Please allow me to bring up two points that people have brought up before (skill level and events) and look at it from a different angle.
What's the intrinsic difference of PvE versus PvP?
PvE is something folks can do alone and due to the fact that players usually choose their (NPC or mob) enemy, they choose the weapons and the level of skills. Players thus regularly choose a balanced, probably challenging, but doable enemy setup. _If_ PvE players feel like going at endgame PvE content, they choose to team up. The point here is: Everytime the player logs on, she has full choice of how and what to do in PvE. And players can participate from any skill level.
PvP is something you need at least two players to do. Often, the more, the merrier because more players involved means there's more room for tactics such as different weapons, skills, groupings, changes in combat style over time, etc. (1st difficulty)
To make it both challenging and rewarding, the fight has to be somewhat balanced on two scales: The level of the skills in use by the homins _and_ the ability to make those work best by the players. (2nd difficulty)
With that in mind, forcing PvP flag on everyone is very tough. Because I cannot choose the skill in use, I cannot choose the level of my opponent, I cannot choose the time and place. This will not be rewarding for me. It also won't be challenging. I would just be dead. Even if I'm not ganked today, eventually I will be. And I simply don't want that. Not even a single time. If I decide for myself to have a quiet evening digging near Dyron, I'm having enough trouble as it is with stray Kirostas or wandering Ocyxs. But I do see the point that PvP folks would like to have more fun and I can relate to that. Contrary of what has been said before I don't believe it's a matter of the number of targets available. Just having "victims" does not mean fun for the PvP folks. And I believe this is mutually agreed upon, too.
A few pages ago, several players already pointed out that the Nine Mektoubs event was quite a success (even if we can debate on the level of PvP or PvE this has been). For me (a partly RP player who prefers PvE) it was fun because it had a nice fit with the current storyline, because there was at least a theoretical chance that the outcome was open and changed the way the camps were or were not built, and there was no reason for _players_ to begrudge the attack. For me it was the first ever PvP activity, even though it felt mostly like PvE to me because I'm just a mid-level healer right now.
Also, several players pointed out the potential of scheduling events in general to support PvP. Looking at all the points in this post, I would like to emphasize that to the active PvP community: Like the Cookies did (and lots of others probably, too - remember I'm not active in PvP) - come up with a good idea for an event, and just do it. I would hope that if it fits into the storyline, the event team helps you with the setup (and we get something like the Nine Mektoub event). If it doesn't fit, maybe you can organize it by doing a cross-language post and calling to arms.
We have had so many threads on what new features in the game we need to make PvP more attractive. We probably won't get them because of dev time. Like we probably don't get new PvE features. The fun comes when we organize ourselves and be creative and work with (and sometimes even without) the event team to create content ourselves. We don't have the ring anymore to create landscapes and scenarios, but we can still create stories. It's a lot of work, though.
What's the intrinsic difference of PvE versus PvP?
PvE is something folks can do alone and due to the fact that players usually choose their (NPC or mob) enemy, they choose the weapons and the level of skills. Players thus regularly choose a balanced, probably challenging, but doable enemy setup. _If_ PvE players feel like going at endgame PvE content, they choose to team up. The point here is: Everytime the player logs on, she has full choice of how and what to do in PvE. And players can participate from any skill level.
PvP is something you need at least two players to do. Often, the more, the merrier because more players involved means there's more room for tactics such as different weapons, skills, groupings, changes in combat style over time, etc. (1st difficulty)
To make it both challenging and rewarding, the fight has to be somewhat balanced on two scales: The level of the skills in use by the homins _and_ the ability to make those work best by the players. (2nd difficulty)
With that in mind, forcing PvP flag on everyone is very tough. Because I cannot choose the skill in use, I cannot choose the level of my opponent, I cannot choose the time and place. This will not be rewarding for me. It also won't be challenging. I would just be dead. Even if I'm not ganked today, eventually I will be. And I simply don't want that. Not even a single time. If I decide for myself to have a quiet evening digging near Dyron, I'm having enough trouble as it is with stray Kirostas or wandering Ocyxs. But I do see the point that PvP folks would like to have more fun and I can relate to that. Contrary of what has been said before I don't believe it's a matter of the number of targets available. Just having "victims" does not mean fun for the PvP folks. And I believe this is mutually agreed upon, too.
A few pages ago, several players already pointed out that the Nine Mektoubs event was quite a success (even if we can debate on the level of PvP or PvE this has been). For me (a partly RP player who prefers PvE) it was fun because it had a nice fit with the current storyline, because there was at least a theoretical chance that the outcome was open and changed the way the camps were or were not built, and there was no reason for _players_ to begrudge the attack. For me it was the first ever PvP activity, even though it felt mostly like PvE to me because I'm just a mid-level healer right now.
Also, several players pointed out the potential of scheduling events in general to support PvP. Looking at all the points in this post, I would like to emphasize that to the active PvP community: Like the Cookies did (and lots of others probably, too - remember I'm not active in PvP) - come up with a good idea for an event, and just do it. I would hope that if it fits into the storyline, the event team helps you with the setup (and we get something like the Nine Mektoub event). If it doesn't fit, maybe you can organize it by doing a cross-language post and calling to arms.
We have had so many threads on what new features in the game we need to make PvP more attractive. We probably won't get them because of dev time. Like we probably don't get new PvE features. The fun comes when we organize ourselves and be creative and work with (and sometimes even without) the event team to create content ourselves. We don't have the ring anymore to create landscapes and scenarios, but we can still create stories. It's a lot of work, though.