David Souza looks at PvP effects on MMO design.

Tunnel Vision

Players don’t view PvP in the same fashion they do PvE. In any game that uses the trinity of classes I wouldn’t expect to run a full group instance with only a few tanks and a DPS because without a healer we would almost certainly fail due to our lack of essential tools to get the job done. Similarly I wouldn’t expect the casters and healers to have levels of health and defenses approaching a tank’s, as his role is to draw attacks and mitigate damage.

Yet many titles seek to balance PvP gameplay around a character’s abilities and statistics in a fashion that works differently from how those same abilities and statistics work in the game’s PvE environment. Quite a few of these balances come with making certain that all classes or archetypes have nearly identical abilities, narrowing the individual contribution each class can bring to PvP. Since these are the same abilities characters use throughout the PvE content of the game it has the unintended effect of limiting the abilities and individuality available to characters outside of PvP as well.

Keeping the distinctiveness of classes and abilities is essential as it engenders a deeper sense of interest in continual play. Making a choice between a healer that has either stun resistance or AoE-healing makes for more impactful group play. Forgive me, but the term that has been coined in recent years of “bring the player, not the class” is a bunch of malarkey. Bring the player AND the class.

No Toon is an Island

This problem may stem from the fact that nearly every MMORPG is soloable these days, and group play has become more and more optional as the genre has progressed. Thus, players who engage in most of a game’s content solo tend to bring that same mindset to PvP, which is rarely a lone endeavor in any MMO. To alleviate some of the problem I think developers should try to emphasize that PvP is as much—if not more—group-oriented than much of today’s MMO content.

Almost all MMOs have been a slow evolution that harken back to early computer games like MUDs and MUXs, which draw their roots from table top games like Dungeons and Dragons. All of these games expected players to work together to some extent, not live in a bubble with others around to see your exploits. By and large modern MMOs have moved from a group-centric mentality to a solo-centric social activity, with grouping as a possible—but often unnecessary—portion of the game.

Reading the forums for Dungeons and Dragons Online you will find that a common complaint among players is that PvP doesn’t work in DDO because of the class imbalances. But DDO is modeled (relatively) closely after the most pervasive table-top RPG system ever, Dungeons and Dragons 3.x. So if that argument were true wouldn’t other games based upon DnD be broken as well? The Neverwinter Nights series of games, which has birthed literally thousands of player created worlds, runs off the same backbone of rules and function just fine.

I believe the problem is in the player thinking “me” instead of “us”, since DnD runs off of a group-based system to fill roles so that a group of players is greater than the sum of their parts. Isn’t that how an MMO should play? The disconnect comes in thinking of balance around each individual character instead of the group, and this is a simple break from logic in an environment that is defined by the fact that it’s Massively Multiplayer.