From what I have read, I expect the Blizzard has the resolution of "Open PvP" concerns coming at the same pace at the "Casual Player" concerns--in the expansion. They've described the Outlands as lawless and rough-and-tumble, leading one reviewer to speculate it meant that there would be open PvP (contested zones, forced flagging, etc.) on even PvE servers.
Which makes a lot of sense to me--My initial impression of Open PvP from when I rolled in Nov 2004 on one of the early PvP servers--PvP didnt fit with the game. It seemed like the developers had built this great PvE game and then just locked PvP flags in the on position. And people recognized it--Over time, a sort of ad-hoc honor system would occur among people leveling in the same area; some people even helped the other faction. Of course, the honor system turned people into ye olde "bag 'o CPs" and ended any of that honor-between-factions crap mentioned in the manual. ;)
The Outlands will offer Blizzard an opportunity to really design an entire zone (or set of zones) for Open PvP. And not only that, but since we can expect that there will be places to level to 70 still in Azeroth, it lets them segregate the PvP away from zones which were (theoretically) designed for PvE.
~Monkey
PS: btw, longtime reader, first time poster. Hi and stuff. :)
Which makes a lot of sense to me--My initial impression of Open PvP from when I rolled in Nov 2004 on one of the early PvP servers--PvP didnt fit with the game. It seemed like the developers had built this great PvE game and then just locked PvP flags in the on position. And people recognized it--Over time, a sort of ad-hoc honor system would occur among people leveling in the same area; some people even helped the other faction. Of course, the honor system turned people into ye olde "bag 'o CPs" and ended any of that honor-between-factions crap mentioned in the manual. ;)
The Outlands will offer Blizzard an opportunity to really design an entire zone (or set of zones) for Open PvP. And not only that, but since we can expect that there will be places to level to 70 still in Azeroth, it lets them segregate the PvP away from zones which were (theoretically) designed for PvE.
~Monkey
PS: btw, longtime reader, first time poster. Hi and stuff. :)