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Reflections on moving from a PvP to a PvE realm
Truthfully, I had no business ever rolling on a PvP server. I only went there because some friends went there, and I stayed there out of habit. For years, I moved in the shadows, keeping one eye warily over my shoulder, with all buffs active at all times and the button for my flying mount at the ready. When I left cities, it was only to touch ground for the briefest of moments -- grab the herb, pick the ore, kill the mob, and get the hell out. Indeed, there's a certain pride in surviving on a PvP server, like a rabbit reveling in its luck of returning to the burrow at the end of a long, perilous day. I've been through multiple expansion launches and patch events and been ganked at exotic locales from Hellfire Peninsula to Quel'danas to the Molten Front to Mount Hyjal. Over time, you learn to subsist from that extra adrenaline. Even if you loathe world PvP, your body feeds off of it. The heightened sense of perception becomes exhilarating. That first terrifying moment when you realize you are under attack and fight or flight instincts kick in -- there's something in that emotional response that resonates with our most primal underpinnings. And yet, a month ago, I gave it all up. I transferred from a PvP realm to a PvE one -- and immediately, it felt like an alien landscape.
Going at it with PvP Bingo
Reader Marcel sent us this great idea that a few players (including Siij of Laughing Skull) have had around the realms: PvP Bingo. Basically it's all started on a forum thread, where a square full of players (who have consented, I assume, although it might be funny if they didn't) are laid out as targets on a bingo card. Kill a player, mark the card, post a screenshot, and the first to finish up a line wins. Fun.Here's another one on a different realm. I especially like how some instructions are clearer than others (one of the instructions says to just kill a member of a certain guild), though it's not really fair to put just one guy in the center. Then again, maybe he wants to be there-- would you enjoy having a big price on your head, and players gunning to empty your health meter? Zerging groups are apparently acceptable, and though tracking via friends or alts is allowed, I'd think that would be a gamebreaker. Apparently switching to alts is acceptable, too-- all the kills don't have to be done with the same character.This kind of thing almost makes me wish I played on a PvP server, although I'm sure the same thing could be accomplished via duels. Fun idea, and definitely should make for some good world PvP. Makes me wonder, too, if Blizzard would ever consider player-created bounties ingame-- while there's probably a lot of potential for griefing, players who consented to it would probably have a lot of fun.
Flying the not-so-friendly skies
Gustav of Nazjatar started a long thread the other day about air kills (and many times, the lack thereof) in World PvP. These concerns got raised before the expansion, but I haven't heard too much about them since until now (maybe that's what I get for playing on a PvE server). Basically players are saying that when you get a flying mount at 70, you suddenly become immune to PvP-- because there's no way to pull people out of the air, a flying target is no target at all. And that, says Gustav, is yet another example of the "carebearization" (nice) of world PvP by Blizzard.The other issue Gustav has is an upcoming change that will make dead players' bodies fall to the ground after death, instead of remaining suspended there in the air like, as Drysc says, "a magic trick gone wrong." Blue's word on this one is that it's just not "natural" to leave players in the air-- Gustav thinks it's because Blizzard wanted to give people a break on repairs (because now, players left in the air have to rez at the spirit healer), but Drysc says it's just artistic-- let the bodies hit the floor, man.But Gustav's more interesting idea is that every class should have an anti-air ability-- a way to bring your PvP opponent out of the air. To my mind, that kind of thing just opens the door to griefing-- actual air-to-air combat seems like a better idea to me. Drysc's response to the news that PvPers are avoiding a fight by flying sounds about right: staying on a mount when someone below is taunting you just makes you chicken. If you're really interested in world PvP, then get off the mount-- it's time to drop down and throw down.
