B_Samson

Waaay back when RV was just about to go live I got on test and tried it out. There were a ton of players on both sides in the zone and you could play for a long time without running into the same opponent twice. That was fun.

On live it's more like I enter the zone and I might see one or two people on each side in the /whoall list that are yakking away on broadcast and trading jabs with each other. Once they notice someone new is in the zone (aka fresh meat), they all switch sides to gank the slow kid for one easy kill after another. Not that I mind being attacked in a PvP zone - that's the nature of the area - but when I get killed by the same two characters over and over long before their timeout on gaining any rep from the kill expires, it feels about like the digital equivalent of getting an atomic wedgie from the resident bully every time you pass him in the hallway in junior high. There's just no entertainment value in that.

For all the ******** and moaning I've seen over the years about how the PvP zones are dead, I haven't once seen any of the people complaining make an effort to actually include someone new when they enter the zone. Maybe if they sent a tell and asked the newbie if they'd like to join the PvP on their side instead of switching to overload the opposing side and gang up, there might be a little more interest. And perhaps that does happen, but I've never seen it. (I base this only on my own observations collected over the years in the PvP zones. Most recently the observations were made over a significant number of hours spent last fall in RV getting all the pillbox and heavy badges the hard way.)

Regardless of whether the system is "broken" or not, if you don't try to include people who are just trying out PvP for the first time, they're going to very quickly decide that it isn't for them. The system can't be held accountable for that. I've always picked up on a predominantly elitist attitude from hard-core PvPers (not all, but most), and I have no desire to deal with those attitudes (not in PvP, and not in PvE). Maybe it's better now that all the hard-core PvPers have moved to Freedom, but the aftertaste is still very, very bitter.

Convince me I'm mistaken.

I think if you're looking to introduce new people to PvP, a badging event like this might be a good start. The more people you get in the zone on each side, the more opportunity you introduce for incidental run-ins with other players. Some may decide they don't like it, but some people might decide they're more interested in the PvP than they are in working on the badges. Those are the people you're trying to look for to get PvP going. But if those people never step into the zone to begin with, how are they going to know they like it?

Meh. That turned into a much longer post than I'd intended...

I log every last little bug I can find in the game and every time I think, "Please, please, please, please, please..." as I hit the Submit button.

I was doing pretty good up until Baba pulled out his secret can of whoopass.

It wouldn't be any more strange than some of the birthday surprises I got in college - unless you're passing the time with E-lizabeth inside that cake. (Does the kitchen still smell like brownies like it did when I left for work this morning?)

4. Me