A lengthy consideration on Ryzom's status as a PVPer - English

Fyrosfreddy

I don't do PvP, never quite understood the attraction but in talking to those that do and those that don't, there are several things that have to be recognized. In addition, I am speaking as a player who "grew up" on Arispotle and when speaking about pre-merge activities, obviously things progressed differently on other servers.

1. At least in Ari, the population was well mixed between PvP'ers and PVE'ers but it can not go unrecognized that, at least in NA, Ryzom in its early stage was strictly PvE and, as such with dozens of Pvp oriented titles to choose from, Ryzom became *the* haven for those who where not interested in the Pvp element. When PvP was introduced, many of them left and server population took a major hit.

There's no reason the PvE and pvp contingents can't exists side by side as long as each other respects the others PoV ... as long as that PoV does not include anything non-consesual and forcing one view upon another's.

After reading this part right here, I cannot help but think of a parallel that is happening in another game; a tank-shooter that offers both PvE and PvP. They have two servers, EU and NA, and the PvP population on the NA server is low enough that they tried to boost it with a month-long event that rewards PvP victories. The event has so far backfired pretty spectacularly as some only play PvP halfheartedly, ruining that part of the game for serious PvP-ers, while others resent being forced into PvP and just quit the game entirely.

As a matter of personal taste, I find PvP rather boring so it's definitely not something I would do for fun. I'm not so competitive that I feel the need to compete just for the sake of competing. I fight only when victory gives rewards I actually care about; Sup/OP mats for my fellow Rift Walkers, XP for grinding, or something other than just bragging rights.

Sadly, I have yet to see any game where PvP enthusiasts are respectful of PvE players; Ryzom is as close as I've seen and even it has a bit of elitism from some of the PvP enthusiasts. I think that for PvP to even be viable, you have to fix that. If you can stop PvP from being abused by griefers and keep the PvP-lovers from sneering at those who do not share their love of interpersonal competition, then we can all get along. But like many people, I find it very hard to respect those who don't respect me, and it's a bit hard to respect those that are associated with those who disrespect me, so PvP-ers face an uphill battle.

Just my two dappers worth...