Seeing as how arena's in wow has homogenized the classes, I am glad there are no arenas in ESO.

I much preferred the vanialla wow where classes were distinct, and alliance had paladins and horde had shamans. Now, when every class have everything and every faction have everything, then everything is the same just with different skin and visual effects.

Just for the records, I am not opposed to arenas in itself, nor to small structured pvp, I quite like it, but I am opposed to catering everything in the game around arenas, and strongly opposed to the arena grind that is wow (grind for rating and to cap weekly points, miss out on a week or two and you are behind everyone in terms of gear).

Leave the arena in WoW.. Arenas are merely a way to grind gear and I want my pvp to be more organic.. I am so tired of every mmo forcing pvp into postage stamp sized areas , the size of Cyrodiil is what is drawing me to the game..

My experience is that this was mostly true at first, but then people started figuring out how to organize and at the very least put some zerg in the keep to defend it. More than once the Dominion and the EP got into quite the battle over a certain bridge on the border of their territory. Easily defended with boiling oil, and siege just doesn't have the arc needed to hit anything but the area where the bridge meets the road. Those battles easily lasted a good thirty minutes or more, with each side picking the other off one by one, but neither being able to advance. Which presents an interesting dilemma. How do you defeat such a well defended enemy and/or achieve your goal of taking one of their keeps? Or, conversely, how do you get those guys down on the ground to go away so you can leave the stinking bridge?

If you want arena based PvP, I can't recommend DCUO enough. It has 2x2, 4x4, 5x5 and 8x8 arenas that you can play in one of two ways, either as the superhero/villain that you create and build up yourself or through the 'Legend' PvP side which lets you play iconic DC characters. The weapon combos make the game a cross between an action MMO and a beat-em up and when combined with the superpowers and travel powers it can be great fun, especially for a F2P game. Don't get me wrong, the game has it's fair share of flaws but on the whole, it's a lot of fun for the PvP minded.

The game /community is honestly not losing anything by you not playing.

I personally couldn't care less if ESO features Arenas or not. However, I can understand why the developers would stay the heck away from such concept, given the amount of complaining it generated back in WoW. Balancing PvP is no easy task and the challenge is even greater when it's small scaled like Arenas. I, for one, am not saddened to hear the forums won't be flooded with complaints about this skill or that class being OP and OMG NERF STEALTH and the likes.

Well Morrowind had an Arena, even though it was only for certain quests and not fully functional.

Oblivion had the Arena, which was probably my favorite quest chain.

In the lore they talk about various Arenas and Gladiatorial combat.

I'd say Arenas fall very much in line with TES.

Huh? That's a fun fact but I think I missed your point.

Anyway, I'd personally like to see both arenas (1v1, 2v2, 5v5) and an open world dueling system ala SWTOR.

I've never PLAYED Dark Souls, but I have HEARD that people love that sort of thing. You know, the dying a lot but keep doing it until you win thing.

Maybe that would be a GOOD thing for this game..?

Although in PvP you die a lot regardless.

When I first clicked to reply to this, I had plenty to say, but I've decided not to do so.

I disagree with everything you said. It's a good thing we are all entitled to our own opinions and feelings.

Good luck in your search for a new game.

Rob Pardo, vice president of Blizzard entertainment, came out publicly years ago and admitted that adding arenas to WoW was a mistake. Go ahead and Google it.

If you can't learn from the mistakes of others who came before you, your chances of success are probably small.

im not quite sure i understand why it would be more fulfilling to win a 5v5 than winning a 4v16(you being on the 4 side off course)

from my DAOC days, nothing was better than going up against 4+ times the numbers you had and still win

well I have never played World of Warcraft - but an arena like in oblivion would be a nice addition here. fighting your way up ranks while other players could watch and bet would be great fun

Warning, some salty language in this article, but only one or two words will hurt your ears:

http://www.cracked.com/article_20673_5-video-games-with-disturbing-implications-you-didnt-notice.html

So the gist is this:

1. Guy thinks tab targeting and PvP in WoW are competitive, balanced and challenging? ROFLMAO... oh man, that tab targeting... it was awesome 9 years ago, now? Not really like at all.

2. Guy needs Twitch viewers to feel good about his PvP. May want to double check those numbers since the ONLY folks getting Twitch views worth a damn in WoW are entertainers who participate in PvP/Arena. If those same folks played almost anything else people would watch them do that as well, its not the game is the talent behind the screen that folks are watching.

3. Im just kidding guy is a total troll, especially the 5 second fights in WoW. All you need to say is you aren't playing ESO. No need to lie, we aren't your friends to begin with and saying you WONT be a part of something won't earn you any friends either.

Pointless post is pointless.

+1 internet on why ESO forums need to be subscriber only.

Yeah I remember well those days of Dark Age of Crowd Control and how 4 could wipe 16!

If you are looking for an mmo with better combat mechanics than WoW, this game isn't it. WoW is smooth compared to ESO. But ESO is at version 0.9x (despite what the ESO splash screen says). WoW is at version 5.xx. WoW has had more than eight years and hundreds of millions of dollars in development resources to hone the mechanics.

The only way newer mmos can compete with is better and maybe fresher gameplay. We'll find out over the next few months if ESO has enough of that.

I'm really glad this game is not pulling audience from WoW. It will be better off for it.

I also have a friend who is sticking with WoW over ESO and I say that's a good thing for ESO.

WoW locusts have a habit of coming into a new MMO, complaining loudly about all the things it lacks or does differently than WoW then leaving after 3 months anyway regardless of whether the devs add those thing they want, and going back to mother WoW where all their top level toons are. That's part of why I deleted all my toons on my 6 year old account after Cata so I would never be tempted again.

I support ESO adding an Arena of sorts, as it would be fun and lore-friendly, but as long as it is NOTHING like the abysmal and pathetic e-sport that WoW's arena has become.

Have fun with WOD, it's gonna add a lot of great stuff for people who like WoW, please encourage others you know in WoW to stick with it.

Isn't Cyrodill one big arena?

Great article. I've actually played all of those games and never thought about any of that. You learn something disturbingly new every day!

Technically, all of Nirn is. Nirn is actually an Ehlnofex word that means "Arena."

Bingo. Whenever someone says "Arena", they automatically seem to think it should recreate the WoW Arena. This is TES - I'm sure they can come up with something new and lore friendly.

I think an Arena would detract from Cyrodiil PvP. People who like Arena type PvP better should look for another game that focuses on that type of PvP, because ESO is very clearly focusing on RvR/AvA in the open world of Cyrodiil. No game can be all things to all people.

Also, as campaigns take form, and guilds strengthen, and players in an alliance get to know each other, things will get a lot more organized and communication will improve tremendously. This will mean a lot less running looking for action and being reactive, and more pre-emptive, organized movement and actions.

@OP:

I'm with the crowd here that is happy to not have Arenas. WoW's arenas and RBGs only encourage elitists. ESO does NOT need to go down that road. World PvP in WoW is not even remotely comparable to the RvR style you will see in ESO. It's apples & oranges.

I will admit that it requires a lot more patience to play solo, duo, or even small-group style in an RvR setting like this one.

There's a reason 95% of WoW's population just SITS in a main city all day...

Most people just sit around queued up for BGs, Arenas, LFDs, LFRs, or real raid groups. Why bother entering any content when you can just click a queue?

Naw, keep ESO where it is! Don't introduce BGs or Arenas!!

Encourage people get out and explore!

Encourage people to learn Cyrodiil and fight in it!

That's deep man. I did not know that.