Battlegrounds? Srsly?

The news in EQ2 lately involves the latest brilliant idea (I use that term loosely) to implement battlegrounds in our beloved player vs. environment game. I don’t care if you’re playing on a player vs. player server (which have been merged recently if that gives you any indication of how popular they are) EverQuest 2 is a player vs. environment game and always has been. I laughed out loud when the announcement came out because it was mentioned as some sort of new invention – it’s not! We already HAVE battlegrounds, they’re called arenas. Except they’re BETTER then battlegrounds because you can mentor down and participate in them, you don’t need to be level 80+ and you can play OTHER CLASSES aside from your own. You can even take on the traits of a completely different race (these are little pets that you can also place in your home after, they’re called arena pets) and play in the arenas that way! Why is sony wasting resources working on a FAILED concept instead of trying to develop something new for their game. I just don’t understand.

It’s not that I’m against pvp either I think it’s incredibly fun to hunt down your target and smash them into oblivion, I just don’t see how this is going to bring any good news to EverQuest 2. One fear a lot of players have is that because this is NOT a pvp orientated game classes will need balancing. This will in turn affect how they play in pve. Unless you keep a completely separate set of skills and spells available for pvp and leave the pve game alone, people are going to get upset.

Lets take this one step further. Lets look at the classes in game. How the fuck is a templar (who has the DPS of a wet towel on a good day) going to be able to compete against a scout. How is the run speed and stealth of a scout going to affect all other classes. Another factor is that in game spells (heals and mage types) take TIME to cast. Combat arts can be instant and some of them can even be cast on the run. You’re telling me a priest is going to have time to stand around for 10 seconds to cast a heal while there’s combat going on? Pvp is (supposed to be) fast paced, there’s a reason heals over time are instant casts, or a two second cast time.

We haven’t really learned how this ‘new feature’ is going to fit into Norrath. I mean the overall picture. What will the rewards be for taking part in pvp and how is THAT going to affect the pve crowd? We were told there will be gear rewards. Will this compete with raid gear? Will it be better then instance gear? Will players give up their instances in order to pvp because items are better? Will it reward cash or maybe even crafted goods? All of these things come to mind. What sort of gear are we going to be looking at, will raiders automatically gain the upper hand?

If sony thinks they’re going to win anyone over for adding this feature they’re in for a painful surprise. I feel pretty damn confident in saying that people who are playing EverQuest 2 are not actually looking for pvp. Those people are already playing a pvp game. I also feel pretty confident saying that no one is going to leave their pvp game in order to play EverQuest 2 because while they are adding this one aspect, the game is simply not built for it.

Sony, get a fucking clue. Concentrate on what you’re already GOOD at. Stop trying to chase down dreams that don’t make sense to your loyal player base. It just doesn’t work that way.