The Blogerati

Ah Tobold, you provide me yet another source of a blog posts.  The article in question: http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/08/chess-pvp-story.html

Essentially, he’s advocating the greatness of PvP as sport over PvP as war using a…creative chess analogy.  Personally, I think it’s a sound analogy if the only PvP you can stand is e-sports.  In that case, I submit to you: Starcraft, DotA, Counter-Strike.  Why not play those if all you need is esport action?

No, MMORPGs offer the perfect venue for PvP as war, engulfing an entire world of MMO junkies (carebears insert tears here).  MMOs are designed for persistent worlds (sometimes, I’m looking at you AOC/GuildWars/other instanced games); why do developers decide to ignore one of the most persistent human endeavors — war.  Sure, there are pacifists that say they hate war (I’d say they’re ignoring their natural insticts, but I’m not a psychologist/anthropologist/*ologist), but for every nay-sayer for war, you can still look in our culture and see war’s lasting presence.  I won’t bring up actual wars, but sihlouettes of them.  Sports (yes I know just decried esports, but they still exist)and stories (yes, any story essentially revolves around conflict.  What is the original source of conflict? War!) come to mind.

So then, why is war minimalized/ignored/made shallow in MMOs?  While this was not always the case (i.e., Ultima Online), this is the current trend (WoW).  I guess it goes back to the accessibillity schtick Blizzard has going for them.  However, I still salivate at the promises of a virtual world in conflict (minus all the tragedies of real war, hooray!).  Taking over lands, fighting over cities, resources, culture (yes I know plenty of MMOs have factions, so checkmark this one off); it sounds so engrossing, so much fun.  Aren’t the biggest selling points for video games the ability to get lost in it all?  I can’t think of a single human trait more intrinsic to ourselves than violence and war (except love, but we haven’t really seen any truly good love stories in games yet (Final Fantasy has never had a good love story, sorry!); also I don’t know how that’d work in an MMO other than falling in love with a real person with whom you’re playing).

This is why I’m excited for Warhammer.  Bring on the RvR (and scenarios for those who enjoy a good chess match).

written by joe.levin \\ tags: RvR, Tobold, WAR