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World of Warcraft PvP Ranking System Detailed
The official World of Warcraft site has details on the Player vs. Player ranking system which they'll be rolling out to the game. It gives meaning to the PvP concept with tangible, and impressive, rewards for engaging in combat with other players, a leader board, and little things like an officer's title. From the article: "As we have mentioned before, when you kill other players or aggressive PvP-enabled non-player characters (NPCs) in your level range, you will receive an honorable kill. All your honorable kills for a week are then calculated to give you an honor score for that week, which then translates into an honor ranking. This honor ranking carries with it titles and material rewards, and eventually, officer status and other perks."
It's obvious the honour system is designed to stop quest griefing - keeping npc quest givers or vendors permanently dead so players can't peacefully quest.
It isn't designed to stop the slaughter of players, because that is what Blizzard intended to happen on PVP servers. If you don't like ganking, play on a PVE server.
I don't understand why so many people complain about high level players killing low level players - surely that is half the point of being bigger than everybody else?
I play on a PVE server, because I've played enough PVP muds to know that every game like this is ruled by kids with tons of free time, or the unemployed. They will kill anyone they can, whenever they can.
Playing PVP muds casually after work always means sticking with a large group for safety, or sneaking about doing quests hoping the bigger players don't notice me. I correctly assumed WoW wouldn't break this rule.
The only difference in WoW between PVP and PVE servers, is that ganking and corpse camping and general abuse of opposing factions is allowed and frankly pretty much encouraged by Blizzard on PVP but not PVE.
PVE still has player vs player combat, but it is honourable because you choose when and where to do it and you can't jump anyone who doesn't want to be attacked.
The fact that dishonour doesn't count against you when killing low level players, the fact there is a sticky on the BB stating that Corpse camping is perfectly acceptable shows that ganking is exactly what Blizzard intended to happen on PVP servers.
Which is why those of us who want to play for fun and relaxation, not spend hours getting angry and frustrated at bullying, have chosen Player Vs Enviroment with its optional PVP system.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. --Albert Einstein
It isn't designed to stop the slaughter of players, because that is what Blizzard intended to happen on PVP servers. If you don't like ganking, play on a PVE server.
My issue is that when I decided to play on a PVP server on day 1, Blizzard had stated that the honor system would be put in RSN, and that killing lower level players would give you dishonor. Now, three months later, the honor system still isn't in, and it is revealed that you never get dishonor for killing other players. Oh well. I'm 56 now, and I'll be 60 by the time the honor system hits. Anyone who won't be 60 by then should move to a PvE server, because leveling from 50 - 60 will be pretty much impossible. The PVP honor system will use the same color system that PVE uses, so level 50 players will be green to level 60 players. So if you're running a lvl 50 char around trying to get xp, you're going to get ganked constantly.
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
It is well known that blizzard does very little original. They *are* known for getting the basics done well.
EveryDNS. Use it. It works.
AC's need not reply
Disclaimer: I'm not in any way taking a shot at the parent poster. This just seemed like an appropriate point to jump in on the discussion.
The first question that comes to my mind is, what do you think the concept of PvP is if not this?
In some ways it almost seems a little silly to me to implement PvP in a game like WoW, because the players who really want to play PvP aren't the same kinds of people who want to play a game like WoW.
I see people posting in this thread saying, in essence: "This PvP thing sucks because people will be trying to kill me when I'm trying to level." Personally, I think that's the beauty of it! You couldn't pay me to grind out the last handful of levels on most MMORPGs, even on WoW which has made the concept less frustrating in many ways -- but if I had to always be on my guard, ready for someone to try to jump me at any time? That's fun. Instead of level solely being a function of your time put in, in some small way it would reflect your skill, cleverness, even exploration talent. Level off mobs no one else has thought to try to get XP from and your chances of getting killed while doing so would be way lower than levelling on what everyone else does.
To a PvP player, the threat of player violence at any time isn't the end of the fun -- it's just the start of it!
I've been resisting the desire to move over to an RP server for a long while now. One reason is that I know a couple of people on the PvP server I'm on right now. They play much more than I do, and have been sending me nifty stuff.
The other reason was that--real soon now--Blizzard would be implementing an honors system. I assumed that once it was installed, there would be some sort of punishment for people who ganked lower-level players.
That's what I want out of the honor system. Not epic armor, or ph4t l00t, or the chance to call myself "Grand Marshal" (I can do that anyways, thankyouverymuch). All I want out of it is a simple change in the game mechanics that provides a disincentive for high-level players to beat up on low-level players.
It looks like that's not going to happen, and that I don't have a temperament that enjoys the sort of crap being pulled on PvP servers. So I think it's time to put my characters into retirement, and move to an RP or RL* server.
* Real Life server. Much harder to farm for gold, the permadeath rules are worrying, and you never get an epic mount. But arguably the play is richer and more rewarding, and the server has zero latency and phenomenal uptime.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!