Background info: My first MMO was UO and I played that nonstop until DAoC came out. Quit DAoC shortly after Catacombs expansion hit. Since then I’ve played pretty much every MMO that has come out (some for just beta, others for many months/years. Without a doubt UO and DAoC are my 2 favorite MMO’s of all time…UO for the amazing sandbox elements/pvp and DAoC for the awesome RvR that lasted for many years before they ruined it with New Frontiers.

The sole reason that I even decided to pick up ESO is because I am 100% about PvP and the ideas behind their AvA system seemed like they had a lot of promise. Anyone who has played New Frontiers in DAoC knows that there is a VERY huge similarity to what is said to be offered in ESO. Since the NDA is still up, I’m going to talk about the flaws in this open world pvp system by referencing DAoC’s great Pre-NF RvR system, as well as the mediocre post-NF system, and GW2’s horrendous WvW system.

1. The first thing that sticks out is the way “WvW points/currency” are distributed ala GW2…this system 100% caters to just running with zergs and leaching kills at the big fights that pop up on your map. This is by far the fastest way to rank up and accumulate points, and pretty much eliminates any motivation/reason to try and run solo/duo camping choke points for kills. Atleast in DAoC getting a solo 1v1 kill would give you ~1000 RP’s, so this factor alone made solo/duo’ing a viable option…whereas running with a zerg and leaching kills would give you far less points (if you only hit a target once before it died you’d only get like ~50rp’s, if that. If im just sitting back in a zerg aoe’ing/shooting everyone I see just to do damage to get credit for kills and still making pretty much the exact same amount of points as solo 1v1 kills…where’s the fun in that? If im having an intense 1v1 fight that actually requires some skill, i deserve to be rewarded with a much more significant number of RP's than if I was just sitting behind a zerg tapping targets for kill credit.

2. Pre DAOC NF, everyone entered the RvR zone at their own factions starting keep and then from there had to venture out on foot and travel to the action/keeps/mile gates. This created many chokepoints because everyone had to travel somewhat similar paths after leaving their keep to get into the more wide open areas. This allowed for great places to randomly find battles, as well as provided places for solo/duo stealthers to camp for action (mile gates, portal keeps). Once New Frontiers came about and added quick travel and teleporting between keeps it pretty much eliminated these choke points as people now only had to click 2 buttons and they would instantly skip all of these dangerous choke points and instantly be transported to a safe keep. These quick travel methods ruin open world PvP and in return it just turns into everyone looking on the map for the fights going on, and then instantly teleporting to a close area…teleport, fight, die, teleport, fight, die, teleport. Not only does this “teleporting system ala NF” allow reinforcements to pretty much instantly arrive back at fights (big boy version of alterac valley), but it also destroys all choke points meant to create random fights or give solo/duo stealthers opportunities to find 1v1, 1v2, 2v2, small scale fights.

With just these 2 points mentioned above, any game that follows this type of system is pretty much just recreating the weak GW2 WvW system. Instant traveling around maps, sitting with zergs to leach kills and get tons of WvW points, and eliminating any form of danger in having to travel around the WvW map.

What I was hoping for in an RvR themed MMO was actual danger when traveling around the map. Everyone being forced to enter the zone at their own starting point, and from there venturing out and passing certain choke points in order to get to keeps/battles….if I wanted this instant travel no danger zerg leaching type of game then why not just stick with the f2p game GW2?

Let the down votes begin.