Some time ago I wrote an article discussing how games that have full, unrestricted PvP are doomed to fail. The games create a griefer’s paradise, where Player Vs Player combat is no longer about finding the most powerful person to take down, but rather how many people you can gank out of their starting area before you are removed for a few hours. Developers create the games with the knowledge that the title will be niche, but fail to realize just how many players will not make it past their first free month of gameplay.
Ultima Online famously introduced Trammel, a facet that removed almost all nonconsensual Pvp. There are still facets in Ultima Online where PvP is mandatory, such as the facet introduced in the newest Stygian Abyss expansion, but they are in areas geared around higher level players, or at least players who have a decent grasp of the game. Shadowbane, on the other hand, was not lucky enough to make a change that stuck. Removing the price to play wasn’t enough, and Shadowbane shut down earlier this year.
I received some feedback asking why I didn’t mention Eve Online in the article, and the easiest answer to give is: Eve Online is the exception to the rule. Eve Online has one of the most free systems of any MMO on the market, and I am continually stunned by the kind of news that comes out of the game every month. Stories of espionage, fraud, corporate scams, etc. There’s been news of Eve’s version of Bernard Madoff (A player ran a ponzi scheme set up as a bank that brought in billions of the game’s currency), players who infiltrated corporations to sabotage them months, if not a year on.
So what is Eve Online all about? Eve can be described as a less free version of Darkfall. PvP is still possible everywhere, and the game boasts full looting, but the game’s security status system makes it more difficult as the rating goes up, and more systems are in place to prevent non consensual pvp. You can insure your ship, but insurance rarely covers enough to make griefing in high security, newbie zones worth the time. Trying to gank newbies in newbie areas in Eve is like walking into a police convention with a rifle, looking for civilians in that you’ll be gunned down before your eye can twitch.
So Eve Online isn’t technically fully unrestricted PvP, but it is as close as you’re going to get and still be as successful as CCP has been with the title. As for Ultima Online, I’m doing some investigating into the game, so expect a report as to population in the next week.
MMO Fallout 