David Souza looks at PvP effects on MMO design.

Bridging the Gap

Every game approaches PvP implementation with its own tact, and as PvP has grown into a very popular aspect of MMO gameplay companies have scampered to keep up. Where open world PvP was once the customary, and often only, form of PvP available the existence of instances built specifically for such combat have become extremely popular over the years. These instances invariably enforce the same number of characters on each team seeking to even the playing field. In such a fashion PvP has evolved from a more organic world feature to a highly competitive E-sport. With such competitiveness though comes the search for balance once again, which has spawned several different methods to keep PvP fully viable in its own right.

The most common approach to this balance is gear that has stats that are specifically tuned for PvP. This creates extra content for players to aspire to, but it seems to once again add to the separation of PvE and PvP that I would like to see avoided.

To return to the most popular example, World of Warcraft has sported PvP stats for years. Until recently WoW featured a stat called Resilience which, to sum up, made a player much more difficult to kill in PvP combat by lowering the amount of damage and critical strikes the player would suffer from other player attacks. WoW has more recently evolved the system to a breakdown of two PvP stats entitled, not surprisingly, PvP Power and PvP Resilience. But wait, even MORE recently WoW is now removing PvP Resilience from MOST gear, but still making it a rare stat on some gear and rolling it into a character’s base attributes…I’m getting dizzy. Even WildStar is getting in on the action, revealing that there will be two PvP specific stats, one for increasing PvP damage and one for decreasing it…let’s call them Star Power and Star Toughness I say.

Similarly SWTOR has gear that offers procs that work only in or outside of PvP areas. The stats from the items still function, but the additional effects are suspended in certain areas. Is the balance between PvE and PvP in so many games on such a razor’s edge that individual items have to be fractioned off till the scales are perfectly even?

Another approach is the separation of abilities effects between PvE and PvP. A good example is SWTOR’s use of the taunt mechanic. In PvE it forces an NPC to attack you while in PvP it encourages a player to attack you or suffer a loss of damage done to any other target for the duration. Along the same lines WoW has tweaked most of its crowd control abilities to have shorter, set durations in PvP.

What Can Be Done?

While I applaud different solutions to the problem I sometimes think things are being overanalyzed. Then again I believe the selling point of many MMOs has become PvP. Where once it was merely optional gameplay for a minority of players it has become the impetus behind much of today’s MMO consumption. I sometimes wonder if there aren’t some titles that would have been better served by scrapping development time on the PvE side of the game entirely and applying it directly to PvP gameplay, or vice versa.

Ultimately I think the best course would be studios pre-planning their implementation of PvP better from the inception of design. For any MMO that is going to consider its content to have both major PvE and PvP aspects it is essential to develop a system from the ground up that includes the ability to expand both sides of content without limiting either character or content growth. This way no matter what path a player takes in a game—PvE, PvP, or a mix of both—any transition between the two will appear seamless and natural. Perhaps, more importantly, this will free up large amounts of developer time to focus on creating more content for all players. After all, if both sides of your game use the same universal rules across the board you don’t have to pull double duty for content creation.

In Closing

The subject of PvP and how it affects overall game balance is a long and complex one that isn’t easily delved into in a single article. The fact that so much balance tends to happen around PvP aspects of MMORPGs attests to the fact that PvP isn’t a simple inclusion in today’s MMORPGs. However, I think that PvE and PvP need to become more symbiotic in future MMO development.

Let me state clearly that I don’t believe any game design has been completely enveloped by PvP balance yet, but I do see a growing trend that is troubling. As evolution within the genre takes baby steps forward I’ve become aware of a propensity of the “hero” class emerging. What I mean by this is that the lines between classes are becoming blurry, with more classes and skill builds developing more strengths without the commensurate weaknesses to balance them. And while PvP isn’t the only factor playing upon this movement it is an undeniably potent one.

David "Goulak" Souza