You either die a PVPer or you live long enough to see yourself become a Carebear

Community General Discussion
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My first encounter with PVP in a MMORPG was Dark Age of Camelot. Epic keep sieges, driving the Gank train in Caledonia and then Emain. I was more of a PVE player, but I still engaged in the PVP on a pretty frequent schedule. DAoC was the blueprint for the type of PVP I enjoy. The premise was simple. You had all the PVE areas enclosed with a Giant wall. Outside that wall was an open-pvp no man’s land, essentially. You knew that when you went outside the wall, you were consenting to be ganked, nothing was going to be fair, and if you weren’t rolling deep, you had to be careful and on your toes. And everyone was there for the same purpose, there was no killing of someone who didn’t want to fight back, because everyone there wanted to fight back. There was Faction Pride built in with 3-faction Siege warfare PVP, and then also small group fights all over as well.

Then I moved on to Planetside. pure PVP, no PVE in sight. Planetside was still to this day the most fun I have ever had in a MMO ever. I played it daily for almost 2 years, almost exclusively. Live Free in the NC. I think I took a break to try EQ2 and then WoW and then a few months after WoW came out, I stopped playing Planetside, and played WoW full time.

When I came to WoW at launch, I treated it like DAoC, where I was primarily a PVE player but I willingly engaged in the PVP when I wanted to (which was mainly when the other side was harassing our Quest NPCs and i was in the area, or in Battlegrounds). The Tarren Mill-Southshore Forever War was always great, from both sides, and whenever a big fight flared up there, I made sure to be present.

I left WoW and bounced around a few different MMOs I always engaged in the PVP to some degree, but I only really ever ENJOYED the PVP when it was set up like DAoC (Three-Faction, completely separate from PVE).

I discovered that the older I got, the less I cared about PVP. anyone else feel this way now, after being all for doing PVP before?

I’m pretty sure it is a mix of my reflexes being slower, and just…not having the patience or energy to deal with toxic people anymore. Like, I flat out just don’t care to get all amped up and aggressive over winning or losing a PVP fight with someone like I used to when I was in my teens and 20s (I am in my 40s now).

I wonder how many of ya’ll used to be real big on PVP but aren’t anymore and for what reasons.

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Similiar feelings here. While I’ll still occasionally dip my toes in and plan to do Solo Queue Rated BGs next expansion, I don’t get amped up for PvP as much as I used to - I’m sure I’ve changed but also pretty sure PVP these days has also changed.

When a class could just instantly delete someone in WOTLK or earlier, it was quickly nerfed. Things weren’t ever really balanced, but PVP functioned at a slower pace and did not have as much going on.

I don’t know the exact current state now, but each time I waded back into PvP over the last few years, it’s basically the norm to instantly blow people up. There is no back and forth, no pacing, it’s just rocket tag… and it wasn’t much fun IMHO.

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use to to be.
Then i decided to play world of warcraft and found all the camp ganking carebears here who cant handle (are too afraid of) REAL pvp so harass and stalk lowbies all day to get an ego boost, lmao

The ONLY pvp I’ll personally play is REAL pvp where ANY player can kill ANY OTHER Player…and this game AINT that. lol…not for world pvp, it aint.

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But I’ve always been a carebear.

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Ive moved from pve to more pvp.

Its just easier to pick up and play as a mode with how easy it is to gear.

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I used to love the clan castle sieges in Lineage II or the War of Emperium in Ragnarok Online… and in WoW, I could live in Alterac Valley all weekend back in BC.

These days though I don’t really care anymore. I still might do a bit of pvp for fun here and there but winning doesn’t puff me up and losing doesn’t ruffle my feathers. It’s just sort of something to do.

I feel the same way about raiding actually. Taking down a difficult boss we had been wiping on for weeks used to be an absolute thrill but now it’s just a golf clap victory and that’s not really worth all the rest of it.

I guess I no longer play games for the thrill. I now play games for the chill. :upside_down_face:

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Generally, not talking just about MMOs… I realized that the time I spent being ridiculed by someone who would play nonstandard in any given game frustrated me… but that I didn’t also want to play nonstandard.

So the issue lied with me. Not the people I was frustrated at. I wanted some ideal scenario I couldn’t have.

Some games have stricter rules and balance on their PvP. I still play those, but they’re almost all dedicated PvP games. (Dark and Darker, for example.)

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I mean… wow is just a bad pvp game. That isn’t to say you can’t enjoy it just fundamentally it isn’t designed for it.

The skill ceiling is knowing what to cast and how to bait a kick. Elite is knowing what big 3-4 abilities each spec has and knowing when they are going to use them and when you can force them.

WoW won’t ever be a compelling pvp game. The best it can do is a sloppy job using cc that in a normal paced pvp game would span an eternity ( it isn’t uncommon to be chain cced for up to 12s in wow. I want you to imagine how dota or lol would play with 12s of cc).

People treat wow pvp like a mini game because it is.

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I still play WoW mostly for casual PvP content, it’s still got the best MMO PvP by a long shot.

The day I stop PvP’ing in WoW is the day I quit, lol.

It’s always been my “main” activity and I’d be bored to tears doing PvE, I’ve got other games for that.

MMOs just can’t hold a candle to other games (in terms of actual gameplay), they’re basically all “mini-game” in and of themselves.

You spend most of your time in the lobby (Valdrakken/overworld) waiting for groups.

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Yep! I went from stuff like Tribes, Starsiege, Goldeneye and Halo… to ending up after all these years avoiding PvP like the plague here… and playing Palia. :rofl:

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I basically became a PvP’er in WoW as early as my consciousness kicked into gear (2012). However, having started playing FFXIV in 2020, I saw no reason to PvP. Starting in GW2 in 2022 I realized I should probably try PvP there, but didn’t have the energy (and frankly have yet to fully grasp the game). So, I basically did become a carebear to an extent… However, I still mostly play WoW, mostly PvP, and that’s what I enjoy most as I always have :slight_smile:

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Find myself actually agreeing with the draenei mage for the first time ever :rofl:

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I wasn’t ever “big on” pvp, but I play it infrequently. It’s fine. I don’t really like arenas, BGs are more fun for me. Looking forward to the solo queue BG without premades, I’ll also be like 800 rated because I ignore all objectives and fight in mid the whole time lol

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I did the PvP thing back in Vanilla (the title grind) and TBC (arena). These days I largely PvE. I didn’t like the person PvP turned me into.

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I can still PVP if I wanted to. I just don’t care to anymore. Nothing to do with being a carebear.
Join me in eve online if you want to have that attitude.

WoW PVP basically has no stakes, and does not satisfy that part of the equation for me.
In EVE, every single fight has quite high stakes when you fly around in expensive ships with literal real time months / years spent in training to even fly the thing around, let alone equip it and make sure to never die.
You even get decorations on the side of the ship depending on how many kills you have.

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I want to like arenas, but I feel so inadequate in them. Even though I’m probably doing fine.

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Same. Other than a jerk player here and there, BGs are a blast to play.
I dont care if we win or lose, honestly. I mean, I enjoy the marks to get more mog sets, got a ton of them on my main account…and I do try my best so Im not sandbagging, its just I enjoy PvP FOR the PvP experience itself. Winning and losing is just an afterthought, lol.

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Yeah, basically. I used to PVP a lot and be pretty passionate about it.

But I’m middle aged now and I just don’t have the wherewithal to care anymore. When I do it, it’s difficult not to become frustrated or angry sometimes and say and do things I later come to regret, so I tend to avoid it altogether. It takes more energy out of me than I’m willing to put in.

I plan to pretty much only PVP insofar as I get rewards that I want. If there’s an elite coloration of the tier sets that is only obtainable from PVP, then I will do so only so far as to get it. That’s mostly what I’ve done in this expac. I didn’t PVP at all this season since I got most of the sets I wanted to get, and didn’t care to attempt to get the ones I didn’t have.

I’ve moved on to mostly doing M+ these days.

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That’s entirely false. It’s a thempark mmo. It’s not a compelling pve game anymore than it is a compelling pvp game. Running M+ as quickly as possible isn’t the peak of MMO pve, just like running a BG isn’t the peak of MMO PvP. It’s all the same gear treadmill with no impact on the actual game world or character development.

You can apply any of the logic you used towards pvp directly to any other activity in this game. We’re all here for the same reason: We enjoy the setting (or we’re addicted).

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I just play actual PvP games when I want to PvP.

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