why do so many mmo's focus on pvp?

[Daggerstrike]

Getting griefed is part of the MMO experience! It's not even that bad either! Try Shadowbane where you can assfuck some random farmer in the middle of the forest and take everything he's carrying! Or play a thief, and sneak up on an entire party while bribing the scout not to give you off. Then you can procedurally rob them blind. One time my friend somehow got a botter to teleport to a city and he proceeded to AOE the entire city, respawning constantly. He lost so much XP haha.

WoW is ultra-friendly now though so there's none of that anymore. Fly directly into an instance. No need to fight your way through Blackrock Mountain or Silithus. The most griefing you can do is camping lowbies (not that fun) or farming someone for arena points.

But yeah, PvP is fun because competition is fun. Why do guys play sports? Why should we have boxing when we can have punching bag competitions? Come on now.

The difference is that in sports both sides want to compete against one another. What you do is just douchebaggery. One side wants to go about their business, you aim to ruin someones experience. You are the epitome of asshattery in MMOs.

[Serene Prophet]

The difference is that in sports both sides want to compete against one another. What you do is just douchebaggery. One side wants to go about their business, you aim to ruin someones experience. You are the epitome of asshattery in MMOs.

QFFT

[Fei]

So you'll say that Thoren sucks, but not the game?  It's a game you're paying to play, and the game has rules.  Those are the rules of the game.  Like I said earlier, you take your beatings early on, then pay it forward.. as will your victims.  My main justification is "this is why they joined a PK server."  The PK server is the football field... don't come here to play catch, because there is a game going on.

To get all hardcore serious, I'll accuse you of paying $15 a month to a greedy corporation, but not giving $15 to the Christian Children's Fund.  Get my drift?  There isn't a moral highground in MMO's.

That's my stance... but is there a correct one?  Probably not.

[Daggerstrike]

So you'll say that Thoren sucks, but not the game?  It's a game you're paying to play, and the game has rules.  Those are the rules of the game.  Like I said earlier, you take your beatings early on, then pay it forward.. as will your victims.  My main justification is "this is why they joined a PK server."  The PK server is the football field... don't come here to play catch, because there is a game going on.

To get all hardcore serious, I'll accuse you of paying $15 a month to a greedy corporation, but not giving $15 to the Christian Children's Fund.  Get my drift?  There isn't a moral highground in MMO's.

That's my stance... but is there a correct one?  Probably not.

No, there isn't a moral highground in MMOs, but that doesn't mean you should be a douchetwat either. Seriously. Camping someone to the point where they quit, or have to sign out, so you can't do it anymore is a douchebag thing to do. Randomly killing a guy and then moving on is one thing, but going out of your way to try and ruins someones experience is just a fucking childish and douchetastic thing to do. Your justification doesn't change that.

[Fei]

You get honor points for that stuff though :P  Just like the car salesman screwing you over... it's how you get ahead.  I think I'm weakening my own argument now.

[Sagacious-T]

My justification is that it is fun. WoW's own mechanics that let someone get camped is (was) a problem by design. In a PvP MMO like EVE or Shadowbane, the risk vs reward from playing in the game is what makes it fun. Nobody would be enjoying EVE if death meant diddly squat and all you had to do was fly back to your wreckage.

That said I am not a mean player in WoW. I help people from my own faction all the time. I'm one of the least Elitist Douchebaggery people that you could ever meet. The game sort of, you know, encourages you to kill the opposing faction. When I play WoW I don't think "Oh man, should I really attack those guys? If they kill me I'll lose a lot of equipment and money." I pretty much play by the code of red = dead, there is no risk for me when I attack besides a quick run back. Enemies are attackable for a reason. MMORPGs are not games of fair competition.

[Ashtrot]

I dunno, if it's so bad, why'd they put it in the game in the first place? If it's really so broken, it's a probalem with the game itself. An easy solution would be to make camping like that yield diminishing returns.

[dalucifer0]

Being a douche is fun, especially when they're[the ones being fucked] like this.

[Sagacious-T]

There is also this classic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-rl3RPC_Mw

[Megidolaon]

My main justification is "this is why they joined a PK server."  The PK server is the football field... don't come here to play catch, because there is a game going on.

I don't actually know of any mmorpg where you can only PK on a dedicated server. Sure, there are such servers, but usually you can PK all the time and many people do so.
Considering that PvP is in countless mmorpgs and you can't turn it off, normal players have to choice but to either play something else or risk getting PKed.
And anyone thinking just because it's possible, other should have to swallowit or stop playing is the epitome of douchebagery.