite a few zones. The hardest levels to be on a PvP server are 25-35 because of this - too old to play in safe zones, and too young to get away from the more "newbie"-ish contested zones where the a-holes come to gank. Once you start moving to the higher level contested zones, the random gankings become fewer and fewer.
C) "Hostile" zones - areas that belong to the enemy faction. Here, you cannot fire unless fired upon, so to speak. You are in the other faction's "safe" zone and are prevented from being a jerk, but it also means it's open season on you if you're not careful. The players of the other faction will be sure to report your position in general chat if they see you, so you typically want to get in fast, do whatever you came to do, and get out.
Advantages of a PvP server:
1) Greater comraderie between members of the same faction. A feeling of "us vs them" grows the higher in level you get and the greater the number of encounters with the other faction you have. Let's face it, you get to hate the other side and enjoy slaughtering them when the opportunity arises, especially when it's a fight you *should* lose. When I smacked down a shaman 5 levels higher than my Warlock in the Shimmering Flats, it was once of my most enjoyable memories of the PvP beta experience.
Players will tend to help out their brethren; if you're being ganked/corpse camped, give a shout out and it's not long before help arrives to drive off the wanker. But this leads to one of the disadvantages, covered later.
2) More tension. As mentioned earlier, those collection quests to gather x number of items off a bunch of monsters becomes a lot more interesting in a contested zone, especially when you're competing for the same quest result against the other faction. I recall spending a good hour once in a see-saw mini-war between 3 alliance and 4 horde players up in the Arathi Highlands over control of a quest area. We did a pretty good job holding the turf until about 25 high-level Horde swooped in to clean us up before heading south to attack Menethil Harbor.
3) More exciting end game. Capped your character's level and are bored a bit? Go attack an enemy town. Gather some friends and strike, then watch the blood fly as the other faction slowly mounts a counterattack.
4) Higher satisfaction when you reach the level cap, knowing you had to battle not just the NPCs but all the other players that killed you so many times to slow down your progress. In other words, the climb was more difficult, so the view from the top is a little more satisfying.
5) Slightly on average better players. Judging by my months of playing on the normal server type and months of playing on the PvP server type, the *average* ability of players on the PvP server is better. This may be due to points 1-4 attracting more of the powergamer type and the disadvantages (listed below) discouraging the casual type, who has less time honing their skills playing the game. Yes, there are a-holes on the PvP servers, but there are a-holes on the normal servers too.
6) PvP-only quests. There may be some high-level quests that you can only get on a PvP server, because they purposefully involve entering enemy areas to kill someone that members of that faction will have a reason to protect. MongoJerry demonstrated one of these quests in a beta report. This can be a lot of fun for end-game action, as both factions will always be looking to rally players for a strike on the other faction's quest goal.
7) Someone on the other faction annoying you? Killing the creatures that you came to kill for a quest? Kill them. Fun.
Disadvantages of a PvP server:
1) Ganking and griefing. This is, of course, the largest drawback - that sometimes the real PvP encounters are few and far between. All too often you'll find yourself on the short end of a long stick, wielded by a character 10+ levels higher than you. There's little you can do but die. If you lack patience, this server type will lead to high blood pressure, ulcers, and rage-fests.
Blizzard has, for months now, promised some form of Honor system to curb griefing, and they haven't implemented it. Now the question arises: WILL they ever implement it? This becomes a good question, with release so close, in deciding which server type you're going to be spending your next few months playing. I'll say this: IF they implement a working honor system, the PvP server will be truly superior in my opinion, by removing the largest disadvantage to it. But if it's not implemented, then it's really a toss up and you should read on. Honor isn't so cut-and-dry: if you punish players for whacking someone 10+ levels lower than them, how do you stop griefing by lowbies? What's to stop the low-level player from harrassing the high-level, knowing that if the high-level stops to kill him, he's punished? These are the things Blizzard struggles with, and why there may never be an Honor system.
As mentioned before, the hardest levels to be are 25-35. Things get a bit easier after that. For one thing, the quests you can do open up to a large number of zones in the world - if where you're questing is covered with enemies, just go somewhere else. At level 35, you can quest in over 10 different areas! For another thing, you're getting more powerful and the higher in level you go, the less you can be ganked by someone 10+ levels higher than you.
2) Exploration is more difficult. If you're an exploratory type, you'll find the PvP server annoying. It's hard to just go around and see everything there is to see when you can get whacked from behind while staring at that cool thing you just discovered. You don't have the luxury of standing around in a contested or hostile zone like you would on a normal server.
3) No PvP rewards. There's no REASON to fight anyone, and that makes it all so pointless. Again, Blizzard has been promising a reward system for months and has not delivered. Kill someone? Congratulations, but in less than 5 minutes that player will be back - and they might bring friends, too. High level ones. To gank you. Killing someone is generally done for one of three reasons:
a) For the joy of killing another player, especially in a challenging fight
B) To clear them out of an area for a few minutes, and maybe drive them out completely if you get them again and again so they give up
c) To defend a town/city from attack
But without a reward system, it's so completely pointless. There is almost always no reason to get involved in any fight - it just slows everyone down. You get into the interesting situation where if everyone just decided to let each other alone, they'd all quest and level faster - everyone wins. But that can never happen, so everyone just wails away on each other pointlessly in an endless grudge match.
Normal
On a normal server, PvP still exists, but it's consensual. Both parties must agree to fight by performing a certain action - attacking an enemy faction's NPC, entering an enemy faction major city, helping another player in PvP mode, attacking another player who is in PvP mode, or by typing /pvp. Once PvP has been enabled by a character, it's on for 5 minutes. This means that if you pick a fight and lose badly, you never have to worry about being corpse camped as long as you wait 5 minutes before resurrecting.
Normal servers are perfect for the more casual player or one who doesn't want to put up with the ganking and griefing problems that plague the PvP servers. From that perspective, gameplay is a lot more pleasant.
Advantages of a Normal server:
1) No ganking and griefing. Yes, it's possible to still be griefed in minor esoteric ways, but that's pretty rare.
2) Great for exploration. You can play the game at your own pace and do what you want all the time without having your gameplay dictated to you by attacks from other players.
3) Consensual PvP. You can always go and PvP when you want to, although it may mean that you will always surrender the first strike to your opponent (so they get flagged and you can finally hit back). This places the attacker at a disadvantage.
Disadvantages of a Normal server:
1) No PvP quests. This means you miss out on some interesting end-game action.
2) Quests can be a little boring when there's absolutely no risk involved, like those thrilling collection quests we all love.
3) End-game may be more dull without the ability to gather up armies to attack other areas for kicks. Yes, you can still do this with consensual PvP, but it will be harder to gather players (since many join Normal servers to NEVER PvP) and the spirit of it is lost without the freedom to attack and be attacked at all times.
4) Someone bugging you on the other faction? Ain't squat you can do about it.
Role-Playing
Similar to a Normal server, but with enforced chat rules to try to weed oUt Th0s3 wH0 t4lK fuNNy!!!onelolol
Advantages of a Role-Playing server:
1) Supposedly, no leet-speak. But role-playing servers are so new to the game that I don't have any experience with them, and haven't heard how well this is enforced.
Disadvantages of a Role-Playing server:
1) Sometimes you may not feel like talking as if you were a Shakespearian actor or you live in midieval times. If you're a social player who likes to chat, this server probably wouldn't be for you.
Overall Thoughts
Hopefully you're getting the general idea that it's still a bit up in the air about the PvP servers. Another factor I haven't mentioned is what Blizzard calls Battlegrounds: areas that will exist on both servers that are raid zones for the factions to do battle in.
IF Battlegrounds are implemented as Blizzard says they will be, they'll exist on all server types, meaning that Normal server players can get their PvP jollies all they want once they reach the end-game. If that's the case, you may ask yourself why bother with a PvP server when I can level up to 60 on a Normal and THEN go for the fights when I'm bored?
That's what I'm asking myself, too. With no honor or reward system, and a promise of a PvP raid area for all server types, I can't see any reason to recommend PvP servers to Lurkers. Although some of the advantages of PvP servers (as listed above) are *very* nice, they generally don't outweigh the nasty disadvantages.
This is one of my beefs, and why I'm thinking that WoW is rushed - the PvP system has not been fleshed out, and because of that we cannot make an accurate decision on server choice. Lets say that 5 months from now, Battlegrounds are added to all servers. In that case, the Normal servers would be the best pick for me.
But if Battlegrounds were added only for the PvP servers, I'd be pretty annoyed that my Normal server characters would have little to do in the end game. Plus, if an honor and reward system are ever introduced into the PvP server, that would be a huge plus for them and swing things into their favor in my opinion, especially factoring in all the other advantages. And what if there are a large number of PvP quests put in that you can't get on the other servers? Argh!
So, to sum up: right now, there's little reason/incentive to play on the PvP servers unless you enjoy the heightened challenge throughout the life of your character. However, there COULD be some rewards to PvP servers in the future that would make that server type MUCH more attractive. If I were to purchase WoW on release, I would probably play a little of both server types, and the thought of Alliance on Normal and Horde when I want to go bash skulls on PvP appeals to me.
Hope this helps you make up your mind if you hadn't already. Comments? Questions from anyone who hasn't tried out one of these server types?
-Bolty
There are three server types: PvP, Normal, and Role-playing. I shall run down their strengths and weaknesses so that you can be confident of your choice when you plunk down money and make an initial decision that you hopefully won't regret six months later.
PvP
On a PvP server, battles between players of the opposite faction are quite common. You are not just testing yourself against the challenges the NPCs of the world present you; you are going up against the toughest, smartest foes of all: other players. The tension level of PvP servers tends to be much higher - those looking for a "relaxing" time playing the game should probably look elsewhere. You learn to watch your back and maintain a heightened sense of your surroundings at all times, because you never know when the next strike might be strolling by.
PvP server zones fall into three categories:
A) "Safe" zones - areas that belong solidly to one faction. In these zones, you are safe from attack by players of the other faction unless you engage them or assist someone engaging them (including NPCs). This is done to obviously discourage the ganking of low level characters - all of the starting zones for the races are safe zones for them. For example, the humans have Elwynn Forest and Westfall as safe zones. Typically, any character can level up to at least level 20 entirely in safe zones, guaranteeing you safe passage through the world until breaking past your teenage levels.
B) "Contested" zones - areas that belong to neither faction. In these zones, it's a free-for-all. Both factions are free to attack each other, and believe me, they sure do. In general, it works fairly well, since in a majority of zones the quests for each side center around the same level range. When the quest level range doesn't match up, well, you sure hear about it. The Hillsbrad Foothills are legendary as a zone that involves level 30-ish quests for the Alliance and level 20-ish quests for the Horde. As you can imagine, this zone is NO fun for the Horde at all and the complaining has been nonstop throughout the beta.
It's in contested zones where the problems start to show with griefing and ganking. High level players will travel to an entry-level contested zone for the night to simply grief lowbies. A level 50 vs. a level 25 is not a pretty sight, and such ganking raids occur on a nightly basis in quite a few zones. The hardest levels to be on a PvP server are 25-35 because of this - too old to play in safe zones, and too young to get away from the more "newbie"-ish contested zones where the a-holes come to gank. Once you start moving to the higher level contested zones, the random gankings become fewer and fewer.
C) "Hostile" zones - areas that belong to the enemy faction. Here, you cannot fire unless fired upon, so to speak. You are in the other faction's "safe" zone and are prevented from being a jerk, but it also means it's open season on you if you're not careful. The players of the other faction will be sure to report your position in general chat if they see you, so you typically want to get in fast, do whatever you came to do, and get out.
Advantages of a PvP server:
1) Greater comraderie between members of the same faction. A feeling of "us vs them" grows the higher in level you get and the greater the number of encounters with the other faction you have. Let's face it, you get to hate the other side and enjoy slaughtering them when the opportunity arises, especially when it's a fight you *should* lose. When I smacked down a shaman 5 levels higher than my Warlock in the Shimmering Flats, it was once of my most enjoyable memories of the PvP beta experience.
Players will tend to help out their brethren; if you're being ganked/corpse camped, give a shout out and it's not long before help arrives to drive off the wanker. But this leads to one of the disadvantages, covered later.
2) More tension. As mentioned earlier, those collection quests to gather x number of items off a bunch of monsters becomes a lot more interesting in a contested zone, especially when you're competing for the same quest result against the other faction. I recall spending a good hour once in a see-saw mini-war between 3 alliance and 4 horde players up in the Arathi Highlands over control of a quest area. We did a pretty good job holding the turf until about 25 high-level Horde swooped in to clean us up before heading south to attack Menethil Harbor.
3) More exciting end game. Capped your character's level and are bored a bit? Go attack an enemy town. Gather some friends and strike, then watch the blood fly as the other faction slowly mounts a counterattack.
4) Higher satisfaction when you reach the level cap, knowing you had to battle not just the NPCs but all the other players that killed you so many times to slow down your progress. In other words, the climb was more difficult, so the view from the top is a little more satisfying.
5) Slightly on average better players. Judging by my months of playing on the normal server type and months of playing on the PvP server type, the *average* ability of players on the PvP server is better. This may be due to points 1-4 attracting more of the powergamer type and the disadvantages (listed below) discouraging the casual type, who has less time honing their skills playing the game. Yes, there are a-holes on the PvP servers, but there are a-holes on the normal servers too.
6) PvP-only quests. There may be some high-level quests that you can only get on a PvP server, because they purposefully involve entering enemy areas to kill someone that members of that faction will have a reason to protect. MongoJerry demonstrated one of these quests in a beta report. This can be a lot of fun for end-game action, as both factions will always be looking to rally players for a strike on the other faction's quest goal.
7) Someone on the other faction annoying you? Killing the creatures that you came to kill for a quest? Kill them. Fun.
Disadvantages of a PvP server:
1) Ganking and griefing. This is, of course, the largest drawback - that sometimes the real PvP encounters are few and far between. All too often you'll find yourself on the short end of a long stick, wielded by a character 10+ levels higher than you. There's little you can do but die. If you lack patience, this server type will lead to high blood pressure, ulcers, and rage-fests.
Blizzard has, for months now, promised some form of Honor system to curb griefing, and they haven't implemented it. Now the question arises: WILL they ever implement it? This becomes a good question, with release so close, in deciding which server type you're going to be spending your next few months playing. I'll say this: IF they implement a working honor system, the PvP server will be truly superior in my opinion, by removing the largest disadvantage to it. But if it's not implemented, then it's really a toss up and you should read on. Honor isn't so cut-and-dry: if you punish players for whacking someone 10+ levels lower than them, how do you stop griefing by lowbies? What's to stop the low-level player from harrassing the high-level, knowing that if the high-level stops to kill him, he's punished? These are the things Blizzard struggles with, and why there may never be an Honor system.
As mentioned before, the hardest levels to be are 25-35. Things get a bit easier after that. For one thing, the quests you can do open up to a large number of zones in the world - if where you're questing is covered with enemies, just go somewhere else. At level 35, you can quest in over 10 different areas! For another thing, you're getting more powerful and the higher in level you go, the less you can be ganked by someone 10+ levels higher than you.
2) Exploration is more difficult. If you're an exploratory type, you'll find the PvP server annoying. It's hard to just go around and see everything there is to see when you can get whacked from behind while staring at that cool thing you just discovered. You don't have the luxury of standing around in a contested or hostile zone like you would on a normal server.
3) No PvP rewards. There's no REASON to fight anyone, and that makes it all so pointless. Again, Blizzard has been promising a reward system for months and has not delivered. Kill someone? Congratulations, but in less than 5 minutes that player will be back - and they might bring friends, too. High level ones. To gank you. Killing someone is generally done for one of three reasons:
a) For the joy of killing another player, especially in a challenging fight
B) To clear them out of an area for a few minutes, and maybe drive them out completely if you get them again and again so they give up
c) To defend a town/city from attack
But without a reward system, it's so completely pointless. There is almost always no reason to get involved in any fight - it just slows everyone down. You get into the interesting situation where if everyone just decided to let each other alone, they'd all quest and level faster - everyone wins. But that can never happen, so everyone just wails away on each other pointlessly in an endless grudge match.
Normal
On a normal server, PvP still exists, but it's consensual. Both parties must agree to fight by performing a certain action - attacking an enemy faction's NPC, entering an enemy faction major city, helping another player in PvP mode, attacking another player who is in PvP mode, or by typing /pvp. Once PvP has been enabled by a character, it's on for 5 minutes. This means that if you pick a fight and lose badly, you never have to worry about being corpse camped as long as you wait 5 minutes before resurrecting.
Normal servers are perfect for the more casual player or one who doesn't want to put up with the ganking and griefing problems that plague the PvP servers. From that perspective, gameplay is a lot more pleasant.
Advantages of a Normal server:
1) No ganking and griefing. Yes, it's possible to still be griefed in minor esoteric ways, but that's pretty rare.
2) Great for exploration. You can play the game at your own pace and do what you want all the time without having your gameplay dictated to you by attacks from other players.
3) Consensual PvP. You can always go and PvP when you want to, although it may mean that you will always surrender the first strike to your opponent (so they get flagged and you can finally hit back). This places the attacker at a disadvantage.
Disadvantages of a Normal server:
1) No PvP quests. This means you miss out on some interesting end-game action.
2) Quests can be a little boring when there's absolutely no risk involved, like those thrilling collection quests we all love.
3) End-game may be more dull without the ability to gather up armies to attack other areas for kicks. Yes, you can still do this with consensual PvP, but it will be harder to gather players (since many join Normal servers to NEVER PvP) and the spirit of it is lost without the freedom to attack and be attacked at all times.
4) Someone bugging you on the other faction? Ain't squat you can do about it.
Role-Playing
Similar to a Normal server, but with enforced chat rules to try to weed oUt Th0s3 wH0 t4lK fuNNy!!!onelolol
Advantages of a Role-Playing server:
1) Supposedly, no leet-speak. But role-playing servers are so new to the game that I don't have any experience with them, and haven't heard how well this is enforced.
Disadvantages of a Role-Playing server:
1) Sometimes you may not feel like talking as if you were a Shakespearian actor or you live in midieval times. If you're a social player who likes to chat, this server probably wouldn't be for you.
Overall Thoughts
Hopefully you're getting the general idea that it's still a bit up in the air about the PvP servers. Another factor I haven't mentioned is what Blizzard calls Battlegrounds: areas that will exist on both servers that are raid zones for the factions to do battle in.
IF Battlegrounds are implemented as Blizzard says they will be, they'll exist on all server types, meaning that Normal server players can get their PvP jollies all they want once they reach the end-game. If that's the case, you may ask yourself why bother with a PvP server when I can level up to 60 on a Normal and THEN go for the fights when I'm bored?
That's what I'm asking myself, too. With no honor or reward system, and a promise of a PvP raid area for all server types, I can't see any reason to recommend PvP servers to Lurkers. Although some of the advantages of PvP servers (as listed above) are *very* nice, they generally don't outweigh the nasty disadvantages.
This is one of my beefs, and why I'm thinking that WoW is rushed - the PvP system has not been fleshed out, and because of that we cannot make an accurate decision on server choice. Lets say that 5 months from now, Battlegrounds are added to all servers. In that case, the Normal servers would be the best pick for me.
But if Battlegrounds were added only for the PvP servers, I'd be pretty annoyed that my Normal server characters would have little to do in the end game. Plus, if an honor and reward system are ever introduced into the PvP server, that would be a huge plus for them and swing things into their favor in my opinion, especially factoring in all the other advantages. And what if there are a large number of PvP quests put in that you can't get on the other servers? Argh!
So, to sum up: right now, there's little reason/incentive to play on the PvP servers unless you enjoy the heightened challenge throughout the life of your character. However, there COULD be some rewards to PvP servers in the future that would make that server type MUCH more attractive. If I were to purchase WoW on release, I would probably play a little of both server types, and the thought of Alliance on Normal and Horde when I want to go bash skulls on PvP appeals to me.
Hope this helps you make up your mind if you hadn't already. Comments? Questions from anyone who hasn't tried out one of these server types?
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.