| You are possibly correct in your identification of the problem. The more interesting question is how you can have "consequences" without them including the potential for griefing and exposing the faction imbalances. Indeed rewarding the victors aggravates imbalances. I would argue that WoW PvP is `neutered' because they are clever enough to realise that permanent results from it will cause more complaints that satisfaction.
For my own part I think MMORPG and PvP just should not be mixed, and Blizzards vision of PvP as a "sideshow" is as good as you are going to get. The reason being that class / power balance, and the inability to easily re-configure / explore alternatives, means that MMORPG's are an awful PvP environment. Something like guildwars is better (but damn the PvE is dull) because your investment can be used to widen your alternatives which increases the variety and means that the environment can be changed (powers extended / rebalanced) without destroying someones investment in their character... although I do wonder how well GW is doing, because there's also a cost to reducing a persons ties to their character. |