Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
neither fuels the blood feud nor seeks acceptance to existing social norms,
instead Rohan and others postulate that PvE and PvP are dif erent kinds of
challenges and should be treated as such by game developers.
Addressing Tigole's remarks with these three strategies, PvPers attempted
to discredit raiding as an approach to the game, equate the similar amount
of work put into both activities, or argue that PvP and PvE are dif erent
tasks that require dif erent systems of reward. Avid players of one type
may not see eye-to-eye with the other, but both activities are worthwhile.
However, PvPers were not the only ones to comment on the newly available
epics, PvEers had plenty to say about the spread of epics in WoW .
THE RAIDING RESPONSE
The raiding response to welfare epics seems guided by an observation Julian
Dibbell made about his experience in Ultima Online . As he was studying
the real-money trade in items, he asked whether or not players of MMOGs
have taken on a taste for scarcity in virtual worlds. 40 The idea that status
symbols are a primary reason why raiders play WoW was an extended dis-
cussion topic on the Elitist Jerk s 41 forums. This guiding principle of scarcity
drove much of the raider response, which voiced two primary complaints: a
concern about the prevalence of welfare epics watering down their achieve-
ments and the contention that PvE is harder than PvP because of the coor-
dination required.
A large part of the concern about watering down the achievements of
raiders was centered on the graphic design of the welfare epics. Often when
releasing a new season of arena gear, Blizzard chose to simply recolor the
textures of the highest-level raid loot, making PvE and PvP epics look strik-
ingly similar. One Elitist Jerk poster took exception, writing that
unique weapon and armor graphics are going the way of the dodo.
With the introduction of Season 3 gear having the same graphics as T6,
it just reinforced the fact that Blizzard appears to be whitewashing any
type of achievement system to allow the casual player to be 'just like
your favorite hero. ' 42
Unable to look unique through their PvE accomplishments, raiders also
expressed concern about the quality of epics. 43 These concerns, clearly tied
to the threat to raider's avatar capital demonstrate at least part of the rea-
son why PvP players may feel such bitterness toward PvEers. Not content
in their accomplishments, some raiders seem to have fully embraced the
notion of scarcity and are threatened when epics are more widely available.
This is sometimes framed within the argument that PvP epics hurt raiding,
as it is harder to get other people to raid with you if they can get similar
rewards, with less ef ort, from PvPing.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search