I find that these six items are the main causes of imbalances in pvp games. It seems impossible to design a competitive system that includes them without them becoming a dominate strategy, limiting the strategic options the game, or just not being fun or interesting to play against. I feel they must be removed completely from any MMO that wants to be taken seriously as a competitive game.
1. Crowd Control: Next to gameplay control is the next thing players notice while playing. Taking away that control is very serious matter and not something players should be able to do to each other whenever they feel like it. Even if there are ways to counter it it’s always the best decision you could make.
2. Risk Free Repositioning: Teleporting, shadow stepping, portals, knockbacks, etc. Anything that gets you from point A to B easier or faster than the other guy without some major drawback is going to be overpowered.
Check your game design history, in every game that’s ever been made (single or multiplayer) the most powerful options are ALWAYS the ones that allow for easier repositioning or denying position to your opponent.
3. Invisibility: Stealth is fine, invisibility is not. In addition to not being fun to play against invisibility violates one of the key concepts of competitive gaming: making decisions based on the actions of your opponent. You can’t make meaningful decisions based on an opponent you can’t see.
It’s also impossible to design effective counters to invisibility without giving everyone the same access to it or removing its viability.
4. Fire and Forget AI (Pets): Everything in PvP must be controlled by a player. Duh.5. Group PvP: PvPers are very selfish people, the only skill they care about is their own. More importantly PvP becomes exponentially harder to balance and less accessible the more players are involved. Unless you’re designing a game like baseball and put strict limits on what players can and can’t do team PvP will not support competitive play.
6. Free/Safe Actions: Every option that is made available to a player has must have some form of penalty and/or exploitable weakness attached to it. Nothing should be safe only safer.
Of course I could be wrong on all these points, but I have yet to find any game (single or multiplayer) that incorporates these items while still remaining competitive or balanced. If one exists I’d like to see it.
Can GW2 make it as a competitive game while these kinds of options remain? Even if they were balanced is it worth designing around them if they turn off the casual player base?
I’d love to hear what you guys think.
So your idea is 1v1 with only damage, mitigation,and heals?
And a chessboard, apparently.
I was confused at first, but OP pretty much cleared it up in his second post. I now believe this is your average mesmer/thief QQ post, just with better grammar and less sense.