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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 doesn't matter so much now that I am approaching level 60, but I had hoped the honor system would function as a deterrent for people killing players half their level. It seems that no penalties will be introduced for dishonorable kills. If anything, this system will only exacerbate the problem. Large groups of players roaming about killing soloers will no doubt be the norm as the benefits for high honor seem very nice. If this system changes anything, it certainly won't be making things any more honorable. On the contrary, expect to be farmed like mobs once this goes live.
There are a few problems WoW, its main goal is to get people preped for a endgame instances and Battlegrounds.
:)
Basically you try for better armor/weapons (or do the same instances 1000 times waiting for a drop) on the same instances...
Then you goto Battlegrounds, and fight for better armor/weapons...
The only cookie in the game is the weapons and instances? Theres nothing beyond it, theres no real indepth RPG factor to the game. (Ok, some of the quests are entertaining, and a little RPG'ish)..
And the new PvP system has a few bugs, you get jumped by a 50 and you attack back you get dishonor? A lone 60 attacks a group of 50s and get dishonor? What happens when you dont play for a week or 2, you loose rank? What if you where doing instances? Too many issues still on PvP not explained.
Also currently, the Alliance outnumbers most servers 2/1, my server Bloodhoof is 10K Alliance vs 5K horde. What happens when Battlegrounds starts and its a limit of 200 vs 200? Alot of Alliance wont be able to play. That is my favorite, since currently Alliance raids towns with more people than can defend. Blizzard seems to want to stop all town raiding and move people to Battlegrounds, since its a dedicated server. Last time Alliance attacked our Horde city of Origmmar, they crashed the server. WTG.
While the graphics and gameplay is fun, the gameplay is locked into "fight, fight, heal some, fight" there isnt anything other than fighting . Farming is just fighting monsters for drops, same difference.
In SWG you can build a house, build things, put in it, trophies of sorts. But you have a private area, same with Anarchy Online. WoW has no such thing, its bascially, you, and a bank to store some stuff.
I was hoping for more RPG than hack and slash, while fun, gets old. I have lots of friends who came here from City of Heros burnt out, what happens when you realize you do the same thing over and over? Nothing, you move to the next MMORPG.
One of the Massive online games "Second Life" actually lets you build things, the flip side, you can build WAY too much, and less of the fun game. Its more social, you build, chat, play games (triva/etc), but no RPG hack and slash.. I think SIM's is about middle, but the tasks are a little stupid, and you feel too cartoonish.
I really want to see a game that includes both, the building aspect, the fighting aspect, the trophies, the content. I've been following www.mmorpg.com on newer games to see if anything is close.
WoW PvP is going to be the make it or break it for Blizzard, if they dont offer something for people to enjoy they will lose people to the new MMORPG's coming out. They have newer game engines, have new ideas, Space combat, Car combat, new D&D games, Matrix online, list goes on... so much stuff to keep people busy, 6 months before you figure out if the game has anything left to offer...
I know, i've spent way too much time playing WoW, more than most games in the past, I've been level 60 for awhile, leader of a guild (Since our leader left for a "Leet" guild.). Going on high end instances, about a month away from all our avereage guys making 60. Just in time for Battlegrounds, or limited raid parties.
I think Battlegrounds is going to be the saving grace for Blizzard, if it sucks, people are going to leave.
1. You will almost always be grouping on a PVP server. Once this is in place it will be very hard to solo past level 30. Players will have incentive to kill you so you will want to be in a group to minimize this, and maximize you ability to kill players of the opposing faction.
2. Despite what anyone says, I believe that Blizzard is correct that this will decrease ganking of low level players. There will now be risk/reward in PVP. I don't run around killing level 10 creature because it is not worth my time. My time is better spent killing those creatures that can reward me for my kill with money or an item I can use. The same will apply with the honor system. I will be rewarded for seeking out players of my level to kill not those who are lower level. As for those players who still gank. Well lets just say that there are small children of all ages who need to kill weak people to feel big and no amount of dishonor would stop them anyways.
3. This will hold on to hardcore players. If Blizzard loses the hardcore players they loose their long term revenue stream. All the talk about casual players is well and good but they wont be around for the long haul. This is the kind of compelling ladder system that will keep those competitive players sticking around paying their $15 dollars a month for years to come. If they don't stick around the game will die out.