WHY DO YOU PVP?
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I was going to write a novela, but I decided that it’s actually not worth it, I’ll put it plainly instead, though it will still be TL;DR worthy.
After the thousands and thousands and thousands of hours I’ve put into PvP, I now have regulated myself to play no more than 1 hour 3 nights a week, at most. Those 3 hours are spent in hotjoin and unranked (mainly because there is no reason to ever actually play ranked matches in this game and there is only 1 “supported” mode). What I do during those 3 hours, is search for new, average, and good players, kill them, and then farm them as they leave their spawn. The great players will slip passed me or force me to retreat, the amazing players (or AI) will kill me (if they can, “Stealth is a fun mechanic in this game – some guy 2014”).
Some players will whisper me nonsense that I don’t care about, like how it hurts the community, that I’m X Y and Z (and going to hell), etc. Some players will just leave. But tonight 1 player asked me a question. He asked me WHY I was doing it. At first I thought to myself, “Because I have nothing left to do in this game! I refuse to play the grindfest of brain-liquifying-ly easy PvE content! WvW is actually cancer in it’s realest form! And the current state of PvP has left me completely disenfranchised, disenchanted, and exceedingly skeptical of the capabilities of the people running ‘The Show!’”
What I found after writing it out, was that I just genuinely wanted to show some of what the game is capable of, eg; instant death via Shatter Mesmer. I want new players to understand that this is more than doing dailies. I want the average players to see that with effort comes reward. I want the good players to realize that they are capable of carrying entire teams through refinement and knowledge. I want the great players to challenge me and know that they too are strong players. And I want the amazing players to show me that I still have room for refinement and can improve. Unfortunately that just isn’t possible in this incarnation of PvP, there are TRULY CANCEROUS bugs, builds, and balance changes that range from; being here since early BETA (HELLO teleport bugs), to the refreshingly vile insurgence of meta builds that placate lesser skilled players through over-tuned numbers while in the hands of great or amazing players actually push entire professions out of viability.
What bothered me the most was not that they are there, it is that nothing was done about any of it in a manner that makes me believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the people making the changes are capable of bringing the latent potential underneath the grime and sludge into the light. Nothing but superficial band-aid repairs; or worse, completely game revolutionizing feature packs / “Balance Updates” that hurt the player the base (This would be the new trait and skill system that actually doesn’t provide a sense of “progression” like it was “intended” to, and is more accurately described as a “Gold Sink” or quick Gem sales, since you can in fact just purchase everything with your credit card) (and sigil/rune rework).
The base of the concepts behind the game regarding builds truly is groundbreaking stuff and the potential IS there; what I see now I don’t even have words for. Entire teams filled to the brim with Celestial Amulets and 25 stacks of might, specced completely into defense, and oozing with passive, overly spammable, non dynamic or avoidable (when applied by a player with understanding of the game), completely predictable and disgusting Area of Effect abilities; the majority of which apply conditions, and/or CC. And even WORSE, I see months, and months, and months, AND MONTHS, of this same cesspool churning people in and then OUT, with only the HOPE (Because were kept uninformed and ignorant) that it MIGHT change for the better.
(edited by Vicariuz.1605)