Best MMO PvP you ever played?

[IronGriffon]

TLDR- FFA pvp encourages grouping/socializing and causes players to improve their characters more quickly and take gameplay more seriously. In UO, the light/dark choices were the unscripted moment to moment decisions on how you played your character, not branching dialog trees. Wall of text, beware. Nostalgic example from UO. I miss you Rosie.

 

2 more points about UO / FFA pvp / corpse looting and why they were good in pvp mmos.

 

Previously, I mentioned how raising the risk encouraged greater self preservation than risk free pvp. This not only makes the game more exciting and meaningful for some, it also has a few other related affects on gameplay.

 

1) It encourages you to get better as a player quickly. When you are a noob, you are vulnerable, and people don't like that feeling. If you can get ganked at any time with some consequence you really feel, you are more strongly motivated to avoid getting ganked. Thus, you try harder to protect yourself, which means you may take leveling, gearing, etc more seriously right from the get go. There is a stronger and different type of motivation contributing to your leveling and play in addition to just wanting to level and get loot. It's about self preservation, so you take it more seriously and try harder.

 

2) It actually encourages social interaction by necessity (see example). Again, it's self preservation kicking in. You are less likely to solo, more likely to find trusted allies right away. If you don't you'll be vulnerable. Instead of ignoring that player that just entered the area you are farming in, you probably want to approach them and find out their intentions. It's not safe to ignore a random player on the edge of your screen. It also makes you remember and care about player's names instead of treating people as random toons, since you want to know who is a friend and who is an enemy as much as you can.

 

Imagine this scene: You are in your special ore cave that you traveled far and wide to find. This is a special place because it is off the beaten path, remote and thus, somewhat secure. Most importantly, it's full of ore, but no other players around. You took great precautions to find this place, and you happily mine your ore, very satisfied that you had found such a wonderful, safe, hidden spot to farm. Well, after a while, your faithful llama named Rosie that you tamed from a wild animal is loaded full of ore and you need to make the trip to town. It's a long, and dangerous trip, and anyone could be a potential bandit. You're carrying a llamafull of ore, and that would make a very attractive mark for any brigands.

 

About half way home, you run into some traveler. You scan your memory or handwritten list to see if you recognize the name. You don't know who they are, or their intentions. They are dressed in a nondescript robe masking their identifying features, so you couldn't tell if they are a magic user or fighter type. Will they kill you and take your ore and have their way with your much beloved llama? Or are they just another traveler hunting deer? You just don't know, it's intense and exciting. What do you do? You're equipped for farming / mining right now, not really fighting. They hold all the cards and could kill you in a second. The traveler walks closer. So, you introduce yourself, chat them up, try to evaluate and establish rapport. Hell, you could even ask or hire them to help escort you to town. Maybe they'd be less likely to kill you since really, as far as you know, they'd really like all the ore you just clearly farmed and a new llama. The point here, apart from nostalgia (I miss you Rosie!), is that you interacted with that player because, if you didn't, they might interact with you (and your llama) in a way you wouldn't appreciate . (This example is for those of you who never played UO or other ffa games)

 

I suppose really, it boils down to this: Fear is a good motivator to encourage grouping and socializing in mmos. That sounds a lot more evil than it should, but I've been playing my sith a lot, I guess. Sadly, it also opens the door to sycophants to kill your llama.

 

To be fair to the other side of the coin...Example 2, you returning home alone from a hunt, and come across a naked noob leading a lamafull of loot across an open field. Now you have to decide, do I attack, or help? Could they have friends nearby etc etc. But look at that fat llama and it's overflowing orebags. Score!

 

You find some of these choices in the light dark PVE questlines in swtor, but when it's unscripted and the decisions could actually affect your character, it's just on another level. In UO, the light dark choices were your moment to moment decisions, not branching quest dialog trees.

 

Risk free pvp is like watching GI Joe, fun and exciting. FFA pvp is like watching Saving Private Ryan, it's just more broadly and deeply emotionally engaging experience on so many levels.

 

-IG

Edited January 7, 2012 by Qishari
inappropriate content

[Psytic]

We really need a Dark Age of Camelot 2. I think were over due for a game with 3 sides.

[xovofactor]

SWG pre-cu/nge hands down, epic world pvp battles w/100s and no BS scripted pvp, enough said!

 

Nuff said. I enjoyed those.

[Vlaid]

I really don't understand the DAOC fanboism. Maybe I'm just blessed by not having rose colored glasses. I remember it being an incredibly flawed game with a unique setting and feel, but I would not put it anywhere near the #1 best MMO of all time.

[FalmeseReb]

Potbs. Loved the tactical ship combat in that game. The RvR was intense sometimes though and really wears you out.

[Solidfinger]

For me it was the Everquest 2 PVP when it barely was added onto the game. All open world, no warzones, there was so much pvp, and the group pvp was amazing. Everyone had a role, healers, tanks, dps, support, Crowd Control. It actually made the PVP more appealing then any other game where it was just a kill this guy kind of game. Ofcourse there was ganking, but when people would group up, eveyone started making groups. I remember the great pvp for twinks and for the end game raiders that was available. It actually made raiding funner for me because I would have a reason to geart up to fight against the rest of the endgame players. Contested mobs would be fought over by all 3 factions of the game, to the point I wouldn't be able to fall asleep or else the other faction would get the raid mob. I'm too lazy to post my whole experience but this can show the mayhem that would happen.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7409073172923631927

 

I only wish the guy had a sick game machine to handle a the raid vs raid over a contested raid mob. Great Fun x_X. Oh EQ2 Had the best graphics as well.

 

x_X I feel like a fan boy

Edited January 6, 2012 by Solidfinger

[Nemakon]

+1 for DAoC and Planetside. PvP in mmo's since then have been an endless bummer.

[Vlaid]

I will admit to loving Planetside. One of the best MMO experiences of my life. That and possibly UO pre-carebear rulesets.

[xtriadx]

DAoC easily trumps pretty much every game out there for fantasy based pvp..it should be the standard for any game with intentions of having faction based PvP. Population is not what it used to be but the games still active.

 

UO though for the best world pvp..mainly because once upon a time it was really a 'world'..not just another item whore game like it has become. Some of the free servers are pretty good though..so its not dead.

 

 

 

Oddly they both are often the most mentioned MMO's that people want to see sequels to.

 

Dunno whats what with a DAoC2..but Richard Garriot is in the process of making what for all intents will be UO2(google it, etc)..so there is hope the WoW syndrome(WoW is a great game but it has sucked away alot of life in the MMO's) will be broken and we will get back to MMO's with depth, menaing, and pvp like pvp used to be.

Edited January 6, 2012 by xtriadx

[RachelAnne]

For me the best pvp was vanilla BG´s.

 

Everyone could play there, no matter if you were a tank, healer or dps. Also the class did not matter at all, everyone had the same right to be at a BG. All had their jobs, so to speak. Not like today with Arena´s where some specs are automatically disqualified, or some combos totally overpowered.

 

But also the available gear was a lot better balanced. You could either pvp in rank & reputation gear, in pve gear or in raid & craft gear. There was no garbage like Resilence, so that automatically 1 group of player had an advantage - like today at wow.

 

The rank system was fun, with every rank that you climed you got something new. Mounts, tabards, set items.

 

Last but not least, everyone could be countered. A fear could be dispelled, so could a sheep - a stun didnt automatically mean that your dead, the damage output as a whole was very moderate and you could always come back, after a first hit. Also this is at wow today, a big problem as you just die in stuns, fear´s or whatever CC there is.

 

 

Was that pvp perfect? No it was not, but it was still the best MMO pvp ever. TBC, AoC, Rift, War and so far also SWTOR are unable to achive this. I am still waiting for an MMO puplisher that does eliminate the weak points of that old ranksystem and develops it a bit further. It just was awesome.

[Vladamyre]

Dark Age of Camelot was by far the best game to have pvp. If there was a grading scale on games pvp daoc would be a 1000, where as no other game would be higher then a 10.

[Tnice]

 

1. Planetside
   
2. Warhammer Online
   
3. WoW
   

 

Edited January 6, 2012 by Tnice

[Ikyouto]

It's a tie between EVE Online and WoW. EVE's sandbox World PvP is great. WoW's combat system (responsiveness, macro system, and default UI feature set) is stellar. If only EVE's combat was more interactive and engaging. If you were to somehow mesh the pros of EVE and WoW you could have an amazing PvP MMO. Edited January 6, 2012 by Ikyouto

[AnthonyLeo]

EVE online. There was something epic about fighting 500 other people in ships worth thousands of dollars with plans that took weeks to coordinate, only for it all go to hell, and then watch as someone who is high and drunk take command and somehow pull a win out.

[Sokushi]

Knight online when ppl don't cheat

 

The reason i say Ko is because unlike most games lvl, and gear wasn't the biggest factor in who would win in a team fight or 1v1.The biggest was who could combo skills the fastest which took some skill unlike most games which just take bad *** gear

[Furad]

DAoC >*

 

I could log on right now and run around in Cathal Valley on my Merc and get into something that's going to get my heart rate up.

 

Gameplay mechanics - For some reason, DAoC feels "sharper" than modern MMO's. When you hit someone with your sword/axe/hammer, there's no question that you hit them, almost like there's tactile feedback. When you get rooted, or stunned or mezzed your whole world just STOPS and the gears in your head start grinding away as you try to figure out what to do in a tenth of a second! Should I purge? Should I call out for a demezz? Heals? DAoC makes you think and work and stay on your toes like no other.

 

Tactics - In DAoC, each class has a very specific purpose and a specific spec. Each group has to have a specific make up of 8 people to be succseful. When you hit another 8 man after roaming around and entire zone everyone knows what to do. The driver yells out, INC, INC! Hopefully your sorcerer/driver has faced the nearest target and already chain mezzing (ccing) everything in sight. Your healers have either pulled off and dropped back or peeled to the sides. Your cabalist, theurgist or minstrel is getting to work interrupting, because in DAoC you can't do a damn thing if someone is casting on you. Then your main assist starts picking targets while the rest of the dpsers lay down hell fire and dismantle that group one by one.

 

If it was a good group, this could last for 10 or 20 minutes while you go back and forth, healing, interrupting, dpsing etc... But when you win... there's nothing like it.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

All that being said, I'm having a ton of fun in SWTOR. My only hope is that the PvP is at least better than WAR in the long run.

[xPVTx]

Guild Wars Guild Wars Guild Wars Guild Wars

 

 

It wasn't a button mash fest. If the entire team wasn't on Ventrilo or Teamspeak you didn't win anything period.

 

The arena's in this game make Guild Wars arena's look 1,000 times better than they are. Which is sad because Guild Wars came out like 10 years ago.

[redlily]

WoW = best pvp beva eva

[Azar_SWTOR]

Asherons Call 1

 

Slidecasting. Once you got the hang of it, hard to beat.

[ChokeForce]

Best = Shadowbane hands down.

Worse = TOR

 

/thread

Edited January 6, 2012 by ChokeForce

[Daeromas]

I couldn't really say. But the pvp maps in this game are just, well, not really fun to me. They seem so small, and the objectives just arent all that cool imo. I mean I would take one classic WoW AV instead of all 3 of the ones they have now. And starting an open world war isn't seeming possible. Getting from one planet to another, with the load times, and then the travel times...idk, sry to sort of rant here, but, pvp in this game has really surprised me, in a really negative way. Very very very dissapointed.

[trikery]

RvR = Planetside or DAoC, nothing compares.

 

Overall PvP Id have to say is UO pre trammel.

 

Im gonna go even further and name a server in UO that was absolutely insane I spent a year away from my 7x on Cats to play Abyss Test. Abyss test was a test server, with scattered skill portals and stat portals that would raise you to max skill or stat upon startup, and it didnt get reset every week . It had every type of PvP imaginable. Guild vs Guild...... Massive Red vs Blue wars in all hotspots around the game..... Color Wars, you turned a color and each color had a castle, You fought over the temple that had the portals to every castle, it was ridiculous. There was no reason to pvp other than to just see who was better on an even field where you could have any skill you chose. There was the Hero and Evil System...... Alchemy flasks that were only present in the game on Abyss. And to boot, the only guard filled city in the game was Brit. Every other city had no guards, and the vendors and bank guys were killable lol. Abyss provided you the stats and skills but you still needed the raw materials and gold to compete, so fighting over that stuff was key.

 

UO overall was a great *********** game hands down. The rush of pvp was immeasurable, I would spend days with a spear and a dyed death robe and some aids. If you knew how to fight this was all you needed sometimes. It became a waste to bother with armor if you were in lots of pvp. The better you got the less you even needed it. Early factions were fun but after that the game became a shadow of its former self. Sorry DAoC will never match UO in pure PvP madness.

Edited January 6, 2012 by trikery

[KURLS]

i never had a best.

 

but i'll lits the ones i had some fun times in

 

UO back in the FFA days

DAoC

EQ

SWG pre NGE

Shadowbane

Guildwars

Warhammer until they implemented zone caps

WoW pre Arenas, when BG objectives meant something

Rift

 

What amazes me is that someone hasn't taken the best of these and implemented them in one single product.

 

EDIT oh planetside was great !

Edited January 6, 2012 by KURLS

[Grimmace]

Most hardcore: Darkfall, Mortal online

 

So far darkfall has proven to be an extremely short lived fleeting joke, and it made me very sad, and mortal online well.... I don't think bad begins to quite describe the game.

[raelimar]

Warhammer Online had pretty fantastic PvP at times, but it also had some really glaring flaws. Horrendous class balance, ridiculously small player caps on fortress/capital city raids, objective trading, etc. Overall, it still gave me a lot of my best PvP memories, just because the entire community lived and breathed PvP 24/7.