So something that’s becoming a real problem is people joining chaos runs or similar lobbies with fully decked out characters and turning on PvP and just destroying all the lower level people and ruining the run and forcing everyone to quit and make a new game.
My question is… who is having fun here? Who wins here? Who benefits from this archaic PvP system?
You don’t get anything from killing other players, except for a useless ear and maybe their gold. Players who did not consent to this PvP interaction get screwed over and bullied into leaving the game.
I think it’s time to change PvP into a two-party consent system that both have to opt into to participate in. I don’t see a reason to allow one player to come in and ruin the game for everyone else and follow people around and grief and harass them.
I understand this was part of the game back then. I experienced it first hand back then. That doesn’t mean it has to stay this way.
As a PvP player, give me one good reason you should be able to PK players who want nothing to do with PvP and are just minding their own business. Isn’t it more fun to duel people who want to fight you instead of bullying lower level players?
How does this benefit anyone except trolls and bullies who get their jollies from harassing other people?
As a former PvP player, I agree with the sentiment. The very nature of catering to this behavior is exactly what destroys the meaning of PvP to begin with. It’s good to see those who actually engage in PvP denouncing such behavior.
Simple answer as to who benefits? Blizzard. And indirectly, the players who participate in such nonsense. Why? Because they get that moola from people who just get their jollies off harassing other players as well as the players themselves.
If PvP were properly separated (consensual dueling, separate areas) then these people wouldn’t play the game at all, because their fish have left the proverbial barrel and they’d have put effort into their game… and that’s not “fun” to them.
Mind you, when this game was released 20+ years ago, multiplayer gameplay was still sort of “fresh” and “PvP” wasn’t so clearly defined. You have to remember that back then, the sheer majority of “PvP” gaming was “deathmatch” style FPS games, etc (think Quake III and so forth…). Since then, various types have come out of the woodwork and developers have since learned to refine their games. I wouldn’t expect Blizzard to change the system at this point. Would it be nice? Sure it would, but I really don’t see them putting that sort of development focus on what they would consider to be a minor problem, considering people can just password protect games and invite whomever they choose.
usually, people who seem to have this kind of behaviour in a video game are just bad players who usually fail to kill other players who are equally geared so they go and farm undergeared or lower lvl players so they can think that they are good and when or if you ask them to stop ganking you, they will usually talk about how bad you are, i mean, it must feel good for once to be able to talk s h i t once in a while
Sometimes they are just doing it for the gold… Luckily most people are not lame so it really doesn’t happen all that often. I don’t think any change to PVP is needed.
Because it’s an rpg. You’re allowed to play a bad guy, doing bad guy things. Embrace the freedom. You are also free to make friends and password your games if your are that sensitive about it.
Most people in game laugh and move on. It really takes a special snowflake to throw a tantrum on the forums disguised as “concern for the game”. Nope, someone hurt your emotional feelers and now you’re crying on the forums to daddy blizzard.
Accept that pvp happens in this game, and learn how to deal with it. If you enjoy pvp then bring one of your geared chars and wipe the floor with him and take his ear. Link it in chat and be the hero of your party. People who farm low level chars are usually doing it because they can’t kill anyone who’s geared. Show him you’re better than that.
Ask the players of World of Warcraft. They’ll tell you right away - you’re in an open world with the knowledge that the game has the potential to get you killed by either the monsters or players. You accept this risk when you purchased the game. It’s a part of the lifeblood of the title.
It sucks if you’re not PVP-minded or don’t care at all for PVK/PK, but those are the breaks.
It’s absolutely mind boggling how so many people nowadays are all for changing that which isn’t broken - as nobody complained about this (to the extent it is now anyway) when they were PK’d out of nowhere while playing D2LOD.
As I don’t agree or disagree with your sentiment. The solution seems easy enough… Make private games. the pk’er cannot join you if there is a password on the game.
and despite that, people still chose to play on those servers for multiple reasons, the two biggest being:
Potential for world pvp when they felt like it
-and-
PVP servers having more active battleground players.
One way or another, this is no different from buying a game with possible PVP in it. These same people also have moments where they don’t want PVP at all despite being on a PVP server, but they own the consequences of their decision to play on PVP servers, much like you are expected to when you buy Diablo 2.
The fact that you could PVP (which now requires consent btw) and people did is great. It doesn’t negate that people also want to choose to not PVP and had the option to do so.
In your prime game example they were given a choice. At least choose another forced PVP game for your argument.
The argument I made is perfectly valid. People chose to play on a server that had World PVP. They didn’t choose a non-PVP server. By extension, they are responsible for their decisions and the consequences therein.
People can choose to play Diablo 2, or they can choose to play something else that doesn’t have PVP interactions in it. As simple as that. Would have thought that this statement was implied when I made my post, apparently it wasn’t.
Guess you just miss the irony of suggesting you should be happy with forced PvP by offering an example of a game that allowed players to not have forced PvP as a counter of why you shouldn’t have an option of non forced PvP.
In this case, the lack thereof - yes, it can be. Try finding as much noise on any forum or similar source of social interaction from 2000-2008, the game’s prime day years.
Spoiler alert: There will be slim to none. Not even in any archived internet cache.
We’ve made and announced is that we do not allow the [hostility mode] that Diablo II had where you can go into town, go hostile, pop back through a town portal, and insta-kill your friend. That just makes people not want to play the game. I know some people say, “Oh, you’re taking the teeth out of Diablo.” I understand why they feel that way, but making people not want to play together does not make for a better game. That’s our feeling.
Jay Wilson
Apparently Blizzard themselves felt the virtually no one was a large enough group to change their development philosophy for the next game.
But I guess you can argue Blizzard was just wrong and didn’t have access to user feedback to come to that conclusion.
You do realize who Jay Wilson is right? A former World of Warcraft lead developer whose only real experience in game design is in MMOs. MMO concepts =/= other games.
He single handedly destroyed the Diablo 3 title and was subsequently fired not too long down the road.
“Blizzard” felt nothing about the PVP aspect of Diablo 2. It was the person leading the show behind the scenes, Jay Wilson.
He barely even knew what the Diablo franchise was even about prior to being selected as the director of the project… So my points stand.
FWIW: Jay Wilson’s a moron.
Anyway, I’ve said my piece. I await the next thread to bring this PVP/PK unfairness up.