Right now the only PvP in GW2 is the sPvP where players are teleported to a world where everyone is max level and have all their skills turned on so that they can wack on eachother to their heart’s delight.
Leveling up and earning your skills and gear in the real Tyria has no purpose but to do PvE events, which in turn is done so that you can level up and earn more skills and gear. The gear and skills mean nothing when all that is handed to you in sPvP so what is the point ?
A totally public PvP setting would be no fun either. I think there should be a factional warfare system in the open world between the five races. As a character of a certain race you cannot pick a fight with another player or NPC of the same race and there would be no pvp in your racial area, but you can freely attack any character of the other four races.
There could even be dual-sided dynamic events based on racial warfare pitting players against eachother along the borders of the racial homelands. There could be invasions where parts of a racial region are taken over by the opposing side and the defending players are called to recapture that part. (I always wanted to see something like that while I was playing WoW). Playing the warfare events could tie into the personal story line and you can choose how loyal you are to your people.
This would make it more fun to pick a race and feel like part of a team with your own home and lots of other teammates in your world. As a Norn you can see another Norn and say “hello brother, lets go do an event together !” or you can see a Char and say “ I KEEL YOU CHAR !”. You could actually recognize your enemy as a different race instead of being in a mosh pit of different characters like in WvW.
The second thing it would do is make an open pvp environment and give a chance for players like me to have that experience of being the little guy and trying to survive and weasel our way to the top and be king. Leveling would have meaning and incentive to it.
There would be open world PvP but not total open world where anybody can come along and attack you while you are doing an event. Players who are into the PvE only can stay in their racial zones and do events or just stay away from the heavy warfare zones. Spvp can still exist for players who want to transform into Gods and wack each other with their free super-gear. I understand the whole idea that players want an even playing field for pvp and don’t want to be ganked by higher level players, but there should be a choice for players who are looking for that kind of game.
Two other “factions” I thought of could be the alliance and the outlaws, which you could choose to join somewhere along your personal story line.
There would be some kind of “League of Peaceful Tyrians” or something, once you join this faction you are not allowed to attack any player and no player is allowed to attack you, and you are also allowed to enter any racial area and do quests and events. Players who join the league can be free to do PvE in all locations and only engage in sPvP and WvW if they choose to.
The last faction would be outlaws or bandits or something, who can attack ANYONE they want, including each other. Outlaws would not be able to enter cities or villages or anywhere there are guards to kill them and would not be able to talk to vendors. They would have to craft all their gear, steal it, or obtain it through an outlaw quest, or there could be some kind of black market that is really hard to access.
Quests and events for outlaws would involve invading faction cities or causing mayhem for other players or helping centaurs, or something of an evil nature. On the opposing side their could be quests for hunting down outlaws and gaining some kind of bounty prize or glory, or making it hard for outlaws to get items.
I played Eve Online for a while in the past and I’ve kind of picked it up again. The only three enjoyable things about that game are:
1 – You play in a dangerous world where you can gank or be ganked by anybody at any time. That constant fear is what makes all the fun.
2 – It takes loads of effort and time to gain anything of value, so you spend most of your time working towards goals instead of being in endgame and not knowing what to do.
3 – When you get killed you LOSE EVERYTHING you have with you, plus a good amount of skills that you spent so much effort to earn. If you have anything of value it is because you played well and didn’t lose it.
I wish GW2 could be at least alittle bit close to this in some way. I like a game where I’m slowly building up and earning over time to make it to the top, and that someone can use what they’ve earned to take it all away if I don’t have the right survival skills.
