Lately there has been a renewed interest in developing online RPGs that offer PvP as a central feature. Where the vast majority of EverQuest players never rolled a character on a PvP server, and EverQuest 2 doesn't even have PvP servers yet, games like WoW and Guild Wars have given PvP new life. These titles have introduced PvP play areas built around instancing technology, where players battle it out in private copies of these zones. This makes it possible for 2 roughly equal teams to play a match isolated from the mob rule of the rest of the world. In practice, this is a lot different from what people have come to expect from PvP, and it's a refreshing change.
Still, I think there is something to be said for "zerg" warfare, especially when it is combined with political game elements. After all, there is strength in numbers, and large groups typically weild greater power than small groups. This can create an immersive social dynamic in games like Shadowbane and Eve Online, where players are free to start their own factions, recruit members, and rise to virtual glory. Bonds with guild mates are also that much stronger when you're engaged in a fight for survival with other guilds.
Developers have attempted to create rules that make PvP a little more civilized. Lineage 2, for example, uses a karma system to discourage wanton ganking. Players that accumulate enough bad karma become marked targets for the rest of the community to deal with as they see fit. Another approach has been to place level limits on PvP combat, only allowing characters within a certain range of each other's level to attack each other. Of course, this raises the problem of out-of-range healers and buffers, who are able to assist players engaged in PvP without fear of reprisal.
It may well be that the perfect PvP system for an RPG is yet to be invented. I'm sure I'm not the only one that will be watching for novel implementations of this kind of gameplay in future games. You can't get the same thrill from killing predictable monsters over and over again, even if it requires a great deal of group cooperation. PvE has a place, and some players will always prefer it to PvP, but it rarely gets your heart racing the way PvP combat does. I hope this article has provided some insight into the mind of a PvP fan. If you've never rolled on a PvP server, I encourage you to give it a try. Once it gets in your blood there is no going back to the safety and complacency of purely PvE worlds.
