There is an old adage that reads "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." There should be a second part to this phrase - "If it is broken maybe you should have done it right in the first place, huh?" Bornnak, a Blizzard "blue" poster had this to say recently in the official WoW forums: "In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we are currently taking steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Battlegrounds. Starting immediately, we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions and the removal of Honor points and recently acquired Honor rewards, for non-participation in Battleground games. If you are interested in reading what is rapidly becoming a threadnaught (it is currently up to 23 pages) you can do so here. First let me qualify all of this by stating that I have never gone AFK in battlegrounds - never. Not even in Warsong Gulch (a virtual game of capture the flag for those few of you out that who have never played WoW). As tempting as it has been to go AFK in Warsong Gulch when the winning side hides the flag, stretching out what would normally have been a quick and decisive victory into a slow and painful experience, I don't do it. Yet there is a reason that players stretch out battlegrounds "ad nauseum" for endless periods of time. Sometimes it is simply that the players have the mistaken idea that killing the same players over, and over again will accomplish anything short of a bad reputation. I have been in Battlegrounds that have stretched on for hours with some players, concerned over the honor they have won, simply begging to end it all. But the real reason for all of this is simple - the design for PvP in WoW was broken to begin with. No, I am not talking about the gang warfare on the open range that we find on PvP servers - that is a different animal altogether. I am talking about instanced battlegrounds. The simple fact of the matter is that the game design used in instanced battlegrounds is broken - period. This is not something that is limited to WoW. What does stand out as singularly unique is Blizzard's reaction, as seen above. "...we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions...for non-participation in Battleground games." So if I am a player that has decided to take advantage of the poor game design and go "AFK" it appears I am going to be spanked for being bad. It appears that now the players who are there for the loot they are able to earn and nothing more are going to get more than just a notation on their report card that says "Does not play well with others." But wait a minute here. Who created a game design with mechanics that reward greed and reduce PvP to little more than "inventory management" as Richard Garriott so aptly put it? Now after encouraging endless cycles of Raiding for better and better loot - after reducing PVP to little more than a way to get the best gear in the game - after literally shoving this game mechanic down everyone's throat Blizzard is going to punish players for acting out the simple human greed that they have encouraged all along? Give me a break. If Blizzard wanted players to engage in PvP for the simple pleasure of doing so (and that is where I derive my greatest enjoyment of it) they, and all the developers that continually copy them, should redesign PvP altogether rather than continually applying Band-Aids to the problem in the form of patches and "fixes." Personally I want to really enjoy good PvP. I don't want the outcome to be determined by the fact that some body who bought gold, or won a roll in a raid somewhere, has managed to bring a Howitzer cannon to a knife fight. The outcome should be determined in what seems to continues to elude developers... PvP should be based on skill and tactics - not gear and who has the biggest gun. Imagine that! Good PvP should be like a game of chess. All of the players should start out with the same base abilities, based on class (like the pieces of a chess board) but who wins is determined by skill. Gary Kasparov (the youngest chess champion) and I can both start with the same pieces but he will beat me so fast it will seem like the New York Jets playing the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders in the superbowl. Will things change in 2008? Could be - Warhammer Online might live up to expectations. Tabula Rasa might exceed expectations. Is the 800 pound Blizzard Gorilla worried? Maybe - they are working on a new MMO after all. See you online, Julie Whitefeather |