It feels like I’ve been dealing with a bit of a theme lately: PvPvE games. PvPvE usually seems to mean simple PvE mechanics that get complicated by other people. The simplest example would be open-world bosses. In a single-player or co-op game, a boss encounter is easy enough. Add in teams, and even without being able to directly attack each other, some people will sabotage a rival’s raid attempt if they think they can beat the boss before getting their just desserts. Thus, PvPvE.
World of Warcraft’s Doom Lord Kazzak always struck me as a good specific example. Simply spinning him around and keeping his back to the raid makes him terribly easy. Having a rival player jump in and taunt him so he’s hurting the raid and possibly healing up makes the encounter tense, as even without direct PvP, a failure to burn down the boss fast enough leaves you open to griefing.
However, that’s not my favorite kind of PvPvE. Sea of Thieves‘ simple quests and boss encounters are a blast because knowing someone else might take my crew’s treasure by force adds tension that I can’t get from a pure PvE experience. WoW’s battlegrounds that rely on defeating or saving NPCs were fun, as was its iconic disease-themed event. But maybe you’re more about taking a rival faction’s capital city, tearing down walls so dinosaurs can invade your rival’s home, or just spreading/curing plagues. What PvPvE game or mechanic are you fondest of? And how could future PvPvE games do it better?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
