The player vs. player combat capabilities in MMORPGs has very much affected the outcome of future MMORPG titles. If you look at the other MMORPGs in the past, you could see that a good deal of games didn’t expand on player vs. player combat. Of course there was the ability in some games where you could get away with it outside of town. Still, you had plenty of NPC characters in the form of: soldiers, demons, ghouls, zombies, and so forth. That was pretty much plenty to keep one occupied in the MMORPG that s/he was playing.
But eventually that would get extremely boring after awhile. It takes a good amount of time coming up with enemy NPCs that would make the player(s) think. Player vs. player combat always brings this important aspect of game play: "originality." Each player will have his/her own fighting style depending on the type of MMORPG. Everybody has their methods such as using guns, swords, magical spells, traps, pure intelligence, playing skill, and so forth. It gets very interesting when a gunman and a swordsman get into it with each other in an MMORPG.
In the earliest forms of RPGs, you could only play the role of a hero. It’s cool and all in the beginning. But having only one role to play dampers the replay value of any game. Replay value is one of the most important things that an RPG let alone an MMORPG need to have. There was only a handful of RPGs where you could play the villain. Though playing the villain would be hard, it tended to be pretty darn fun. This is where the popularity of player vs. player combat comes in.
It tended to make the game companies think. Player vs. player combat does provide something very interesting: non-linear game play. In terms of non-linear game play, you can go whatever road you want to go. You can go into whatever path you want to go. You can play at your own pace. You can be the hero, the villain, or a neutral. You’re not confined to one storyline or a set of quests that must be completed in some order. That was the most frustrating thing I had to go through when playing RPGs.
In short, player vs. player combat very much invented most of the MMORPGs. You can fight whomever you want at any time and any place.
You could be a hero and fight all the bad guys. You can fight the bad guys because it’s the right thing to do. You can fight the bad guys to collect reward money. You can do this for status. There are so many reasons to fight when playing the role of a hero.
The same goes when playing a villain. There are so many paths you can take as a villain that requires you to go up against other players.
My personal favorite is being on your own side. I tend to prefer being neutral because I can stick to my own side. At the same time, I fight against other players whom could be classified as heroes and villains.
Taking whatever path that have you fighting against other actual players is the biggest thing that player vs. player combat has on MMORPGs.
It’s pretty great having the opportunity to fight against other players. That way, it gives you the opportunity to embark on so many adventures and storylines. Winning and losing opens up all sorts of possibilities. If you lose a match to another player in the MMORPG, you have a reason to keep on playing and leveling up. As a result, this will continue to become a feature in future MMORPG titles.
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