Ah, nothing like seeing the land run red…with your killers’ names, of course.
PvP in MMOs has mostly been about serious business and competition to the highest degree. Whether it take the form of prepared teams going at it in a sanctioned match or a spontaneous explosion of virtual guts and glory, PvP is equated with a sense of meaningful and definite achievement. Where PvE-focused players get their kicks from defeating the latest and greatest in AI-controlled epicness, a PvP’r defines pleasure in the conflict and battle between human intelligence. The best MMOs feed this need and create situations where PvP folks can prove themselves.
But there’s another side to PvP that is not quite about being the best in combat with other players but simply being the most creative and interesting. The dynamic nature of this kind of PvP has been seen before in the form of creatively stealthed attacks, mechanics that take advantage of unaware players and best of all, simply creating as much havoc as possible to the normal routine of the opposing faction. In many cases, this takes hilarious forms, and I participated in something like that just last night.
My good friend Kristen invited me to a bit of a crazy mission for Aion last night to bust up the grindstone gag-fest. This mission would be to see how far we could get from the opposing players’ level 20-25 base once transported there. As a secondary goal, we would see just how long it would take for people to realize that her gladiator boyfriend was being healed from two hidden places while he smashed people’s faces. The goal was not victory, nor was it bragging rights, nor was it to “pwn faces”. No, this particular insanity was all about causing chaotic behavior in a hostile zone that favored the enemy.
The results, aside from the screenshot above, were hilarious. Most of the enemy players, used to tunnel-visioning onto completing the next in a long line of excruciating “kill x things” quests, did not know what to make of a single hostile target being healed from hidden places that crushed things on the main road. A couple of them paid for their hesitation with a respawn. Others actually flew past us. But eventually we drew the ire of a legion of players who helplessly beat on our gladiator while he was healed. Eventually, we showed ourselves and killed a few more, including someone who happened to just be resting and afk, before finally being overwhelmed by what seemed to be scores of annoyed enemies.
Instead of being upset, we merely laughed. While fifteen minutes is hardly a massive impact when it comes to PvP in MMOs (especially since we lost, quite handily), it was fifteen minutes where PvP wasn’t simply about victory at all costs and being totally l337, but just about creating something dynamic for everyone to experience. At its heart, PvP in MMOs is just that, no matter how you decide to play it. It’s something that isn’t really scripted, but tests yourself in a situation where intelligent players will react to your actions. In my case, it was just another way to entertain myself by doing something different from the norm. PvP’ing to win certainly has its merits – but it’s not the only way to create PvP in an MMO and enjoy it.