HANDS ON GUIDE

2 - PVP

Break the monontony of squashing 10,000 lesser furred rabbits each day by fighting a human opponent

Playing against computer-controlled enemies that scale in power but not in technique is a perfectly legitimate way to spend time gaming, just as jackets with patches on the elbows are perfectly legitimate items of clothing and the kazoo is a perfectly legitimate musical instrument.

Ultimately however, there’s still nothing like the thrill of fighting against a human opponent in an MMO game. The reason MMO PvP is more intense than, for example, a quick game of Team Fortress 2 or Call of Duty is that your character is something which you’ve lavished hours of game time on. Your character is a reflection of yourself, unless you’ve just thrown together the usual I WIN/Best Of archetype, in which case shame on you (unless you invented it).

The second aspect of MMO PvP which sets it on a pedestal is consequences. Sometimes these can be severe – in EVE or Pirates of the Burning Sea you can lose your ship in combat, and replacing and refitting it costs time, money and effort . In Ultima Online it could mean that your killer would rob you blind, kill your trusty steed and make stew from your body parts. In World of Warcraft it means that often you’ll have to run all the way back from a spawn point which can sometimes take several minutes.

Consequences in terms of losses to your character are one thing, but it’s the losses and gains in terms of the spirit that matter more. Beating another human rather than a pile of AI-animated statistics is a great feeling, whether it’s the first time you fight with your nerves on edge and your mouse hand shaking, or the calm feeling as you go through the motions of your millionth fight with the precise, calculated approach of a killing machine.

While the coolness of fighting another player can’t be overstated, even that pales before the majesty of massed PVP combat. From EVE’s giant fleet battles where you can watch hundreds of man-hours of player-crafted warships go up in smoke, to the glory days of Planetside, when groups battled step by tortured step through relentless enemy fire towards their objective while giant robots stomp past and artillery shells howl overhead. Not to mention the sieges of Lineage 2, where hundreds of players battle for control of a castle and for the honour of claiming they have the pointiest hair. Plus theres the end game of Lord of the Rings Online, where you find yourself slapping down player controlled orcs and goblins rather than the usual AI controlled suspects. Until you’ve fought against other players, you’ve not really fought anything.

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