I'm one of those PvP enthusiasts who left the game after I13. My play was sporadic prior to that (a year or some months here and there), but I had three accounts and have never played since -- though I casually followed the game's development for some time in the vain hope that the PvP situation would be improved. I now just casually follow it out of habit; not because I any longer believe PvP will ever be addressed.
PvP in CoX had a lot of good things going for it. My two favorite things that were unique to it? Fast-paced 3D movement (unbelievably fun), and no /assist target acquisition functionality (slowed down initiation of target spikes in organized matches and made positioning an important factor in combat). Those two traits kind of worked in tandem to make the gameplay fast and engaging, but not so fast that people were dying every time an attack recharged, since you couldn't organize simultaneous assaults that quickly.
Anyway. I don't mean to discount anyone's opinion or experiences, but the "I don't PvP because of the [rude elements of the community|broadcast trash talk]" explanation rings somewhat hollow to me. I have a hard time believing (though be sure that I'm not saying it's not ever true) that such a solvable and minor social issue would genuinely discourage someone from PvPing if they actually enjoyed that kind of gameplay.
If you like the competition, and like the gameplay as it exist[ed], would you really let some anonymous child's mean words discourage you from experiencing it? I really doubt it. I think it's far more likely that there are other factors stopping someone who professes such an explanation from engaging in PvP -- dislike of competition, dislike of fast gameplay, dislike of the adrenalin, dislike how of ineffective preferred character/powerset is, or post-I13 dislike of how everything is completely different from the rest of the game.
I think the population of players who PvP is used as a whipping-boy in these kinds of posts, and I have to think it's at least partially disingenuous. If you like PvP, you just do it. If you're a legitimate edge-case, and like everything about CoH PvP enough to actually play it but for the anonymous words of children, then everything I'm saying is wrong about you. But blaming the people who PvP seems like kind of an easy and tempting excuse that I suspect is used more widely than is legitimately warranted.
