As annoying as PvP severs are sometimes I am considering it because there will be no BG’s at launch.
Ganking and harassment have never really been my thing and certainly doesn’t qualify as end game content that I want to participate in. PvP servers are probably popular right now because most of the major streamers play PvP. I think the PvE servers will start to fill as people realize that getting camped by a group of max levels and having to hoof it to another zone isn’t an ideal way to spend their play time.
If actual group PvP is your thing and if it’s like Vanilla was, tons of people will be fighting in TM vs SS on every server until BGs come out. Take away the ganking and there’s virtually no difference in PvE and PvP.
To each their own though ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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World “PVP” is serious business. That’s why.
Seriously I think it’s because people like the sense of danger. Even though it’s BS to get camped by some wannabe tough guy who thinks their enjoyment is more important than letting someone else be able to play, it’s fun to have that extra dynamic or be able to go off and start your own “content” via wPVP.
I hated PVP servers before due to the fact that my enjoyment shouldn’t be decided by someone else, I should be the only one who gets to decide how I can spend my game time. This time though I’m going to give one a shot to see it since I’ve always played on PVE servers. It sounds like fun if you can avoid the jerks who put their “fun” above everyone else’s fun.
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I am competitive by nature. For me, pvp is the most competitive system in WoW. It is a part of the game that supports intense, complex and competitive play. PVP is the most engaging and fun activity in WoW. For me the PVE components of WoW are where I gradually get what I need to perform at my best in PVP. I expect to be ground to dust until I level up, gear up, and skill up. Then I might triumph.
Being good at PVP takes a lot of time. Being at the bottom for a long time is to be expected. That’s part of what makes it so engaging and fun. Growing my character from complete garbage who can be victimized by everyone into an elite performer who can torment the others until they too gain power and skill is the apex of a successful rpg.
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There is something sort of thrilling about questing in STV, turning a corner and seeing a bunch of dead raptors on the ground, and all the hairs on the back of your neck standing up because you realize that you don’t see the person who killed those raptors and you don’t know if it is friend or foe.
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In short, the thrill of PVP can be fun but there are jackasses who feel that their fun is more important than everyone else’s fun, and those are the ones who give PVP servers a bad name.
True. But there can be jackasses on PVE servers too. People who run around nuking quest givers, flight masters, escort NPC’s, just to disrupt and annoy the other people playing.
Earlier in this thread I was a PVE server proponent, but I’ve decided to roll on a PVP this time around. Will I get roflstomped into the dirt of STV? Yep. Do I suck at PVP? Also, yes. But there is a certain thrill of wandering into a zone and seeing the name come up in yellow instead of white. Worse comes to worse, I tuck tail and run, then re-roll on PVE. There are no laws saying your first server choice must be permanent.
If these “jackasses” weren’t there what would you expect? Would they ask you first before they ganked? It is precisely this unpredictability that makes PVP server play exciting.
To enjoy it, perhaps it takes a shift of thinking. Think of the other faction as unpredictable NPCs. They don’t have a patrol path, they are not anchored to a location, they may attack or they may not when you are close enough to agro. Their agro boundaries are varied. And how they attack can also vary - expect them to use all their kit.
On a PVP server you are dealing with an unpredictable and inscrutable foe. And that is exactly what you are to them. It puts meat on the bones of faction war. It becomes one more challenge in a long litany of challenges on your way to max level, gear, farming, and raids.
Their behavior is not honorable or dishonorable . . . it is not understood. They are an enemy with motivations you cannot fully comprehend. They represent very clever and very lethal dangers in the wide world you choose to venture out in.
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And we like it this way. We keep the world separate to battlegrounds where in my opinion PvP belongs.
I’ll also be waiting for battlegrounds to come until that time though I’m going to be quite happy out in the world doing whatever it is I need to do.
Absolutely… and calling PvE server players “carebears” is in the same bad taste of those guys who trash PvP servers sadly. This is why PvE servers generally tend to have more friendly people.
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The “Annoying, but arguably immersive” comment doesnt really fit. I don’t know how many Warcraft books you have read over the years, but it really isn’t the norm for characters to go around killing people who can’t defend themselves outside of town sackings. There are obviously raids and pillaging of towns where they are razed. The fighting is usually written in a form of respect and knowledge about who is fighting. The fight in “OF blood and honor” with Tirion is an excellent example of the thought process of the colliding forces in this world. I argue many of the races would not brutally murder an unarmed member of the opposing faction. (or lowbie for our comparison). If there was some strange reality where people only attacked others of simliar level, this i believe could be more immersive
Now i know there are instances especially during the first war of vivisection and deplorable savagery from both sides, but towards the timeline of the game I believe it would be more immersion breaking than immersion fulfilling.
there are countless reasons to show a major core value of the inhabitants in this world is honor. So while there would be an exception to the rule sometimes. I contend that a PVE server for the most part is far more immersive.
Aside from any lore perspective I too believe the idea of a pvp realm is more fun. But, the idea and the reality hardly ever line up. Overwhelmingly more likely is that you are annihilated by someone you cannot hope to defend yourself from, and then you just hope for it to be over. Your amount of fun to be had is now utterly dominated by someone else. So while in the past i have done both, i will not be setting foot into a pvp realm come classic. no need in doing that to myself again. The best of luck to all who choose otherwise.
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More interesting and fun and often more annoying. It is sort of a balancing act. I think I will start with PvP but may switch if it gets on my nerves.
When I played a lock on a PvP server before I never instigated fights with people much lower level than me (unless it was revenge…see last comment). If they wanted to attack me fine. I would kill them. But I definitely didn’t kill lowbies. I accidentally dotted up a Tauren hunter half my level and he died. His name was Noodlehead which was so delightfully silly I felt guilty.
The funnest part of PvP server for me was that I was speed leveling because I was trying to catch up to friends and raid with them. So from time to time I would have a run in with someone stronger than me and they would gank and camp me. But then two days later I would run into them again and I was 4 levels higher and get vengeance.
I honestly cannot believe that this thread has gotten 972 replies. People join a pvp realm because they really, really like pvp, they’re sort of competitive—jockish, if you will. They do not want to have to flag themselves to be in some sort of dumbed down, opt in pvp mode—they want it to be a given!
I will be playing an RP realm for these (and a few other) very reasons.
Now, please forgive me if i am completely phuqing ignorant, but is there a difference between a PVE realm and an RP realm? I believe that there is, I am just checking.
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I actually would enjoy PvP servers more if folks did this. That actually did happen now and then in EverQuest PvP; someone would /bow, wait for me to kill the mob, heal up, and then we would fight. Show me you have honor and are actually interested in a fair fight. A true gentlemanly test of skill. But during my time on WoW PvP servers that has never once happened and I’m not naive enough to ever expect it.
That’s why I personally don’t enjoy them. Getting ganked proves nothing except that someone managed to take advantage of your disadvantage at the time. It doesn’t prove that you’re lesser skilled and it doesn’t prove that your ganker is greater skilled. It’s all just pointless to me.
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Folks would expect RP to happen on RP servers. I am playing on a RP server for precisely that reason, because I want to RP. Otherwise I’d go to a PvE server.
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Perfect clarification. Thank you very much. I remember all of those distinctions.
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Ah, this is why we’re 976 posts deep on this one.
You’re totally right about people who camp other people—that’s why it’s called camping, it’s phuqing boring—and gank other people of significantly lower levels and disadvantaged situations. They are dishonorable… @$#%&les.
However, I feel like what you are getting at with this Everquest (why did you bring Everquest into this discussion in the first place?) reference to /bow is very similar to a duel, which is a huge part of wow. If you dont like pvp servers, dont play them (I just barely commented on that, in the 970’s even), there are people who really love that type of gameplay, and they’re valid too.
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Never said they weren’t. If PvP servers are what folks enjoy, more power to them.
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I doubt that most will be playing on pvp servers, but there could be a good amount of players from retail that were on pvp servers before and liked it that way before warmode changed it all. There is no longer that option, so maybe they will play classic for the experience again?
I’m pretty sure I will be playing on a pvp server. I started playing WoW on a pvp server and played on a few of them (both factions). I don’t raid at all so things will probably get a little boring on a pve server for me.
You made some really great points, though. I played on a pvp server for many years and will not be in Classic, partly because of douchey jerks.
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The real reason people go to PVP servers? You think you want to know it, but you don’t. ![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")
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