I think it would be really tough to create an MMO where PvP and PvE were mixed constantly without creating a haven for griefers. It would be impossible to just play the game. This was a problem with the first Diablo, if I remember correctly.

I am looking forward to seeing how GW2 will handle PvP. So far, I think the original GW set the standard for a rewarding and comprehensive PvP. Fighting in “The Mists” in GW2 sounds, so far, like it will provide a lot of variety and different opportunities for all stripes of PvPers.

Still getting used to that one.

Me, I would rather be pro at something useful. especially given where the economy is heading.

We all play backyard baseball or football, and basketball in our driveways or at parks. There are old men baseball and basketball leagues, flag football leagues, etc. This is the equivalent of your casual, means-nothing-to-anyone-but-yourself play. It is because there is a pro league that we enjoy these casual times playing these games, because these games are relevant.

Pure E-sports can and do exist (Counterstrike), but as far as MMO-style? It would not be the same genre and therefore cannot exist, just as debate is not the same genre as prose.

But they apparently also got the difference between Diablo 1,2,3 vs WC3/SC1+2 vs WoW.

eSports works fine for the strategy RTS stuff, but for the action-RPG Diablo style or a MMO like WoW?

Back in the time WoW and GW were released (2004/2005) “PvP” was all the rave! Today we can say that was bullshit.

Nowadays the buzz words are “Story”, “Fully Voiced” and “F2P.” Let’s see which buzzword turns out to be bullshit, too.

Skills were balanced primarily for PvP. So often skills that were perfectly fine in PvE got a nerf, and people did not like it. There was also the question if new content should be developed more for PvE or PvP, and mostly new PvP formats flopped, interestingly the most casual form of somewhat organized PvP, “Alliance Battles” (battlegrounds basically) became the by far most popular, probably even more so than the name giving “Guild Battles.”

In the end the shift towards PvE was very visible, but with the total separation of skills in PvE and PvP versions, PvE also got dumbed down somewhat. PvP ironically helped to keep skill power in check. What contemporary PvE skills and builds can do turns some former “elite areas” into something to laugh about, and that’s not too funny IMO.

Guild Wars 2 – there will be PvP, but I wonder if will please the more hardcore GW1 pvp crowd.
I actually think eSports and MMORPG does not go well together. I would like to see some more PvP in the world, but most people want total safety – so we have a strict separation, and PvP mostly suffers or becomes a joke.

Interestingly so far no pure eSports MMOs have emerged – IMO it simply does not work at all by default. The PvP players always need a PvE player base so subsidize them. I personally say better keep eSports out of MMOs. Sorry, PvP players. I would rather like a separation: World of Guildcraft (PvE) and Guild Wars (PvP).

But I see no chance in hell that a pure eSports PvP MMO or something like that will ever work. I already have abandoned all hope that we will get PvE and PvP together again instead of separating the latter into instances. In Ultima Online people voted with their feet as the world was split in a PvP and a PvE side – the PvP side was empty and abandoned. I somewhat miss the days when PvP and PvE were not opposites but both part of the game, unfortunately I do not see them returning anytime soon.