Shorth

Return of Online Player vs. Player Games

In the beginning of online games history, the first games were Player vs. Player oriented. These PvP games included Ultima Online and Asheron’s Call Darktide. In both of these games you could engage in PvP combat without having to ask the other party for permission. This resulted in a lot of fights, and a lot of exciting action for those involved. Unfortunately, the next era of online games included games often defined as “carebear”. Player vs. Player combat was very limited in such games, and the whole emphasis was on Player vs. Environment. Since human players can outsmart any computer AI, such games became boring for many players after some time, and currently we experience the return of Player vs. Player Games. Warhammer Online is a great example of that, as the whole game is focused on the conflict between two opposing factions: Order and Destruction. Darkfall is another game that allows for unrestricted Player vs. Player combat. Darkfall features three opposing factions, however, there is emphasis on wars between guilds as well. Hopefully, there will be more games like this coming out, and the games I mentioned will just be the beginning. This does not mean that there is no room for more “carebear” games, however, there definitely is a market for more hardcore games. Aion is another game that is quite hardcore. This particular game was developed in South Korea where there are many PvP games. Aion features quite big penalties for those defeated in Player vs. Player combat, and because of that each fight is very interesting.