(note: to the experienced MMO players out there – I’m writing this for those folks who might not know all of the terms, so I’ll be explaining what some of them are. You have been warned.)

World of Warcraft. Everquest (1 and 2). Ragnarok Online. Eve Online. The list goes on.

These days, it’s hard to read a video gaming magazine or website and not see an article or post about MMO (massively multiplayer online) games. World of Warcraft’s huge subscription numbers are often spoken of these days, and a lot of people try to dissect why it’s done so well.

At its core, there are two primary modes of gameplay: Player versus Player (PvP) and Player versus Environment (PvE). The first pits you against other players, both of the opposing faction (in special battlegrounds) and sometimes of your own (the arena combat system). The second has you playing against the game itself – fighting computer-controlled monsters and enemies, doing quests for the various NPCs in the game, and working with other people to achieve certain goals (like defeating the dungeons).

Many people tend to prefer one type of play over the other. Some of the PvE types like to see the in-game lore that unfolds from doing quests and exploring new areas. Others like to see what kinds of cool loot they can get from doing the large-scale dungeons (known as raids) and fighting some of the super-tough bosses (aka world bosses).

On the PvP side, some people just enjoy pitting their skill (and gear) against other players, be it in “large-scale” warfare, ala the WoW battlegrounds. Others prefer to do their fighting in closer quarters, against smaller groups of enemies. For these people, there is dueling and the Arena.

Both are valid forms of gameplay, and as more MMORPGs come out, there will some games that try to balance the two types of gameplay, like WoW does, while others will try to focus on one over the other, like Pirates of the Burning Seas. I think it will be interesting to see how the landscape develops over the next few years.

So, I pose this question to you, dear reader – if you play MMOs, what do you prefer? PvE? PvP? Why? If you’ve never played an MMO, which of these two types of game play do you think you’d prefer, and why? (Me, I’m a PvE-centric player.)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 1:40 am and is filed under games, Richard Kim. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.