Everything is already covered in that thread: PvP: make it official. Long post part 2/3 . I basically asked the question of why is it that pvp is more fun than pvm for most people but there are so few people pvping (as a % of the total player base), and then I kinda solved the question myself. Course I went into too many nuances about what makes pvp work and what doesn’t and then prescribed a few hypothetical solutions (or existing solutions) so I wrote more than I planned to. The gist is that pvp only requires:
-Basic umpiring, which is automated in all other pvp games
-Team pvp is mostly auto-balancing (like MTG) with little or no restriction on gear or skills, but individual pvps are not. Individual pvps are actually extremely high maintenence. Pvps also do not require balance to be widespread. People would pvp for the sake of pvping, more so than pvm, so the only thing that’s required for sustained widespread participation is either balance, or incentivizing pvp (this is simple, because VIRTUAL goods are apparently of value to people here, so Blizzard can generate whatever pixels they want to make people work for it. Personally, I would want a cosmetic bra and panties for my zon with Enigma-esque stats and also a facelift for my zon, but more realistically, with what dclone generation is, everybody needs each and every of their chars to don a 20/20 Anni, so we just need that up for grabs at pvp tournaments)
-Pvp among completed chars with endgame levels is the surest way to ensure that pvp will not be balanced. With pvp among incomplete chars at pre-late game levels (for example level 70 or less), strategies and class balance are in more of a state of flux, hence strats and outcomes are more unpredictable. So if pvps were to be promoted at for example various stages of ladder, it would be extremely competitive, probably more competitive than your usual pvp-focused game, and you wouldn’t have to worry about balance because class balance is constantly fluctuating, especially if it is pvp between groups. So to turn a pvm game like this into an ultra-competitive pvp game, it only requires an automated arena to be added into the game, not some complicated balancing or w/e it is. Of course there’s also the element of RNG, which could bring less or more players depending on how much you like your RNG, but in the grand scheme of things RNG is not likely to deter anybody from joining in