This is the first, in a series of posts, about why I play Warhammer Online. There seems to be a generally negative perception about the game going around. While some of it may be justified, it really has no impact on the reasons I enjoy the game so much.
It may come as a surprise, but I used to really only play PvE in games. A while ago, I was playing Lord of the Rings Online. One day I decided to try out their Monster vs Player mode (PvP). After that, I never logged into LoTRO to play PvE. While I enjoyed LotRO's PvP, I always knew it was just a diversion and not the focus of the development efforts. That's when I saw Warhammer Online was coming out and the focus was PvP (RvR).
Fast forward to today and I just can't enjoy PvE very much. Every so often I like it, but it is just too static for my taste. With WAR, I can start PvP'ing as soon as I create a new character. I never really have to stop either. The fact that you can level via RvR is one of my favorite aspects of the game.
You can play 95% of the game without ever having to PvE. Ok, I made that number up. As the game stands right now, the Warlord and King encounters are the last bit of PvE that you would have to do. Even that will be changing though. In the Producer's Letter, Bruce mentions they want to change these to RvR encounters instead.
While you don't have to PvE, a lot of players choose to and WAR supports that type of gameplay. It is often easier to run a few dungeons to get gear than it is to collect it in PvP. This is a choice though, one which I rarely ever choose.
In WAR, I just enjoy the fight. All I want to do is log in and fight the enemy. I'm not concerned about having the best gear, or even winning. Those are all nice bonuses, but not really the focus of my gameplay. This is where WAR excels, the PvP is very accessible.
I'm not sure I would say WAR has the best PvP of any MMO. That title I would probably give to the sandbox games like EvE and Darkfall. But the accessibility of WAR's is what keeps me coming back. As I have limited times I can play, it is perfectly feasible for me to log in for 30 minutes and have some fun in PvP.
Mythic still has some work to do in order to make everything you can get in PvE available to the PvP side. Once they do that, it should make a lot of the min/maxer players happy. For me though, WAR's PvP is still a lot of fun even after a year+ of playing.
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