Day 20 – PvP or PvE
PvP or PvE = (Player vs Player) or (Player vs Environment)
PvE all the way, in fact I go out of my way to avoid PvP.
Here is the thing, I don’t like being pitted against other human players mainly because, even in the best of circumstance, someone has to lose, which usually leaves one rather pissed off and dissatisfied person on the loosing end.
Video games are all about having fun, that’s why I play them. While winning is a small part of the enjoyment, winning at someone else’s expense feels like a stab in the back after being stun locked, nothing heroic about it at all.
I truly don’t understand this competitive drive to be the best at ruining other people’s days, because that’s essentially what PvP amounts to. I don’t want my day ruined, why would I want to ruin someone else’s?
But then the whole culture surrounding PvP is incredibly distasteful; even if I could get over the whole ‘I’m winning because you aren’t, haha’ I would still avoid it like the plague as it seems to attract the worst sorts of assholes.
Bleh. Good sportsman ship and respect are sorely missing from the average PvPers vocabulary.
And don’t even get me started on how PvP screws with PvE all the time. While imbalance in PvE is prevalent, it’s not nearly as dire as when there is class and item imbalance in PvP. At least in World of Warcraft the solution always seemed to include far reaching changes, PvE be damned.
I could go on and on about this topic, but I shall spare you all. Needless to say I’m not the biggest fan of PvP, especially in gear and level dependent RPGs. =D
Tags: 30 days of video games, levels, loot, online, pve, pvp, rants, roleplaying
August 20th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Not much to add here, Carebear 4 lyfe and stuff. But I love that picture.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:23 am
I generally lean towards PvE as well, especially in the MMOs. No one ever seems to be able to get a decent balance going.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:32 am
In general I dont think people need more excuses to be assholes. Here is an idea, give people incentive to be nice.
August 20th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
PvP in some settings is fun as hell, but I do agree that it’s just another excuse to be a twat over the internet for quite a few people.
Having said that, I still lean towards pvp competition in select games where it’s designed around, and not an afterthought. WoW’s balance system has devolved into 2-3 classes OP as hell for a few months, then change the guard and let other classes be retard strong. It’s hard to find a good PvP system anymore, it’s all dumbed down.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Player base has a big impact on this. If you have millions of opponents available like in WoW, being a d-bag to people wont effect you since there will be other people to play against if the victims of your d-baggery stop playing.
In games with fewer people playing it, I find that the pvp becomes much better. I came across this in Dark Souls and Armored Core. The people playing those games like them and want to play against others. If you are a d-bag to people they will stop playing and then you cannot play either, so it is in your own best interest to be nice to your opponents. You both play to win, but you are respectful to each other.
However bad you think WoW PvP is, try some Call of Modern Warfare Duty Ops game on X-box… It’ll make WoW PvP look like English nobles having high tea.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
High Tea. LOL. Yeah I stay far far away from FPS games ala Call of Modern Warfare Duty Gears Ops (also well titled!) for specifically this reason. And I agree that this has a lot to do with player base.
But in the end I have simply watched too many people flip out because they lost. Hell, I have probably done some flipping out myself and its just not fun.
As for balance, yes in a game as gear and level dependent as WoW is much harder to balance, but even pure PVP games like Halo there are lots of ways to be a superior player. Someone who has played the game much more has a huge advantage. There are always advantages to be found in any game, which means it can never be really fair.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
I do say good sir, have some more crumpets after thou pwns that Hunter.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
I’m definitely a PvE person, but I think PvP is getting a bad rap here. There are plenty of PvP scenarios that are fun, win or lose. It’s definitely not the majority of PvP games that are the fun ones though. Too many first-person shooters for that to hold true. But I only need to look to board games for examples of how it can be done well, and there are plenty of games that do manage to have fun PvP systems.
I would also say that I usually don’t put a lot of the blame on the games and their PvP designs when they aren’t fun. It’s the shitty people that make it a bad experience. Hmm. Now that I think about it, you could probably say that about most unpleasant experiences.
Anyway, I’m in the PvE camp. Just saying that “I’m winning; you’re not! Haha!” isn’t a tenet of PvP. It’s a tenet of assholes.
August 21st, 2012 at 11:13 am
I agree. Let’s be fair to PvP. PvE has its fair share of assholes and d-baggery as well (and there isn’t much to be done about it).
August 21st, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Ah but see in PvE you can actively avoid the D-bags, well mostly.
So yes there are a few PvP games that are fun, not that I can think of any currently, but most of them just aren’t, be it the people or the imbalance
August 22nd, 2012 at 12:15 pm
I’ve enjoyed a few PvP games. Dark Ages of Camelot was great, mostly because you couldn’t hear the other side. And it was Realm v. Realm, not PvP.
And I do remember the ahole PvE experiences I’ve had, especially in Everquest (early kill-stealing, trains, ninja looting, etc…)
August 22nd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
OMG PvE was sooooooo dickable in EQ. Fancy the Bard. Thats all I gotta say on that one. But really it made playing an enchanter all worth it. =D
August 22nd, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Never been a big fan of PvP… except maybe tetris style because it was so indirect.
August 22nd, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Fancy was my hero.
August 22nd, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Oh Fancy!