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Why instanced PVP Arenas are NOT meaningless (And why they are needed for the game)
Disclaimer:
I am not against open world and non-instanced PVP. Matter of fact, I love it more than most. The goal of this post is to explain why instanced PVP arenas should be implemented in some form. I believe instanced and non-instanced PVP should exist in balance.
Why instanced PVP is meaningful
In real life, since the dawn of times, battles have been fought in controlled environments to minimize outsider impact, protect civilians and minimize potential random issues for both sides (Snowstorms, bad ground etc). This is good for both sides and both gain by doing this. Many historically impactful (or in Ashes terms: Meaningful) battles have been fought in pre-determined locations and with specific rules. So arguing that arenas and battlegrounds are bad based they are meaningless is stupid. A random fight at a random location is not more meaningful then a staged fight between two sides.
What kind of instanced PVP is good?
Mostly arenas. At some point in our adventures people will start to wonder,
who is/who are actually the most skilled fighter(s) in Verra/Server/World. fighting uneven random fights always gets boring and irritates people and no MMO in history has kept an healthy open world system. All games that have been pure open world PVP games all died in seconds, and yes, your "Insert game here with 10 000 players but is actually better than wow" is dead, and most likely bad. Pure random open world pvp just creates irritation in the form of excuses from the loser and guilt/retardeness from the winner. Uneven fights are not fun, if you have a decent brain. Open world PVP is the definition of uneven fights, remember that. It will be unfair 99% of the time.
This is where arenas come in. This is also where instancing comes in. Instancing reduces lag, ping and RNG. It stops trolls from ruining the fight and it also stops players that have nothing to do with the fight to interfere.
Arenas offer a fair environment where nobody can blame their defeat on anything else than themselves. It offers a place where you can focus on nothing more than improving your skill in PVP while not worrying about other open world stuff. It also offers systems for real and serious leaderboards (that actually matter for most people)
In the end, arenas just add another layer to the game. All casuals dont even have to care, or be there. But serious and talanted PVPers need a place to compete with each other that is fair and balanced. If you dont like arenas and think they dont matter, ignore them. But dont get sad when us arena player utterly destroy you open world casuals.
Lastly, why do people see arenas as meaningless? They have great meaning historically in our world. Roman Gladiator games, modern sport events etc are all different kinds of arenas in controlled environments. And fotball/sport is by far the most popular thing to watch in the world, and that is an arena that is "meaningless". Arenas are entertaining and offer us to safely and effectivly see who is the best fighter. The best gladiators can teach us how to play right, and we can learn by watching them. Arenas are only good and there is nothing negative.
Arenas can COEXIST with everything else Ashes have to offer and I BET they will be a part of the military node.
I am not against open world and non-instanced PVP. Matter of fact, I love it more than most. The goal of this post is to explain why instanced PVP arenas should be implemented in some form. I believe instanced and non-instanced PVP should exist in balance.
Why instanced PVP is meaningful
In real life, since the dawn of times, battles have been fought in controlled environments to minimize outsider impact, protect civilians and minimize potential random issues for both sides (Snowstorms, bad ground etc). This is good for both sides and both gain by doing this. Many historically impactful (or in Ashes terms: Meaningful) battles have been fought in pre-determined locations and with specific rules. So arguing that arenas and battlegrounds are bad based they are meaningless is stupid. A random fight at a random location is not more meaningful then a staged fight between two sides.
What kind of instanced PVP is good?
Mostly arenas. At some point in our adventures people will start to wonder,
who is/who are actually the most skilled fighter(s) in Verra/Server/World. fighting uneven random fights always gets boring and irritates people and no MMO in history has kept an healthy open world system. All games that have been pure open world PVP games all died in seconds, and yes, your "Insert game here with 10 000 players but is actually better than wow" is dead, and most likely bad. Pure random open world pvp just creates irritation in the form of excuses from the loser and guilt/retardeness from the winner. Uneven fights are not fun, if you have a decent brain. Open world PVP is the definition of uneven fights, remember that. It will be unfair 99% of the time.
This is where arenas come in. This is also where instancing comes in. Instancing reduces lag, ping and RNG. It stops trolls from ruining the fight and it also stops players that have nothing to do with the fight to interfere.
Arenas offer a fair environment where nobody can blame their defeat on anything else than themselves. It offers a place where you can focus on nothing more than improving your skill in PVP while not worrying about other open world stuff. It also offers systems for real and serious leaderboards (that actually matter for most people)
In the end, arenas just add another layer to the game. All casuals dont even have to care, or be there. But serious and talanted PVPers need a place to compete with each other that is fair and balanced. If you dont like arenas and think they dont matter, ignore them. But dont get sad when us arena player utterly destroy you open world casuals.
Lastly, why do people see arenas as meaningless? They have great meaning historically in our world. Roman Gladiator games, modern sport events etc are all different kinds of arenas in controlled environments. And fotball/sport is by far the most popular thing to watch in the world, and that is an arena that is "meaningless". Arenas are entertaining and offer us to safely and effectivly see who is the best fighter. The best gladiators can teach us how to play right, and we can learn by watching them. Arenas are only good and there is nothing negative.
Arenas can COEXIST with everything else Ashes have to offer and I BET they will be a part of the military node.
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Comments
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Arenas
Unlike instanced PVP, fights in open worlds will have a great purpose and that will be simple disagreement between two players/groups of players. It wont be just "uHhHh CaStLe SeAgEs". To be able to attack any node or castle, you first have to own some sort of resources. You cannot have that if you don't gather it. If someone is trying to prevent you from doing this, then this is the moment when the fight escalates and that could be anywhere. In open world fight you have to take this into consideration. This is a very brief and very generalised explanation of how open PVP works. There are so many scenarios and factors to explain, that I would have to write 10k word report to explain every one of them.
I like how you refer to history battles that have been arranged in specific battle grounds, but what about small ambushes on enemy's merchants to prevent them getting any goods, attacks on isolated mines to stop them gathering resources for weapons, armour, buildings, etc? These were happening for sure back in middle ages because there was no game developer to stop you.
Before the lag argument comes in I will quickly deny it here. Currently we have year 2018, game will be probably released 2020 or later. If you will not have a PC good enough for some animations from 40/50 characters then you are playing on a toaster that should be binned, and if you do not have money for new PC then how are you able to afford the subscription in the first place. By the 2020 GPUs like GTX1060 (its already around £250) will be a cheap standard. Not to mention that the game is probably build around technologies that are not made public yet. It is not WOW that is made on engine older than most of Fortnite player base combined together. Similar concept applies to ping. We have 2018, and the game will be released 2020 or later. I highly doubt that servers will have connection issue (at least in US, we in EU have my.com so even tetris can lag), so most likely it will be players fault for having a trash connection.
As I read all that threads regarding "muh make things instanced" and responses "muh castle seages" make me really consider if any of you have actually ever played an open world MMO game. I have never seen a thread about an actual problems that open world brings, but I can't be bothered to write an essay about this as a response.
I dont know, Im just saying that discussions are always fun.
We are having a discussion about having a discussion for gods sake ;D
The open world teaches you how to be aware of your environment.
Arenas teach us how to be team players or how much of an ass we are.
GvG teaches to resolve our differences by slaughtering those who oppose us.
1v1 shows us if we're skilled or just outright dumpster fires.
To the best of my knowledge the only thing so far that AoC has in that regard is caravans since they're so integral do the nonpvp side they will probably always be up and running. Castle/node seiges and guild wars really don't fit the bill. Those are more akin to official tournaments as you can't login and decide thats what you're going to do today because of their declaration periods, elected times, and cooldowns.
Want to watch a fight? Go to your local colosseum and cheer for your favourite.
Want to fight? Tell someone to meet you behind the colosseum after school.
Want to find the 'best' on the server? Organise an event at the military metropolis and invite everyone.
Cool. That would be a battleground and they're also already in the game just like arenas. There will be battleground, designated node areas in the open world that when you enter them you are automatically flagged as a combatant and can kill anyone without having to worry about corruption and will remain a combatant for a little while even after you leave.
Simply having an area thats straight up pvp is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to get at. Ironically it seems its more of what the no arena pvp crowd seems to want aside from sieges. If anyone has a link to IS talking about having some objective battlegrounds that aren't the aforementioned please share, or point in the general direction.
Dueling and arenas are all that I will be doing.