Power Trip

Are you on a power trip?

There is nothing like a little good pvp – and ganking is nothing like good pvp.

That said, for those uninitiated among our readers out there (read those who are new to mmo gaming) Player versus player (pvp) is a far cry from a process called “ganking” (a term which I can only assume owes its etymology to the words “gang” and “killing” ) This, Sean Cooper over at mmorpg.com would have you believe is different than “griefing” (The article can be found here):

“The difference between ganking and griefing is subtle enough that most players have difficulty separating the two…” – Sean Cooper

Actually, I think a sentence from an earlier paragraph in the same article is an indicator the author of the article might be the one who has a hard time telling the difference, “When you’re bored at max level, sometimes it’s funny to see how persistent the lowbie will be to see if he’ll keep trying to quest here before you get bored and take off.”  And that, my friends, is the perfect introduction to another term of which we are all aware…

Power Trip

Yes it is that time of year again. No, not a particular time of year when some nebulous person’s thoughts “turn to fancy” (whatever that means in the first place). It is that time in the life cycle of any pvp orientated mmo when players thoughts turn to the virtual battlefields in which they will soon participate (at level 25 in Aion Online). But it is not the eternal war of words between the gankers/griefers and those who enjoy pvp that we will join here. No, rather it is game balance.

As we here at No Prisoners, No Mercy will discuss on the soon to be released show 46, the sad case about Aion Online is that one has to wait until level 25 to experience any sort of pvp. So we can only surmise what attempts at game balance may or may not have been made. In any case, let’s hope NCSoft has spent more time on game balance than getting rid of gold sellers.

Lately I have seen different approaches to game balance.  The worst, of course, are those games who merely tack on pvp as an afterthought in an attempt to widen their player base.  This is what we saw in the opening months of Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine’s “player versus monster” play was little more than asking players to portray monsters so Turbine would have fodder to shove down the proverbial cannon.  But not every game approaches it as an afterthought. Some games, like the “developers formerly known as Mythic Entertainment” developed their game with pvp in mind. Yet still it appears to have fallen flat (or at least stumbled quite a bit).

We could spend the rest of the day discussing what happened with Mythic (in fact my co-host and I have done just that on the No Prisoners, No Mercy show in the past).  What should be mentioned is that if you are going to promise “massive realm versus realm battle” you had best assure that your servers can handle it in the first place.  For a great example of the right way to do this we have no further to look than CCP’s Eve Online.

Even more interesting is the difference between the approach to game/pvp balance that Warhammer takes, as opposed to the way the fine folks at Blizzard take in World of Warcraft (Yes…I know its “Activision/Blizzard”).   Warhammer takes the approach that each class has another that it is strong against, and one that it is week against.  This, I think, is a far better, and more viable approach than the one that Blizzard seems to have taken over the years.   The approach that is taken in Warhammer is by far the more preferable – like life, there will always be those who are lesser and greater than yourself. When you venture onto the field of battle in Warhammer (that’s WHEN you are ALLOWED to venture onto the battlefield) there will be some players who you will be able to prey on. Yet there are still others who will be able to hand you your ass, but that’s not until wearing it around as a hat for awhile.

The devs who work on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, on the other hand, have spent countless hours, weeks, and years, trying to micro-manage their pvp.   It has got to be a task that it would take a team of climbers and their Sherpa guides a lifetime to summit.  Each class must be analyzed to make sure that it is not able to overpower the other classes. Countless miniscule adjustments have to be made one way or the other as players (or those willing to do so) spend hours trying to find ways to squeeze the last fraction of a damage point out of their classes abilities.

Credit: Gahan Wilson

In the end, there seems to be few players who really want balanced pvp.  Instead they want the balance tipped in their favor. These are the griefs/gankers on a power trip (you can judge for yourself what this may or may not mean about their psychological makeup). These are also the players who, like our friend in the Gahan Wilson cartoon, could easily find themselves alone on a virtual battlefield, with no one willing to waste their time fighting them. The simple fact of the matter is that NO ONE likes to lose at pvp all the time.  If you think this is wrong, you are just kidding yourself.  This is also the point at which Mythic’s approach to game/pvp balance fits the bill.  Those who stride out onto the virtual battlefield looking for an outlet for their power trip will always find it, even if it is only momentarily.

No matter what the game, if there is a dev behind the game that has (at least where game development is concerned) the wisdom of  Solomon and brings balanced pvp to their product it is a beautiful thing. And I will see you online, in whatever game that happens to be.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather