Player vs. Player vs. Environment

Did you do the PvP reading I assigned in yesterday’s post? If so, here’s another one for you from the Cesspit (link). If not, don’t worry about it too much. While reading those posts gave me a launching point to discuss some things I’ve been chewing over, so did breakfast this morning and my specific reactions to a bowl of cereal are probably about as relevant to what I’m about to say as my specific reactions to the posts.

Okay, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive in. Player vs. Player, as I have experienced it, is less than fun. Admittedly, this probably has more to do with the bad apples in the PvP barrel than anything else. Corpse camping, 1337 speaking, trash talking, kids, aren’t the sort of people I enjoy playing with, no matter which side of my swords and spells they’re on.

That being said, it drives me batty that my gnomish rogue can’t pickpocket a passing Paladin and that my trollish shaman can’t learn to communicate with the night elf druids he’s so fond of. What do those two things have to do with PvP? Read on, MacDuff, read on!

I see two three problems with PVP, as I have experienced and read about, to date:

Problem Number 1: PvP is too narrowly defined. PvP refers specifically to combat. Why is this? PvP’s care bear cousin, PvE, while primarily focused on combat contains some elements of other skills… like lock picking, gathering resources, pick pocketing, etc.

Problem Number 2: PvP is artificially enforced with out-of-world boundaries imposed by the developers’ view of the world.

Problem Number 3: PvP is all or nothing. You’re either flagged for PvP, or you aren’t. WoW has a “cool down” timer, but that’s cold comfort if you’re fishing in foreign territory and someone jumps in front of your lure.

Every problem has a solution of course!

By borrowing 2 gold from an alt, my level 8 blood elf rogue earned 72 gold within a couple days of installing the Burning Crusade. All it took was a single suicidal run to Gadgetzan*, with stops at every flight path along the way, and a willingness to spend some time every days after that, shuttling more Dragonhawk Whelplings to the auction house there. When I first checked the auction house, whelps had a 7 to 10 gold buy out. Not wanting to take the chance on waning interest, I put my whelps up with a 4 gold buy out. They were gone within hours, not bad for a Thursday evening. My buyout prices fluctuated over the next week as the market adapted to my aggressive policy. Eventually, of course, the bottom of the market dropped out from under me and I was left with some inventory to dump… not much inventory because I was cautious.

To my mind, as I dramatically undercut the competition’s prices, I was participating in form of PvP against member of my own faction, as well as the Alliance traders who were no doubt hoping to fetch premium prices in the Alliance auction houses.

So why not recognize it as such? Even looting resources in territory that clearly belongs to another faction is a form of PvP, even though in a land where copper miraculously re-appears on the surface of a mountain side it’s a low-consequence PvP.

For that matter, how many times have you been headed for a resource, only to have a mob jump you, and when you were dealing with the mod, a level 60 runs by and loots the resource out from under you? Or skins the first creature lying at your feet while you deal with the second? That ought to be considered PvP as well. Which brings us to problem number 2…

Artificial social constraints drive me crazy. There’s a lot of talk on those other posts about PvP being expressed as gang mentality (which many people equate with nationalism on a much smaller scale). Some people seem to like that, other people don’t. What I don’t like is that while we have a plethora of examples of cross gang alliances or trysts and inter-gang betrayals, we have no such freedom in today’s MOGs.

The inability to communicate with the opposing faction is the flip side of PvP’s limitations, but still seems to be imposed as part and parcel of the approach to PvP. For that matter, the inability to learn another racial tongue within your factions feels like a part of the issue as well. It’s all about building these conceptual fences around everything to “protect” the players from themselves. But unlikely alliances exists in nature, in history, in our literature, but not in our MOGs.

For that matter, when a level 60 paladin loots the copper you were fighting next to** shouldn’t you be able to flag PvP against her? Duels are an unsatisfactory answer, because a level 7 rogue stands no chance against a level 60 paladin… today. But after time… shouldn’t you be able to find them later and seek redress should you decide to be so petty?

For that matter, shouldn’t you be able to single out individuals to PvP against, always? Whether extra or intra faction? Shouldn’t the system allow for rivalries which strengthen or transcend built in alliances or enmities?

The problem, as I see it, isn’t with PvP itself, it’s with all the limitations placed around PvP. A well crafted world should allow players who wish to live on the edge to do so and those who don’t want to take such risks to live out their character lives so as to avoid it. Alternately, if you’ve more drawn to crafting, or social interaction, your game efforts ought to contribute to the state of the world, without being constrained by artificially imposed barriers.

So here’s how plan on implementing PvP within the Honeycomb Engine. It’s important to realize that ultimately the WorldTeller will have control over the PvP implementation, reducing or increasing its impact on their StoryWorld.

Environmental PvP There are certain global goals which all players are affected by, even if they choose to not directly participate in the struggle to reach them. These goals involve amassing Renown in whatever manner the players see fit. Merchants acquire vast reserves of wealth, priests convert and build temples, psychics spy on enemy plans, thieves steal wealth and recipes, armorers and tailors ensure their allies are well protected and wearing the latest fashions. Alchemists brew newer and stronger potions, (possibly based on plans acquired by the thieves and psychics), necromancers keep raising and questioning the enemies dead, or loot their graveyards for parts. You should never need to raise a sword against your foe, in fact, you may regularly meet with them for dinner, and yet you’re actions will affect the balance of power.

Social PvP Just as your opposing faction may share some of the same cities, neighborhoods, or even living quarters as you, your allies may have secret plans of their own. After all, quite a bit of Renown can be acquired by achieving a goal first. What lengths will you go to in order to grab that Renown for yourself?

Regional PvP There are neighborhoods and streets you don’t go down safely. City guards are in short supply and criminals lurk in every shadow. Even the most inattentive of players won’t fail to notice that the area they are entering isn’t safe. But it isn’t just combat they can be subject to. It’s any direct application of a villainous verb. Extortion, theft, murder, all are very real dangers in these neighborhoods.

Likewise, the least tame areas of the world are PvP enable. If a patrolling guard, sturdy farmer, or friendly scout isn’t within earshot, you’re in danger from more than the local fauna. Of course, if the patrolling guard is protecting the city or town of an opposing organization… well, that’s just not safe either. If traveling through such areas is necessary, safe travel services are available and you can always hire some players to provide you with an escort… just hope they’re reputable. It might be a good idea to have someone check their Renown for you, if you don’t have the skill to check it yourself.

Situational PvP You’ve had enough. Every time you’ve exited a shop today, that thug with the scars has been leering down at you, almost, but not quite, impeding your supply trip. Finally, annoyed, you spit at his feet. He spits at yours. You insult him. He insults you back. You declare your intent to kill him. He indicates he’d be fine with that. You, not prepared for this battle, disappear in a flash of smoke. That’ll show him. Let him look over his shoulder for a while.

Later, discovering that he was actually sent by an ally to keep you safe, you send him a formal apology. If he accepts, you’ll no longer pose a threat to each other. If he doesn’t, you can always petition the courts. They typically resolve any such un-pleasantries in an expedient fashion. If you’ve already met in combat, it may cost more (if you’ve killed him before) or less (if he’s killed you), but it’s still a matter the courts can settle.

Of course, you may not wish to resolve it so nicely. You may choose to exact a long and slow revenge. The lout certainly seemed the type to not back down from a fight. If, over time, you find your enmity growing, you can always swear a blood oath at your temple. If he does the same, it means you’re conflict is a final one. It can’t be ended, but any means, until one of you is permanently dead.

Likewise, other non-combat conflicts can be formally declared. These can be limited by time period, or set goals, or open ended. They can be a friendly wager between competitors, or one sided vendettas of skill and success.

My ultimate goal is to provide natural narrative based opt-in choices for all PvP. Players should always know clearly when they are in danger and how they can get out of it. Should other players manage to socially engineer a scenario in which your character is placed in danger (and they probably will), then there should always be narrative solutions for excusing yourself without penalty.

…and that is all I have for today! Enjoy your Wednesday and I’ll have another bio-pic for you tomorrow. I’m filing for an extension on the Attic, so it probably won’t launch tomorrow after all, but some time this weekend. I’ve worked around several of the issues that were plaguing me, so it’s mostly content and spit shining that’s left undone at this point.

*I chose the longer trip to Gadgetzan rather than Booty Bay because of historic precedence. My first pre-10 character once ran to Gadgetzan when Booty Bay didn’t have an auctioneer yet and it’s become something of a ritual for me.

** And why was a level 60 paladin in such need of copper that they couldn’t stop to lend a hand when the four wolves tore into me, or at least go on to the next node?