Posted by Lethality | 34 Comments

Editorial: If It’s Red, It’s Dead – Proper PvP Etiquette

I like to consider myself a well-rounded player in terms of enjoying the various aspects within an MMO. I partake in role-playing, though I am not a role-player; progress in my share of raid encounters, though not a raider; I will gather and tinker, but do not call me a crafter. But if I had to label myself as any particular player, I’d fall into the category of a PvPer. Ah, yes. I can hear the boos and hisses already, as members of various other communities read these words.

Being a PvPer I understand the harsh stigma that is associated with my preferred gaming choice. We ruin role-plays, camp corpses, kill all members of opposing faction with no regard for level difference, ruin PvE, eat children, speak LEET, kill immersion and tea bag everything. We are the blight of everyone and  are vile, disgusting, and flat out terrible human beings. We offer very little, if anything, to the game and should all jump off a bridge or DIAF (die in a firefor those not acronym savvy). I’ve heard, read and seen it all. PvPers are generally not tolerated and our presence is not welcome in some role-playing circles. While most of the disdain is justified, it’s the bad PvPers that ruin it for the good ones.

Fellow PvPers, here is some food for thought before you venture out on your next hunt…

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Posted by ReDDoT | 18 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Do You Want Arena PvP in TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Regardless of whether you are a big fan of eSports or not – you have to agree that, ideally, an MMO game should appeal to various play styles and varying needs of those players. It is my own belief that, out of all genres, the MMO genre is the hardest to develop in a fair and balanced way. It is even harder to maintain that balance with constant updates and expansions, which are also a “golden standard” of an MMO game.

When Blizzard added the arena PvP system to World of Warcraft, it gave the game a breath of fresh air and elevated World of Warcraft into the scene of competitive eSports, giving the game a lot of new publicity and attracting more players that were seeking this kind of challenge

There is an ongoing discussion on the official forums about the community opinion on arena PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and many people seem to be against seeing this kind of action in TOR. Primarily, it seems to be the claim that arena gameplay has ruined the PvP/PvE balance of World of Warcraft. However, it is also my personal belief that a failure of one development team should not prevent another development team from implementing a work-around the balancing. Simply put – the more bells and whistles TOR has – the larger the crowd that will be attracted, which spells a successful MMO, from which we will all benefit.

What is your opinion on this matter? Would you like to see an arena-PvP system in TOR? We know arenas already have precedence from KoTOR. Let us know your thoughts!

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Posted by Joanis | 16 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Should There Be Arena-Style PvP In TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, Joanis and the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Arena PvP: some people love it. Some people hate it.  Pitting a small number of combatants head-to-head gives the developers an easier time of balancing player-versus-player combat by minimizing variables.  This small-scale combat can be intense and visceral. However, in a class-based game like an MMO, it can often be frustrating.

For me, arena PvP always turned into a flavor of the month-based game of rock-paper-scissors. Some months, your class will be the best in the game, but after they nerf it, you might as well reroll instead of PvP.  While these are exaggerative statements, when your class is out of favor with developers, it can be extremely difficult to do well in arena-based PvP. One overpowered class doesn’t pull nearly as much weight in large-scale battles like TOR’s Warzones.

Despite all these gameplay complaints based on my own opinion, arena-style PvP does have basis in Star Wars lore.  From the gladiatorial arenas on Geonosis to the one-versus-one battles on Taris in Knights of The Old Republic, small-scale battles have always had their place in Star Wars.

Do you think there should be arena-style PvP in TOR? Or do you think the large-scale battles of TOR’s Warzones capture the heroic battles of Star Wars well enough?

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Posted by Lethality | 8 Comments

FSS 2011: Hands-On the Alderaan Civil War Warzone; Marauder & Gunslinger

Let me start out by saying this right away: I’m not an organized PvPer. I love open-world, chance encounters however I rarely participate in structured matches of any kind. So I don’t find it necessary to work on specializing my gear or character build for this purpose.

With that said, after having gotten my first taste of PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I can’t wait to dive into it when the live game finally comes launches.

It could just be the fact that its freaking’ Star Wars, and there are lightsabers swinging and blaster bolts firing in all directions. Or maybe it’s the fact that it felt so different from what I’ve experienced in the past. This wasn’t one-shot, stun-lock bunny-hop combat. There was strategy you could use and tactics you could apply. And the fights lasted longer than 30 seconds!

Read on to find out why I might be spending a lot more time PvPing when TOR finally ships.

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Posted by Lethality | 3 Comments

FSS 2011: PvP Q&A With Gabe Amatangelo

As part of the Group Q&A series during last week’s Fan Site Summit, Gabe Amatangelo (or, Senator Amatangelo as he’s referred to by his colleagues,) took some time after our play session in the Alderaan Civil War Warzone, to answer some questions about what we’d just seen.

Gabe is a really laid-back guy and seemed like exactly who you’d want calling the shots for the design of the PvP game for The Old Republic™.

Some of the topics he covers, thanks to questions from your favorite fan sites, include:

• Pace of combat (no 1-shot kills!)
• PvP balance with PvE
• PvP spec for every class – No class will be left without a PvP spec within 2% effectiveness of any other
• Gear vs. skill
• Matchmaking system – Take players, specs, premades an other factors into consideration
• Bolster system – brings all players within the Warzone to within 20% of each other (including level!)
• Player commendations – give someone you played with in a Warzone props for doing well
• Guard – tank ability to mitigate damage from other players
• Badges – Taking cues from FPS games, rewards for good play – i.e. “Unstoppable!”
• Warzone size – anything bigger than 8v8 coming?
• Turtling – There is none!
• … and more!

Thanks once again to Brooks for handling the audio duties!

Enjoy!

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