SE - Increase PVP participation

[Wintersandman]

I really only play PvP so I believe that it is functional even though I hate the new system. Feast gets my adrenaline pumping too much that I don't enjoy it. Frontlines I thoroughly enjoy especially Seal Rock as it leans towards the most confrontational. I dislike Astragalos because it is mainly "Get ROBOT, Destroy PvE Objective". No real benefit for killing people in it.

[Zojha]

I really only play PvP so I believe that it is functional even though I hate the new system.

I would imagine that most people who regularly play this PvP will like (and defend) it to some degree, because if you don't like it, you're not going to keep playing it. That's just natural selection, it pertains not just to PvP, but products in general. It's why many subscription services give you a survey when you unsubscribe to find out why, because once people are gone, their input is lost and the remaining people won't take much issue with things, or else they'd leave as well. And then you have swathes of people leaving, nobody knows why, and the only feedback you get is like:"It's mostly fine, people just have bad taste."

I personally see this PvP as "functional" in the same way a car with flat tires, no seats, no built-in suspension and no windshield is functional. You can drive with it - Slowly. It's not a great or satisfying experience.

[Wintersandman]

because if you don't like it, you're not going to keep playing it.

Either that or there is nothing better that has come along. There is a catch and I think that is the ultimate problem. As players we are exposed to an MMO (any game really) our very first and we build up memories of that first experience. Everything after that has to meet or exceed that first experience. I started off with FFXI as my first and I still have incredibly nostalgia and wanting to relive aspects of the game. Same with WoW during Vanilla, Burning Crusade, and WotlK. I cancelled my WoW subscription when CATA was about to come out and then when I realized it took me 2 weeks to get geared for Lich King after I had been gone several patch cycles. I was blown away by how dumb downed it became. There was a point to raiding and working towards those gear pieces. I thrived on the PvP in WoW as well with Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. Premades being the same annoyance that they are in FFXIV but it was also fun when two premades went up against each other. Sure I dabbled in other games but none had the community that I felt FFXI had and all the others felt like clones of WoW.

So with all that being said, I may be drinking nostalgia from the 3.0 days which had its challenges but I can't also say that the PvP in 4.0 is not satisfying. I believe I am also waiting for that something better that proves that this is as broken as everyone makes it out to be.

[Zojha]

Either that or there is nothing better that has come along.

Well, what you're saying there sounds fairly monogame-ist.

If I feel like PvP, I play League of Legends - I played WoW, Dawngate, SWTOR, DotA2, Street Gears (;-; ), Counter Strike, Bloodline Champions, Heroes of Newerth, Starcraft 2, SMITE, Ultimate Ninja Storm, Guild Wars 2, HotS and several others over the years, but it just won out. Though occasionally, I still boot up WC3 for some custom maps (Doesn't take longer than getting a Feast match anyway). Not counting offline PvP, that baggage goes extra. My friends currently favor PUBG if they feel like PvP, Overwatch was trending for a while but died down.

Similarly, there is a slew of challenging games I rather play over raiding Savage - I did try Savage, but didn't like it. Instead of chocobo races, I'd rather just play Mario Kart, or even Blur. I don't really have a reference game for crafting/gathering. This game is my go-to address for socializing, dress-up, easy group content and RP. And forum PvP.

The point of my rambling? You're not tied to only play this game for all your gaming needs, you can cherry pick among the games on the market and there's a very good chance there are games that do certain aspects better than this, either subjectively or objectively. Those games are what this game's PvP has to compete with if it wants a players playtime. And while this game (and by extension its PvP) has a great advantage in the direct competition, because it comes as a whole package and most things come with all sorts of side benefits (Such as Mendacity for PvP, which helps PvE), that can only carry it so far.

With that said, I think that there are a lot of games (heck, amateur-made custom maps) that do PvP better than this game and I also think that this one could do it much better.
We got, like, 70k people eligible for PvP in a data center. Discounting alts, say 50k. You only need 0,05% of that to make a frontline. That should be popping 24/7 with various queues, primetime shouldn't ever be less than 72 people, full stop. That's not a super ambitious goal. If only 10% of that playerbase is online at a time, that'd be 5k. You only need 1,5% of that in the queue for a 72 match, or have several 24 man matches in parallel. Double that to account for Feast if you will, it's still not breaking single digits. It should be do-able.

How? I'm not sure. I'd start with asking the playerbase in general, because that's the pool you're recruiting from. If they play PvP at all, what games they play, what modes they prefer, if they play this PvP as well and if not, why not etc. That's something they should have already done the first time they tried to rework PvP, if only to gauge how much potential PvP has in this game in general before running off with lolEsports. Alas!

*ramble ramble*

[Wintersandman]

*ramble ramble*

I have played lots of games. I didn't ramble off the entire list as I also played Rift, Tera, Swtor, Starcraft II. I played Borderlands (1 and 2), Halo, Call of Duty plus a myriad of other single player games (Non-PVP). I dumped 140 hours into DA Inquisition over 2 play throughs. First on Normal just for casually playing through and then on Nightmare for the challenge both with 100% completion. FFXIV is probably the only game I pickup because it is the easiest to pickup and have friends online. Being a console first gamer because my recliner is way more comfortable than any gaming chair (Also work a desk job so I don't want to go back to a desk), I have never played League of Legends and most likely never will. So sitting in front of my PS4, I have limited options if I want a PvP experience that doesn't involved a gun.

[maestroanth]

I really only play PvP so I believe that it is functional even though I hate the new system. Feast gets my adrenaline pumping too much that I don't enjoy it. Frontlines I thoroughly enjoy especially Seal Rock as it leans towards the most confrontational. I dislike Astragalos because it is mainly "Get ROBOT, Destroy PvE Objective". No real benefit for killing people in it.

I just tried some of the pvp which was "Feast" and I found it to be very fun and some people really enjoy that adrenaline pump. In someways I even liked it better than a WoW bg, but probably not because it was actually better, but just was not WoW.

Based on my first impressions, I think this game can have awesome pvp if they keep working on it.

[Wintersandman]

some people really enjoy that adrenaline pump.

Yeah I used to enjoy it that adrenaline pump. But my heart literally feels like it is going to pop out of my chest it is pumping so fast and hard when I do feast. Two matches and I feel like I have just rode 3 miles on a bike at top speed. So for me it's not that it is unfun but I don't want it to literally kill me.