#0 - April 18, 2007, 9:29 p.m.
The record shows that Blizzard has long been interested in promoting certain kinds of PvP. I do not deny that Blizzard tries to get players to fight each other. This active promotion, however, has resulted in a direct, negative impact on world PvP participation.
From World PvP to Instanced PvP: Honor System and Battle Grounds
Most of Blizzard's attempts to promote PvP overall have contributed to shift PvP out of the open environment and into staged battlegrounds. The introduction of the honor system and battlegrounds has been the greatest culprit in this respect. By providing players with an alternative route to acquire gear, a noble sentiment, Blizzard created an incentive to acquire "honor points." These points were originally acquired only by killing opposing players within certain level restrictions.
Initially, the honor system dramatically increased world PvP participation. Areas such as Tarren Mill became focal points for large-scale PvP engagements that raged night and day, literally without end on many servers. The honor system also contributed to increase the number of small, roaming groups of PvPers, lovingly referred to as “gank squads.”
Admittedly, the honor system was not perfect. It had the undesired effect of turning PvP into a full-time job, a ladder “grind.” It did, however, have the desired effect of increasing hostility among factions. Nevertheless, Blizzard heard the cries of those who “just wanted to level,” and did not want to have PvP “forced on them” by raging bands of blood-thirsty warriors.
From this point on, Blizzard has adopted and promoted a policy of “carebearization,” limiting world PvP and faction hostility, even on PvP servers. What happened to the time-honored position that players should find a PvP solution to their PvP problems? If someone is ganking you, kill them. If you can’t kill them, run from them. If you can’t run from them, get your faction to help you. If no one will help you, wait for him to leave. If this upsets you and you are simply too immature to handle the harsh reality, delete your character and play on a PvE server where you belong because you clearly can’t handle being on a PvP server.
The lines between PvP and PvE servers are steadily being blurred. Blizzard should never forget the fact that anyone who plays on a PvP server does so willingly. They have assumed the risk and should not be coddled. The same people who are whining about being ganked, griefed, corpse camped, &c. are usually the same people who post about how they “wtfpwnd” someone the day before. You can’t have both it both ways.
Blizzard's first step in carebearization turned out to be the introduction of battlegrounds. I believe that Blizzard had good intentions and that battlegrounds were always envisioned to be part of the game. It quickly became clear to anyone familiar with the game, however, that honor points could be acquired most efficiently in instanced battlegrounds. BG’s provide a concentrated source of HK's as well as bonus honor received for completing various objectives. No player engaging in world PvP can hope to acquire a similar point return in a given time period. The effect of diminishing returns further encourages BG PvP by increasing the relative contribution of bonus honor and by providing for a fresh cycling of opponents to limit diminishing returns on HKs.
The arena system is very similar to that of BG’s and so is its affect on world PvP. Like BG’s and the honor system, arenas provide players with another means of acquiring gear aside from raiding. Just like BG’s they also funnel willing PvPers into instances, and away from world PvP, because the incentives provided there are far greater.
The impact of BG’s and the arena is very simple: They take players out of the environment and put them into instances. As a result, there are fewer people out in the “real world” to kill or be killed themselves. The carebears, however, are happy because it prevents PvP from being forced upon them and allows them to engage in PvP in a safe and “packaged” form.
Flying Mounts: The Greatest Threat to World PvP
The single greatest threat to world PvP, and the most abominable step in the carebearization conspiracy, is the introduction of the Burning Crusade and flying mounts.
Flying mounts have the effect of creating a PvE server within a PvP server. Players cannot be stunned or dismounted while on a flying mount. For these reasons, among others, it is very difficult to kill a player once they are in the air. Smart players with epic mounts are virtually impossible to kill. Because of this, Blizzard has, in essence, created a “safety zone” that exists between 5-41+ yards above ground (depending on your class).
Players spend a great deal of time on their mounts. This has been apparent since the introduction of regular land-based mounts. With land-based mounts, however, escape was not nearly so easy. There were numerous methods by which a player could catch up to, slow, and/or dismount an enemy player and force them into a combat situation. This ability to force an engagement is a fundamental aspect of world PvP and it must be preserved on PvP servers at all costs.
Blizzard, however, has shown no willingness to make air combat more feasible. In fact, what little information that has been provided suggests that air combat was not intended:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=120334901&sid=1&pageNo=2#23
This cannot be allowed. To limit or prevent air combat would irreparably blur the lines between PvE and PvP servers. Any player who wished to avoid combat could simply mount up, effectively “unflagging” themselves for PvP. I though I was on a PvP server . . . .
The Merits of Air Killing: Why Spirit Rez’ing Should Stay
Currently when a player is killed in the air, and they cannot get close enough to their corpse to resurrect normally, they are required to “spirit rez” at the closest graveyard. In the process they receive a 25% durability penalty and a 10 minute debuff.
Several players, including those in the forum post linked above, complain about the penalties associated with air killing. These penalties however, should be embraced, not eliminated, on PvP servers. Nothing says “stay and fight like a man” more than the risk of losing gold and 10 minutes of play time should you choose to run and fail. Players should not be encouraged to simply fly away and sit there mocking you with their cowardice, while you can do nothing in return.
Cowardice must not be tolerated. Cowards who get air killed on a PvP server because they refuse to engage their enemy on the ground should be punished. A forced spirit rez is fitting, given the difficulty in pulling off an air kill to begin with. The risk of durability damage and rez sickness forces a player to fly lower to the ground, where it is possible to engage them, or to dismount and meet their adversary head on. This is the way things should be. There are numerous other PvP solutions available to the player as well, such as getting summoned or queued to a battleground that make eliminating air kills and spirit rezzes unnecessary.
Finally, forcing a sprit rez serves as an effective money sink that prevents inflation by taking money out of the WoW economy. Most importantly, it creates a strong sense of animosity between the victim and his killer. This should be encouraged on a PvP server. If you don’t like it, go get some friends and to the same thing to your enemy. Blizzard should be promoting, not eliminating, PvP tactics that encourage inter-faction hostility.
In summary, keep the “war” in the World of Warcraft. Stop this trend toward the carebearization of PvP servers. Keep air kills in the game. If anything, make air killing even more feasible and allow us to engage our enemies no matter where they are. If they don’t like it they can sit in the abomination that is Shattrath, or create a character on a PvE server like they should have done to begin with.
Edit:
I think a lot of people are focusing on the spirit rez aspect, which is really a secondary point. I want everyone to understand three things:
1) I want every class to be able to air kill and/or force air mounts to the ground.
2) Players on PvP servers must have some means of forcing an engagement between themselves and a mounted opponent. The ability to force an opponent into fighting you is probably the most fundamental difference between a PvP server and a PvE server. Flying mounts, in their present state, undermine this distinction. This cannot be allowed.
3) I am far more willing to make concessions regarding bodies falling to the ground after a player dies when air killing itself becomes far easier and more common. Currently few classes can do it, and it always requires using reagents, cool down gear, sacrificing your own durability in a suicide drop, &c. The difficulties involved warrant a particularly harsh punishment for your defeated opponent. Make it easy for players to bring down a flying opponent and kill them, and I won't mind so much losing the added bonus the spirit rez brings.
