I have nowhere near the pull or presence to make this sort of thing happen, I just wanted to mention it because, well… I thought it could be funny and/or fodder for blog posts, and maybe someone can take the idea and run with it.
Big Bear Butt has recently done some PvP, and one of the things he mentioned was setting up a cross-realm battle comprised of teams of bloggers. That’s a fun idea, and could spur some interesting posts. Putting a pseudo-face to a name in-game has a way of changing things, ever so subtly.
I can’t help but think that a similar session of PvP comprised wholly of baby Death Knights might be worth attempting. Let’s call it, A Dead Man’s Party.
Y’see, everyone would be on more or less equal footing, with the same gear and levels. The differences would be racial, spec and personal skill. This sort of flatter playing field interests me much more than most PvP… but then, I’m probably weird.
Anyway, just a thought, for all you PvP fans out there. I know you exist.
Somewhere.
I’m a pvp fan…sometimes. When I’m part of a losing team my whole family has to keep telling me to stop shouting so much. Anyhoo, sounds like an entertaining proposition to me. I’ll follow the big butt and here to see where it goes, you could count me in!
Aye, if there’s to be anything that really comes of this, it will likely be over at BBB’s place, or maybe some other big WoW site. I just don’t have the pull or the planning to put something like this together. The idea intrigued me enough to mention it, though. :)
Not currently subbed to WoW, but that does sound like fun. One of my big frustrations with PvP there was how unbalanced most matches were.
When I did play wow and PVP’ed, I didn’t have that big a problem – as long as I felt I could do something, which I usually did. The only thing that got to me was the ‘non-play’ of being backstabbed/stun locked by a rogue. I’d just cease playing/doing anything at that point. Designers should never put in anything that stops someone from doing something in game. Unless it removes them from play entirely – because then they can get up and do something else, so that’s okay. I HATE the limbo in between – I am neither playing, nor can I get up and do something else.
Beyond that, I’ve never had the problem with a lack of balance – particularly given that you got tokens even if your side lost (if it wasn’t for that, I probably would be peeved!).
Given the PVE isn’t balanced, I’m suprised how people don’t also like a lack of balance in PVP.
For me, I don’t mind the imbalances we see in PvP like the differences between chess pieces… when I’m commanding a team. It makes for tactical play when pieces have to work together. When I’m just a rook or pawn, depending on knights with ADD or queens with diva complexes, it’s not nearly as much fun.
That’s one reason why PvP in Atlantica Online was pretty good fun for roughly equivalent levels; you had a whole team of units to command, not just a single character that could get stunlocked or whatever.
Sorry for being unclear. I actually don’t mind asymmetrical PvP as long as I’m on a well organized team. For example monster play in LoTRO is one of my favorite forms of PvP, and the two sides are very rarely evenly matched in terms of numbers. Even if the numbers are even, one well geared freep is about as powerful as two average creeps (the side I play the most). The key that makes it fun for me is that there is generally a pick up creep raid with leaders that know what they are doing, and players that are willing to work together, available to join. Even as the underdog it’s fun to be a part of.
The lack of balance I was referring to was in terms of organization and skill. I rarely ever seemed to get into a match that where the two sides were evenly matched in that way in WoW. On paper you’d have two teams that were about even, one team would play cohesively and work on victory conditions while the other side would just run around randomly trying to wrack up kills. It drove me nuts when I was on the losing side of the equation and was kind of boring when I was on the winning side of it. It sounds like two well organized pre-mades going up against each other would address that problem.
Agreed, that’s the hope. That would fall on the event organization, though, where I was mostly talking about actual game design. No wonder we’re talking past each other. :)
I hear you, though; a disorganized team can be a nightmare to play with. I don’t have much MMO experience in that regard, but plenty of tales of that sort when it comes to playing volleyball. Oi.
Edit: On paper you’d have two teams that were about even. However, one team would play cohesively and work on victory conditions while the other side would just run around randomly trying to wrack up kills.
That’s what I figured you meant. :)
I like that as a basis, since it’s all about player skill, not gear or level… but still, yes, it’s frustrating when you wind up with players who just don’t care.