[MUD-Dev] A Question on PvP and PK

[Paul Boyle]

From: "Ron Gabbard" <rgabbard at swbell.net>

> PK switches, PK servers/non-PvP servers, PvP areas, etc...

> Some people point at the number of 'carebear' servers EQ/AC has
> versus the number of PvP servers as proof that people prefer
> non-PK environments.  However, if you go over to DAoC, most
> players consider RvR the 'best part of the game' and consider PvE
> a necessary evil in order to get to RvR.  They are both very
> successful games with very large and very broad player bases.
> However, they are contradictory 'proof' of the player's desire to
> participate in PvP combat.

> Why is it that 5% of the EQ players (slightly more for AC) want to
> participate in PvP combat while 95% of the DAoC players want to
> participate in PvP combat when the games are pretty similar with
> similar customer bases?

If you asked a DAoC player if they'd enjoy EQ, and vice versa, I
think you'd see that their player bases are not similar on that
question. Players who've played the game for a certain amount of
time realize where the ultimate rewards in the game lie, and, if
those rewards are not for the playstyle they themselves prefer, they
will leave the game.  That's not new thinking.

One new thought I do have to offer up is that there is a second
option.  Some players, if they enjoy other aspects of the game
enviornment, will, rather than leaving the game, condition
themselves to enjoy or at least tolerate the gameplay that is most
rewarded in the game.

Let me give you a concrete example.  I know a woman playing EQ who
admits to being bored by the standard cycle of plane raiding,
monster killing, achievement playing that is the standard of the
game.  Whenever I ask her why she doesn't quit, though, she usually
answers that she feels obligated to be there for her guild, her
friends, and her husband who also plays.  Btw, she plays a cleric.
But she gets caught up in the thrill of getting that new bubble of
experience for her skills too.

I don't know what you should take from that.  Personally, I feel
sorry that she's sort of trapped herself in an enviornment that
really isn't rewarding to her.  I'm sure the execs at Sony, are
thrilled to have people like her who've maintained their game
account, not because of the game itself, but because of other
players.

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