Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about PvP, because all my friends play WoW on a PvP server.
No wait, that sounds really pathetic. All my friends? Let’s just say that most of my friends who play WoW play on a PvP server. OK? And I’m discovering something: high level characters can kill low level characters. Easily.
So, this is very realistic, and good, and as it should be. But it’s not fun if you want to solo. Dying is not fun. Two solutions have been proposed to deal with the pain of death:
- Play on a PvE server
- Just ignore it
Both of these have disadvantages.
Play on a PvE server
The disadvantage of playing on a PvE server is that people will use the word “carebear” any time you mention it. This is sort of like saying you’re dating a black girl and having people who claim to be your friends say “why are you dating a nigger?” I know you don’t think it’s an insult, but you’re using it as one, so it is.
I suppose I could start an underground PvE rap movement and start using the word “carebear” among my own peeps. “Wassup, my carebear!” “You’re rollin’ with some seriously strapped PvP flagged carebears, homie.” I’m not sure it will catch on. There are other disadvantages to hangin’ with the carebears, but as far as I can tell in WoW that’s the only one.
Just ignore it
It is true that in WoW there is really no significant penalty for death. And, yes, everybody got ganked when they were lowbs, except of course for people who power level. (If you power level you won’t get ganked, because you’ll have an escort, and you will in fact probably be off watching Seinfeld reruns or downloading porn while some guy in another country escorts your lowb around. I’m talking about actually playing the game, here.)
To many, being ganked repeatedly is a “rite of pasage”. Sure, you get ganked now, but later you will get to gank others. Now, does this make any sense? It reminds me of hazing in college fraternities. You see, it’s OK to be hazed now, because you’ll get to haze others later. So, the great thing about being in a fraternity is you get to strip young boys, pour Jaegermeister over their heads, and spank their naked butts with a paddle, or something. Hmm. In any case, if you don’t want to run around griefing, being griefed is less like a rite of passage and more like an annoyance.
And to me, WoW griefing is infinitely pointless. The griefer gets nothing, the griefee suffers no equipment wear or experience loss. The only point is that the griefee has a (typically) tedious corpse run.
Why not just whack squirrels and bunnies in town? (Actually, that’s kind of fun…)
And I keep reading posts by people who claim to like PvP, but who want to eliminate all penalties including the corpse run. At which point, PvP is completely, utterly pointless. Why kill somebody if they’re not even going to die? If you’re a 70 and they’re a 25, it’s not to prove that you can, that’s for sure. No death, no grief. Hmm.
Yes, the nice thing about PvE servers is you get to decide when you’re actually involved in the conflict. Hey, war in real life would be more fun if it were like this, too. The PvP zones are like real war, where the better equipped player easily kills the poorly equipped player, and you’re always involved, you don’t have a choice. PvE zones are more fun for the inexperienced or broke player, because he can choose when he wants to fight. Wow, if war in real life were like that, well, that would be very strange. But it would be a lot more fun for the soldiers who don’t really want to die. Trust me on this.
So my theory is that war IRL would be more fun if it was consensual. :)
