Popularize PvP = Faster Queue?

[Yutsimaki]

I love PvP more than the next guy, but the queue is brutal!!
Here's a few ideas that would instantly fix that!

• Faster PvP XP!!
  Allow us to have some Xp boosters to level up faster! (If they exist then I'm slower than queue)

• Rewards!!
  To please those roleplaying cosplayers and other players.Introduce some new glamour looks with wolf marks. That'll get a large player base working hard for glamour!

• Maps and game modes
  Introduce some new maps along with some fun new gamemodes. Corethas would make a great snow battle map, along with a garlean empire area. As for gamemodes, battles with chocobo, king of the hill, etc

Bit of a headache to be descriptive.

[Saccharin]

Think about it... if you introduce more maps you spread the limited player base even further.

[sarehptar]

I definitely agree with extra bonuses; I would definitely love it if we could level up faster in PvP.

Rewards seems a bit more iffy to me. People don't seem to be going for what is available right now (it doesn't help that a lot of the PvP outfits are really ehhhhh), so I'm not sure even more rewards would work, but possibly if they designed some really good-looking gear for PvP, maybe. Perhaps mage gear that isn't robes and pointy hats... I would totally PvP constantly to get street-thug gear for a monk if that were a thing. XD

I absolutely agree about the maps/game modes. I think the biggest problem right now is that all the modes we have amount to the same thing--just kill whoever/whatever you can. There's very little strategy involved and no other objectives (securing the flag in Secure is not a different objective, since all you have to do to capture it is kill the opposing team). I would love to have some modes of PvP that involve something more complicated, like taking prisoners (and escaping as a prisoner!), stealing resources from opposing teams, modes that require you to be sneaky (although I imagine this would have to be carefully balanced if ninja is allowed in), and lots of different options for what you and your team can do on the battlefield so that it's no longer a simple, scripted "Team A goes here, Team B goes there" every time.

Just yesterday I was talking to an FC mate about how much fun PvP would be if we could utilize all the status effects in the game--imagine a 72 man brawl with people getting turned into frogs, mini'd, charmed, confused, etc. left and right. Seems like it would be hilarious.

Think about it... if you introduce more maps you spread the limited player base even further.

This is true, but allowing people to queue for multiple maps/modes at once would probably make this issue pretty minimal.

[Gilraen]

I think you missed it when they said, "...limited player base". The PvP here isn't anywhere near as popular as you think it is. Yes, people did the PvP but it was just to get the mount(s) and fancier armor for use as glamour. After that they were done because it's not what you play a Final Fantasy for. Even Ballista in XI had a small population of participants because there were substantially more players that just didn't care. Like Ballista, Frontlines and Wolves Den have no bearing on the game as a whole. You want to get people interested in PvP enough that it impacts the queues, then Square would have to tie it into the game more vitally than the diversion it currently is, give a reason to care who holds territories or how many wins in the Den you've accrued. Without that you're never going to see an improvement in your queues.

[Warlyx]

pvp needs to be more fun , and better rewards no doubt , i like to pvp from time to time but queues ugh....dont have 1h just to battle 10 mins

[Skeith-Adeline]

All they need to do is allow friends to queue together. The GC thing is what killed front-lines immediately.

[Welsper59]

The rewards are honestly not that big of a problem with participation. Some adjustments would certainly be nice on that, but it's not too big of an issue (when Slaughter was released, you could easily cap out tomes quickly and gain marks even faster). The thing that needs to happen is a change in the utilization of PvP and how players look at it. It's an endgame only thing to nearly the entire player base, and has zero benefit to the majority. Enough so that some forget it even exists.

They should look to introduce lower level brackets for Frontlines and take a page out of SWTOR and WoW PvP, as far as what made that so fun (SWTOR) and what mostly prevented AFK abuse (WoW) for a large portion of the player base. SWTOR kept queue times low due to having a lv10-49 bracket for Huttball (higher lvl requirements for other maps), where it scaled your stats to match higher levels. I don't remember if it was scaled to 50 or 49. This did 3 greatly beneficial things. It promoted PvPs existence and made it a viable means to level up (shorter queue times), it gave a side progression goal to twink across various level ranges as a personal preference, and it gave everyone a taste of how strong you can be. It's never fun to just be steamrolled because someone outgeared you, and that's where SWTOR did things right. As mentioned, people made twinks (I did), but it didn't mean you were always going to be that 1-man army. A twink was powerful, but you would still have to play carefully if you didn't want to die quickly due to the fact that EVERYONE is scaled high enough to be a danger. WoWs Report AFK system helped to stem too many instances of AFKers. It didn't prevent it entirely, but you can't really avoid bad things from happening when a lot of people play.

Reward players with a good amount of exp, heck, make it reward enough exp to almost compete with dungeons (maybe 5-10 FATEs worth for your current level). This game needs people to do dungeons, so you can't really take away too much from those hoping to progress in story, as it's just the way it is. Allow small yields of PvP exp and seals to be obtainable, so as to let players begin the long grind to reach higher ranks of gear. Incorporate PvP as an optional part of the mandatory process of leveling (though not making it mandatory to do, obviously). It's about changing the outlook of the player mentality, more than it is simply enticing them with more of the same reward without finding a good reason why people don't do it.

For the immediate future though, or endgame specifically, I guess all they can really do is give more rewards... maybe lower the ranks needed for most glamour/PvP gear. One more SIMPLE AND MINDLESS objective map might help as well. The few hardcore PvPers will always enjoy complex maps, but if the game requires too much strategy, the general populous won't... and they won't even realize why they usually lose.

TLDR: Need lower level brackets with boosted stats across all eligible levels for Frontlines and rewards exp (and possibly pvp exp).

[sarehptar]

I think you missed it when they said, "...limited player base". The PvP here isn't anywhere near as popular as you think it is.

This was kind of the OP's point, right? That PvP needs to get more popular. I agree, that's why I mentioned creating new modes that might be more fun to attract more people to play.

I don't think anyone would be able to convince the developers to make PvP more relevant to the main game. People who hate or are completely disinterested in PvP would throw a fit. But I do like Welsper's idea to possibly giving leveling exp by doing PvP. That could totally be a good compromise, making it relevant to the rest of the game. Although I'm not sure 5-10 FATES worth of exp would be good--5-10 FATES worth of exp gained every 5-10 minutes from PvP would allow people to level to 50 in a matter of hours... Dungeons would be completely dead.

[DoctorPepper]

All they need to do is allow friends to queue together. The GC thing is what killed front-lines immediately.

Although I don't know that this would fix PvP at this point, I agree with you that this is what killed it to begin with. I had no desire to pvp anymore after finding out I couldn't play with half my friends.

Increased rewards would definitely help but I don't know that it would revive this sinking ship. At this point nobody bothers to queue up because queue times are too long and it's just not worth the wait.

[Teslo]

My opinion on the matter may be a little biased because I don't like to PvP and never will, but...

PvP in this game is essentially a minigame, much like it was in FFXI. The game itself is the storyline and the things you do in your Eorzean travels. Your trials with the primals or Midgardsormr, as well as your struggles against the Empire. Final Fantasy games have always been story first, minigames galore as a distraction/something extra to do. PvP should not (As it is currently) be a primary part of the game. The struggle in Carteneu is all well and good, but

it's been proven to be a diversion by unscrupulous members of the Uldahnian elite to distract adventurers and leaders alike in a bid to simply make more money

, which makes it a really great minigame, but not a central part of the story. In my opinion this is how it should be.

TL;DR : Want more PvP? Should probably play a game with PvP as a central theme.