Those of you, who have chosen a PvP server: do you still remember why you did so? Would you chose PvP again today?
Though I never was an avid PvP player and usally seek out my challenges in MMORPGs on the PvE field, I chose PvP for the extra thrill it promised when roaming through the world. Choosing PvP came with a price: not being able to have Alliance alts on the same server my Horde main is on, and therby forgoing the pleasure of being able to interact ingame with the "the other side" of the server community I am a part of.
Let's see how PvP developed since February 2005, the European WoW release date:
Pre Honor, pre BG:
PvP rarely occured. Horde and Alliance were mostly at peace, as there was no motiviation to PvP apart from just doing it for fun.
At the same time in the Nothamerican community, were due to a earlier release date (Nov 2004) large parts of the server populations were hitting lvl 60, complaints began to be voiced about the lack of progression outside of raid instances like MC and Onyxia.
Post Honor, pre BG:
PvP activitiy becomes suddenly frantic from on day to the other after the introduction of the honor system (see critique on honor system below). People have suddenly a strong motivation to engage in PvP as they hope for the epic rewards they weren't able to obtain from PvE, because they are not part of a large raiding guild. Only very few people, those who know what "distribution" in the context of "contributed points" and "limited ranks" really means, realize that this is going to be a rather fruitless exercise for most players.
Post Honor, post BG:
Once again a sudden turn of tides. The world becomes a serene place again, as PvP is being fought out in BGs, where one cannot only gain more and easier honor then from going out hunting players in the wilds, but also gain faction rewards.
While faction might be very well achievable if one only hangs out long enough in the BGs, on the honor front the mother of all grinds begins...
Situation Today:
The PvP situation "out in the wilds" is only slightly more exciting than before the introduction of the honor system. A few scattered encounters here and there, but mostly there is a truce between Horde and Alliance.
Warsong is dead and buried. Faction rewards are not good enough there, and most people realized that the probability to sucessfully solo MC is higher than gain epics through PvP ranking; honor was the main reward for Warsong.
Alterac Valley lives up from time, when enough people come together to grind for faction. Once they reach exalted with the Frostwolf Clan they usally do not come back.
Arathi Basin: As it is new everbody who wants the faction rewards is grinding out there, together with the the few people who have aspirations on a high PvP rank (as they cannot find Warsong matches anymore, they have to mingle with the faction hunters). Basically it is the same as AV: once people have reached exalted with the Defilers they will drop out, and AB will begin dieing slowly much like AV today.
So here we are at the source of the whole blizzardic PvP-Problem: The whole honor and BG system was never designed with PvP as a social game in mind, but as an alternative way to acquire epic items for those who can't or don't want to PvE raid for them.
But the fun part of PvP is really the social aspect of it. Not being able to chose when to engange or not engange in PvP leads to social interaction, whether it is coalition building or simply trashtalking on realm forums about "oh so unfair gankers". Entering a Battleground where you are exepcted to kill and be killed, takes away this social element, and makes it mere sport or even worse "work".
Ok lets accept that Blizzard does not want open PvP, and rather simply seeks a competitive mode of play for item acquistion versus the cooperative one of PvE raiding.
People who don't do PvE Raids are often labled as casual players due to the fact, that they don't have or simply don't want to contribute large timeblocks for raid content. The honor system should be the way for those people to gain access to epic equipment.
The truth is, that to advance past rank 11 you have to contribute much more time than you would have to for mastering Onyxia, MC and BWL together. Basically it requires 24/7 gaming, simply because of the fact that you compete against other players who want to achieve the same thing, as opposed to competing vs. a set threshold of difficulty presented by the raid instances. In PvP there will always be someone more dedicated than you. If raid content is for the hardcore, then honor is for the maniacs ;)
In conclusion one has to credit Blizzard that they tried to tackle PvP in a way no other MMO has done before, but it is time to ackonowledge they have failed in this.
This not withstanding the BGs can be incredible fun in itself, wouldn't they be corrupted by the "curse of grind" to a degree that pales the PvE instances in comparison, or as the author of the craftingworlds.com movies said: "BGs have become the slums of Azeroth".
Though I never was an avid PvP player and usally seek out my challenges in MMORPGs on the PvE field, I chose PvP for the extra thrill it promised when roaming through the world. Choosing PvP came with a price: not being able to have Alliance alts on the same server my Horde main is on, and therby forgoing the pleasure of being able to interact ingame with the "the other side" of the server community I am a part of.
Let's see how PvP developed since February 2005, the European WoW release date:
Pre Honor, pre BG:
PvP rarely occured. Horde and Alliance were mostly at peace, as there was no motiviation to PvP apart from just doing it for fun.
At the same time in the Nothamerican community, were due to a earlier release date (Nov 2004) large parts of the server populations were hitting lvl 60, complaints began to be voiced about the lack of progression outside of raid instances like MC and Onyxia.
Post Honor, pre BG:
PvP activitiy becomes suddenly frantic from on day to the other after the introduction of the honor system (see critique on honor system below). People have suddenly a strong motivation to engage in PvP as they hope for the epic rewards they weren't able to obtain from PvE, because they are not part of a large raiding guild. Only very few people, those who know what "distribution" in the context of "contributed points" and "limited ranks" really means, realize that this is going to be a rather fruitless exercise for most players.
Post Honor, post BG:
Once again a sudden turn of tides. The world becomes a serene place again, as PvP is being fought out in BGs, where one cannot only gain more and easier honor then from going out hunting players in the wilds, but also gain faction rewards.
While faction might be very well achievable if one only hangs out long enough in the BGs, on the honor front the mother of all grinds begins...
Situation Today:
The PvP situation "out in the wilds" is only slightly more exciting than before the introduction of the honor system. A few scattered encounters here and there, but mostly there is a truce between Horde and Alliance.
Warsong is dead and buried. Faction rewards are not good enough there, and most people realized that the probability to sucessfully solo MC is higher than gain epics through PvP ranking; honor was the main reward for Warsong.
Alterac Valley lives up from time, when enough people come together to grind for faction. Once they reach exalted with the Frostwolf Clan they usally do not come back.
Arathi Basin: As it is new everbody who wants the faction rewards is grinding out there, together with the the few people who have aspirations on a high PvP rank (as they cannot find Warsong matches anymore, they have to mingle with the faction hunters). Basically it is the same as AV: once people have reached exalted with the Defilers they will drop out, and AB will begin dieing slowly much like AV today.
So here we are at the source of the whole blizzardic PvP-Problem: The whole honor and BG system was never designed with PvP as a social game in mind, but as an alternative way to acquire epic items for those who can't or don't want to PvE raid for them.
But the fun part of PvP is really the social aspect of it. Not being able to chose when to engange or not engange in PvP leads to social interaction, whether it is coalition building or simply trashtalking on realm forums about "oh so unfair gankers". Entering a Battleground where you are exepcted to kill and be killed, takes away this social element, and makes it mere sport or even worse "work".
Ok lets accept that Blizzard does not want open PvP, and rather simply seeks a competitive mode of play for item acquistion versus the cooperative one of PvE raiding.
People who don't do PvE Raids are often labled as casual players due to the fact, that they don't have or simply don't want to contribute large timeblocks for raid content. The honor system should be the way for those people to gain access to epic equipment.
The truth is, that to advance past rank 11 you have to contribute much more time than you would have to for mastering Onyxia, MC and BWL together. Basically it requires 24/7 gaming, simply because of the fact that you compete against other players who want to achieve the same thing, as opposed to competing vs. a set threshold of difficulty presented by the raid instances. In PvP there will always be someone more dedicated than you. If raid content is for the hardcore, then honor is for the maniacs ;)
In conclusion one has to credit Blizzard that they tried to tackle PvP in a way no other MMO has done before, but it is time to ackonowledge they have failed in this.
This not withstanding the BGs can be incredible fun in itself, wouldn't they be corrupted by the "curse of grind" to a degree that pales the PvE instances in comparison, or as the author of the craftingworlds.com movies said: "BGs have become the slums of Azeroth".