Well now, this is an interesting surprise.
First off, let me state my position – I do NOT like PvP in an MMO. However, I have NO PROBLEMS with a PvP-oriented game. Let me give you some examples to clarify my position.
I play games. Some of those game titles include “Battlefield 2” and “SWAT 4” and so on. The online version of these titles splits you into teams to capture the opponent’s flag, which is guarded by their team. To get to the flag you need to “kill” the team members to clear the way. This is PvP. Other kinds of online matches include Deathmatches (kill everyone else and be the last guy standing), which I normally do not take part in.
However, when I’m on an MMO, I hate PvP. First of all, PvP in most MMO depends on LUCK and STATISTICS rather than the SKILL of the player. So if you have the uber armour and sword, you will most likely do very well in PvP.
Also, having PvP in an MMO will inevitably lead to ganking – a lowbie might be running around in the zone doing his own thing, completing quests and so on. Just because he happened to be running around in a piece of land “controlled” by your guild or faction and he’s not in your faction/guild, suddenly he becomes open-season to you. Because you’re level 200 and he’s level 15, you can easily kill him with just one shot, and you do. What was the level 15 doing to you? Nothing. He just happened to be in the wrong place.
Now, assuming YOU are the level 15, and many parts of the zone belongs to a guild other than your own, the whole zone suddenly becomes very hostile to you. Yes, there are jerks who camp PvP zones just to kill the next clueless n00b. There are of course, well-meaning high levels in those games too, trying to “police” these kind of anti-newbie activity, but they are few and far in between.
Again, just because you’re level 200 (or 50, or 80, or whatever your game’s max level is), you are automatically a sure-bet to win. Why? Because in MMOs, hits and damage are still calculated by dice-rolls, just like in original D&D. Yes they have different formulas and so on, but essentially it’s still dice-roll. If you roll a good to-hit, you WILL hit. If you make a bad roll, you miss. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned FPS player or fairly new. If you have the better equipment or are higher level, you have the advantage.
Hence, I don’t like PvP in MMOs but I do play PvP games like Battlefield 2 simply because games like Battlefield 2 depends on your skills and not your stats.
