I thought I put all my notes for this post in a Google Document but I was mistaken, so I’m starting from scratch. As a disclaimer on re-hashing old arguments, I’m quite certain most of this has been considered, in fact several of these ideas I thought of three years ago but am just now putting them in writing and I’ve seen at least one similarity when Googling forums.
PvP in MMO’s is still at a fairly primitive stage, much like the first generation or few of the FPS genre. One-on-one duels, team-based Arenas or team-based Capture the Flag maps. Occasionally we might find a title that supports PvP such as a castle siege but even that is still CTF on a somewhat larger scale. All of the above is nothing more than old-school FPS combat inserted into the context of our MMO’s. Kill your opponent, rinse, repeat. Die? Respawn, kill your opponent, rinse, repeat. Ad infinitum. Truthfully, video gaming in general has yet to evolve from the “violence is the only solution” mentality of adventure and progress, whether we’re hacking and slashing, shooting, or jumping in the air and squashing the enemy with our favorite plumber’s cannonball-style butt-drop, but that’s another topic altogether…
In this article I am going to explore three ideas for a somewhat lateral expansion of PvP, providing means for PvP advancement and competition in activities other than killing thy neighbor. PvP stands for “player versus player” and “versus” is not defined as “kill” in any language on Earth. Football, baseball, and golf are all forms of PvP. A high school spelling bee is PvP. A “battle of the bands” at a local club is PvP. Reality TV competitions such as American Idol, Survivor, The Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars are forms of PvP. These are but a few examples of competition, of PvP, that do not involve the physical abuse or murder of the opponents in order to win or succeed. There are plenty more ideas for gaming PvP as well, but as I appear to have misplaced my notes I’ll just stick with these three for now.
Sports. Sports games are incredibly popular on both PC and console. Hell, the Madden NFL series alone works up a frenzy every year with its new release. Tidus, the main character from Final Fantasy X, was a player of a full-contact sport called Blitzball and players often had the chance to play and advance through the ranks of the sport, which was a fantastic mini-game diversion. If we’re so worked up about having our characters living in some virtual world, why do these worlds have no sports? Our MMO’s could easily have own fully developed team sports along the lines of Blood Bowl or Speedball, each with their own leaderboards as well as gear rewards. In WoW alone, who wouldn’t love Horde vs. Alliance “blood bowl” games with multiple arenas spread out across the world and a season-ending “Superbowl” event hosted in the lead faction’s home city of Orgrimmar or Stormwind? If the home team wins, a city-wide buff ala “Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer” could be given along with a fireworks display and other celebrations.
Racing. This should probably be included in sports, but I’ll leave it as its own category. I thought of this one way back when my first WoW character arrived in Shimmering Flats and saw the gnome and goblin test driver NPC’s at the Mirage Raceway. I thought this was yet another missed opportunity where Blizzard could have provided additional content. Why not develop a competitive racing system? Mirage Raceway could have been the original track with Blizzard adding new tracks along the way just as they’ve added new raids to the game. Players could advance through the competitive ranks and customize their racers with new parts, new body styles, new colors and designs. Perhaps an additional crafting tree — a mechanic? — could have been added so that players themselves could craft new racers and parts.
Entertainment. Now, this category won’t really “drop into” any of our existing MMO’s as-is, but bear with me. For the sake of easy discussion, I will further split this into two sub-categories: Dance and Music.
Dance: Given the popularity of Dance Dance Revolution and the introduction of dance MMO’s such as Dance! Online and Audition (though they’re actually multiplayer lobby games, not “true” MMO’s) I see no reason future games couldn’t have dance competition games in the bars or pubs. Leaderboards, flashy new dance clothes and special effects and dance moves for rewards, could be a fun diversion and even a type of PvP the casual gamers might get into. Everyone loves a good MMO dance off but how is it really a dance off when all we have is /dance (and perhaps a few extra dance steps in a select few games)?
Music: Lord of the Rings Online has a great music system where characters can learn to play various instruments and play each note or chords individually, playing any song solo or in a “band” with other players. Look how popular the Guitar Hero series is, and now Rock Band. Just like dancing, this could be a casual PvP haven with its own leaderboards and flashy new instruments and special effects.
Now, the dancing and music could each be fun in their own right, but let’s explore those a bit more and give them practical application into the rest of the game. Any of you old-school Star Wars Galaxies vets likely remember the Entertainer professions who buffed and healed the adventurers. Say we have a game where not only can anyone compete in dance or music competitions for fun and advancement but certain classes or professions could also use those to advance their PvE skills for new abilities? Bards and minstrels could learn new PvE shouts and songs. Agile burglars could use their dance moves to learn new Fellowship Maneuvers, for example. Here’s another idea: rather than being rewarded with a new skill icon to click to activate the ability, what if the song or dance is rewarded but to activate it the player has to actually click each note or step in sequence? Not only would that save serious space on your hotbars, it would add a whole new dimension of play to dungeons and raids as a slight bit of player skill was introduced into the activation of these higher-level abilities.
The possibilities are endless, it’s a shame the industry is unwilling to grow beyond the simplistic “whack-a-mole” we’re forced to endure for both PvE and PvP…
Tags: MMO Gaming
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