PvP Stats: Not Necessary Before, Not Necessary Now

Why can’t items be universal?  Why do I have to obtain a set of gear for PvP and a set for PvE?

Having to gather gear with a PvP stat has never made much sense to me.

The problem started with players who only wanted to PvP.  These PvP-only types bemoaned the idea of having to go PvE to obtain their gear.  The solution?  Make a set of gear obtainable through PvP!  Several iterations of this idea have been implemented throughout the years.

At first, the PvP gear was inferior to PvE and it was worthless.  Then the PvP gear was just as good but easier to get so no one did PvE.   I guess no one cared to actually solve the problem, because the most recent version is the PvP Stat, and it’s been with us for a while now.

The PvP stat, whether it’s resilience, expertise, toughness, or whatever your particular game calls it, gives you an edge in PvP by lowering the damage enemies do to you, and increasing the damage you do to enemies.  It becomes a must-have in order to compete.   I think the original problem still exists: Players can’t play the way they want.

Read on for my thoughts on the problems caused by PvP stats and why past games have done fine without them.

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Prime: BFD Beta Footage

The Prime: Battle for Dominus dev chat yesterday was a little different than usual.  First, it looks like they moved over to Twitch.tv (good choice for better quality, imo).  Second,…

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DAOC’s 10th Birthday

I have to chime in on this one.  Scott Jennings has posted Matt Firor’s recollections from DAOC’s launch day.  It was ten years ago.  Crazy how time flies while at the same time making no sense… it’s crazy to think at 2001 was ten years ago when it feels like yesterday.  Read Matt’s story.  It’s fascinating.  Mythic has a truly remarkable history that so many of you do not know well enough.

I remember walking into the office one morning towards the end of October. By that time it was obvious we had a smash hit on our hands. Our marketing/sales consultant, Eugene Evans (now the GM of the studio) had a whiteboard near his desk (right by the front door) where he jotted down sales numbers. By October 27 or so, it showed that we were not only the #1 selling PC game for October, but also the #1 selling PC product for that month. Since this was the first boxed retail product Mythic had, I asked him if this success was normal. Eugene, and old industry veteran, looked at me like I was insane and replied, “No, this isn’t typical.”

DAOC was and most likely will be forever one of the greatest accomplishments in MMORPG PvP.   While DAOC invented and captured lightning in a bottle when it came to PvP, it was also one of the few games to masterfully blend PvE and PvP together with incentive and reward (until ToA).  Furthermore, DAOC had one of the greatest communities of any game where you could be playing in a realm of a thousand people and feel like you knew them all — it was magic in every sense of the word.

There aren’t words to adequately describe my desire for another game like it.  I would give my time freely to see it done.   It’s sad that games are releasing today with problems that DAOC solved.  That says a lot about the DAOC team and about those teams making games today.

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Huttball … mmmmk

I'm not sure I really 'get' Huttball.  The themepark style is obviously never going to try hard to immerse people in the setting, but I like when there is at…

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