Player versus player
Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of combat in MMORPGs, MUDs and other computer role-playing games pitting a player's skill against another's, where the goal is ultimately the death of the opponent's player character. While this can include player killing or PKing, this term is usually used in a narrower sense. It is the antithesis of combating mobs, known as player versus monster (PvM) or player versus environment (PvE).
The term has also been adopted in discussions about traditional roleplaying games and live-action gaming, with approximately the same meaning.
History and background
PvP combat has its roots in various MUDs like Gemstone III. However, while the ability to kill another player existed in many MUDs, it was usually frowned upon because of general strict adherences and heavy influences from role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The term PvP originated in Neverwinter Nights, a multi-player roleplaying game hosted by America Online in 1991. Originally intended to be PvM, a work-around was found that allowed players to cast spells to damage other players. After much discussion, PvP was sanctioned and certain areas were labeled "Player versus Player" and the term PvP was born.
Other early MMORPGs, including Meridian 59 (1996) and Ultima Online (1997), also had PvP combat as a feature. In Ultima Online, the goal was to allow players to police themselves in a "frontier justice" way. In Meridian 59, the game tried to focus PvP by having different political factions for players to join. However, these games tended to be unfriendly to more casual players. With the popularity of EverQuest in 1999, primarily consisting of PvM elements (with the exception of limited PvP on one specific server), PvP became a negative for MMORPG players and developers.
PvP has remained in other games such as Asheron's Call in late 1999, Diablo II in 2000, Dark Age of Camelot in 2001, Asheron's Call 2 in 2002 amd Shadowbane in 2003. While these games included PvP, they still contained large portions of prerequisite PvM, mostly to build characters. Critics argued the comprehensiveness of this type of PvP lacked in comparison to Ultima Online's implementation before the release of the Age of Shadows expansion. The main concerns voiced by critics were lack of an individual's skill involved (primarily reaction time and hand-eye coordination), heavy dependence on items, and too much prerequisite PvM to build a character. Some MMORPGs currently in development are starting to use competitive PvP, such as dueling, as a main feature. In most MMORPGs, dying results in negative consequences. Therefore being the losing party in PvP combat is undesirable. For example, in Asheron's Call, you lose items upon death.
Though many MUDs have gone the route of roleplay intensive gameplay (RPI), or followed the hack 'n slash trends in popular graphical MMORPGs, some MUDs have focused strongly on the PvP gameplay. Many MUD designers claim that PvP in graphical MMORPGs is not player-skill oriented, and that the more versatile gameplay of text-based MUDs can allow for better PvP combat implementation.
In 1995, Richard Woolcock, often known as "KaVir", created the original God Wars MUD. The game proved popular, but eventually died out in March 1996 due to staff disputes and balance issues in the game. The code itself was released to the public as "GodWars", a codebase which is used by over a hundred MUDs today. The stock gameplay elements of GodWars and its successors, such as Dystopia and Utopia, have made it the most accessible codebase for PvP-oriented MUDs to date.
In most MUDs, players engaged in PvP are usually separated from the rest of the community, and are organized in clans, or other player-run groups as well. A few of the most popular MUDs who lay claim to advanced PvP combat systems are Godwars II, Achaea, MUME, Clandestine MUD, Realms of Despair, DragonRealms: The Fallen, Everwar, Duris: Land of Bloodlust, and The Last Knights.
On August 4 2005, the Chinese government announced a ban on all "violent" MMORPG play for minors (under 18). Chinese officials defined "violent" as any game that involves player vs. player combat. This new policy is part of a crackdown on pornographic, violent, gambling and superstitious content on the internet and mobile phone networks in an effort to create a so-called "healthy online environment".[1]
The popularity of Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, World of Warcraft, as well as NCSoft's Guild Wars, Lineage and Lineage 2, has renewed interest in PvP development and many new upcoming games are promising support for some degree of it, and many older games have taken strides to add additional PvP options, such as the City of Villains expansion to City of Heroes.
Among MMOs, one notable example of a PvP-oriented game would be CCP Games' EVE Online. The game's internal politics, power factions and wars all originate from conflict between the player corporations and alliances. Furthermore, market prices and item availability are all dictated by player action. An EVE player is free to attack any other player at any time in any place - "safe zones" are defined by those areas where violent acts against another player will result in the in-game police force intervening and destroying the aggressor, though they may not respond in time to prevent the victim's destruction.
Classifications
Player killing
Player killing, or PKing, is sometimes nonconsensual and random but may also be encountered in consensual form as duels or specific areas of the game set aside for the purpose of PvP, where entering these areas implies consent. Some games offer "open PvP" (also sometimes called "world PvP"), where one player can attack another without warning anywhere in the game world. An aggressor attacks an opponent without agreement to any set of rules of engagement or combat. This can include "stealing" spawns, camping corpses, blockading towns, etc.
PvP can also create additional facets in the community. In Ultima Online, a rift formed between those who enjoyed PKing, those who enjoyed hunting the PKs and those who simply did not want to fight at all. The Renaissance expansion later added a Trammel facet where PvP was not allowed, giving some out to the UO crowd that did not wish to engage in PvP at all.
Players often find PK deaths to be unfair since the most effective tactics require surprise or attacking an opponent in a weakened state. In PvM, the goal is to learn the pattern of the monsters and often to exploit those patterns for fastest gains. Fighting challenging monsters in online games usually requires a period of recuperation before fighting another monster, and this downtime is the perfect chance for a PKer to strike. PvP, and more specifically PKing, goes against the predictability of the game. While some people enjoy this aspect of gameplay and won't play without it, some do not and will avoid any game where PvP may be forced on them.
Character death in an online game usually comes with a penalty, so habitual PKers can find themselves ostracized by the local community. In some games a character will die many times and the player must often sacrifice some experience points (XP) or gold to restore that character to life. Permanent death (such that the player must create a new character) is relatively uncommon in online games in general and more specifically when PK is involved.
Dueling
Dueling is both consensual and competitive. Both parties agree to a certain set of rules before combat, which can include a specified area and restrictions on items and combat type. Dueling ladders and leagues setup by fans are common for most MMORPGs that have PvP. Runescape was the first MMORPG to debut a formal dueling system ingame (Ballista); other MMORPGs such as City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and RuneScape feature PvP as competitive, consensual dueling in a group setting. This removes the unpredictable element from PvP, allowing players to challenge each other on "even" ground. Dueling is often considered an inferior and less challenging form of PvP by the more hardcore PvP communities.
Flagging
EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies have a system that involves a PK flag, where a character has their PK flag set to off by default. Through various means, this flag can be turned on, allowing PvP combat with other people who have also turned on their flag. In Everquest, there is no way to turn the flag off once it has been turned on. In Star Wars Galaxies,runescape, the flag may be turned off by interacting with faction specific NPCs located throughout the game. Other games have a similar bounty system where players that kill or heal other players open themselves up to being killed in return. This is sometimes called the "revenge flag" or RF. Use of this 'bounty' system is not standardized among MMORPGs, and there are debates raging about how to 'police' the system to avoid abuse.
Player versus monster
Player versus monster or PvM is the traditional system used in most MUDs (as opposed to player versus player, which focuses primarily on combat between human players). In some games (notably Lineage II) it is called Player versus Enemy/Environment or PVE.
Players who prefer PvE or other non-confrontational styles of play are often referred to by the slang term Carebears. This is a reference to the popular 80's American cartoon show the Carebears.
The term "Carebear" originated in the online game Ultima Online when it referred to a method of dealing with particularly violent playing styles. The joke originally started on the Crossroads of Britannia message board where there were two large groups of roleplayers, one from Chesapeake and the other from the Lake Superior server. The latter were more into PvP and the former a more peaceful style of roleplaying. The Chesapeake group referred to the LS group as the "biker gang" and the "Carebear" term was put on the Chesapeake group. One night, the Chesapeake group invaded Silk's Tavern on Lake Superior by creating throwaway characters with names from the original TV show and "attacked" the assorted group of people roleplaying at the tavern. The attackers used hugs and "Carebear Stares!" to cuddle up with the LS group - frustrating them greatly in the middle of a large melee with other PvP groups.
The real start of this came when a PK guild, KOC, repeatedly attacked the non-violent roleplaying sessions of a group on the Chesapeake server at their tavern. Elawyn of Yew, one of the roleplayers, initiated a policy of not fighting back and carrying no items to steal, thus giving no satisfaction to the griefers. This led to the destruction of KOC due to one of the "Carebears" getting the keys to the KOC guild castle.
Player versus environment
Many new MMORPGs advertise themselves as being Player versus Environment or PvE meaning there is more depth to the interaction between the player and the game than merely killing monsters. Some aspects of PvE include scripted events and special 'world' encounters that require a large group of capable players to defeat safely.
Examples of different PvP systems
Meridian 59
In Meridian 59, one of the first modern 3D MMORPGs, characters have flags to indicate their status. A new character is protected by a "guardian angel", which prevents the player from participating in PvP combat until they gain a small amount of power. This system allows players to get familiar with the game without being attacked immediately. However, this system has been abused in the past to protect characters that were used to cast spells to influence a battle, such as healing a combatant. Most of these abuses have been fixed.
There are also flags indicating status. All players start as innocents (with names over their head printed in white text), but attacking another innocent will flag the attacker as an outlaw (with an orange name). If an attacker kills another player, they gain murderer (with a red name) status. There are no penalties for attacking or killing outlaws. Once an outlaw dies, they go back to being an innocent. A murderer cannot lose that status unless pardoned by a player-elected justicar.
The game has also implemented systems to encourage PvP between consenting players. The game allows two clans/guilds to mutually declare war on each other and fight without penalty. There is no penalty for attacking a member of a guild that has declared mutual war. Either guild can sue for peace, but this places a financial burden on the guild to do this. Another PvP system involves the political factions in the game. After gaining a certain amount of power, a faction member can receive a shield and become a soldier for the faction. There is no penalty for attacking a soldier with a shield from another faction. If a soldier kills a rival faction soldier, they gain status and increased powers from the faction.
Lineage II
Currently one of the most active PvP games is Lineage II. Most of the goals of the game directly revolve around the PvP aspect. In this particular MMORPG, almost all clans/guilds are PvP-oriented, and the siege feature of the game is exclusively a massive PvP event involving up to 300 or more people centering around the capture and defense of a clan's castle (there are nine castles in the game that can be conquered by clans). The opportunities for both solo and party PvP are numerous outside the towns, which are marked as peace zones. Lineage II incorporates a "flagging" system whereby players have to make a conscious effort to attack another PC (in this case pressing the ctrl and attack hotkey simultaneously). When a player "flags" or attacks another player, his name changes color from neutral white to purple, and other players can choose to flag him or her as well. If one successfully kills a flagged player, he receives a PvP point on his PvP counter.
PK on the other hand in Lineage II is defined as killing a "white" or neutral player, one who has not attacked or flagged back. When a player PKs another, his name changes to red and he receives a certain amount of "karma" points based on the number of people he has just pked, as well as his current PK count, which is separate from his PvP counter (the higher it is, the more karma he has to burn). In red or PK status the chances of a player dropping equipment increase to almost 90%, and thus red players are heavily targeted by those outside his or her own clan or alliance, hence rendering getting rid of karma an absolute necessity. The only way a player can be rid of karma is by a) killing a number of mobs, b) losing karma points by dying. It often takes several deaths to lose karma on a character that pvps frequently, which serves as an effective PK deterrent to those wary of losing XP (experience points). Lineage II has no hard and fast rules regarding PK or PvP, nor servers to separate PvE (Player versus mob) and PvP gameplay (as compared to World of Warcraft).
World of Warcraft
In World of Warcraft, PvP is an optional feature and heavily regulated. Characters come from one of two factions, and apart from duels and the "arena", PvP is limited to combat between the factions. World of Warcraft includes both normal, or PvE (player vs environment), and PvP servers. On a normal server, characters cannot be attacked by other characters except in designated 'battlegrounds' locations, unless they have "flagged" for PvP through a command, attacked a flagged enemy, entered an enemy city or assisted a flagged character. On a PvP server, characters adventuring in areas outside of the initial starting areas are automatically flagged and players of the opposite faction in these regions, which make up the bulk of the game-world, may attack one another without restriction. Players may also "raid" cities and towns belonging to the other faction, attacking the NPCs there. On a PvP server, many of the guidelines for appropriate behavior are relaxed-- players are expected to enforce these guidelines themselves.
In World of Warcraft, victories in PvP contribute points of honor to that character. Every week, characters are awarded ranks based on their honor relative to other players. These ranks permit players access to high-level items. Similarly, players fighting in battlegrounds gain reputation with their faction's army in that location, in addition to any honor they accumulate for their PvP. Sufficient reputation allows players to purchase high-level gear that is otherwise inaccessible, and is more appropriate to PvP play. Thus, in World of Warcraft, PvP is presented as an alternative to traditional PvE gameplay.
Many players criticize the PVP ranking system in World of Warcraft because of the amount of play time required to reach the upper ranks of the system (rank 11->14). The time required varies from realm to realm, but is generally around 12 hours of play per day[2], which many players regard as unhealthy time investment. This means the highest ranks are impossible to obtain for the majority of players. Players often note that most PVE content is accessible to all players even without constant play. There is also the view that PVE focused players will often have access to better gear then casual PVP players. Counter points are that only a small percentage of players actually are in guilds that are able to complete the end game PVE dungeons, just like few players will be able to get a character to PVP rank 14, and PVP is still enjoyable at lower ranks.
Flyff
In Flyff, PvP is optional, there is a specially marked PK server, where PvP is free-for-all. However, it is impossible for the starting class, the Vagrant, to be attacked or attack although they can still access the server. There is also a special arena in the PvM servers, where players can ask other players to duel.
The Damned Isle
In The Damned Isle, PvP occurs for three days every 4 weeks. This time is known as the Bloodmoon. On the first and third of these days when the bloodmoon is rising an waning, Players can only kill their declared enemies, On the middle day, when the moon is full, players can kill any player. Leagues of the top 10 Player Killers overall and of each race are kept. Karma is improved for killing players of enemy races and decreased for killing members of your own race. Holiness is improved when players who worship other gods are killed, and decreased when you kill players who worship your god.
RuneScape
RuneScape caters for PKers and non-PKers with its wilderness system. There is an area at the top of the map that is known as the wilderness. This is an area ruled over by chaos and contains high level monsters and challenges. The wilderness is also the only place where rule free PVP combat may take place(people can die in the wilderness unlike duelling in which you may only lose ammunition such as arrows and whatever you may have bet on the battle).
This system is better for non-PKers as they do not have to go into the wilderness. Some high level quests etc. may require players to go into the wilderness but it is assumed that their high level protects them.
The wilderness also prevents high level PKers picking on low level PKers. Each point in the wilderness has a level and the further into the wilderness you go, the higher the level. This level works by allowing you to attack anyone who is the same level as you and anyone who is within the same number levels above or below you as the wilderness level you are in. For example, a level 51 in level 3 wilderness could attack level 48 to 54 players.
Death is also different for PKers. This makes it more risky than normal combat. When a player dies in normal combat they get to keep their 3 most valuable items but if they attack another player they get a skull and crossbones above their head(referred to as being 'skulled'). If a player dies while skulled, they lose all the items in their inventory.
If people could be attacked outside of the wilderness it would be very unfair especially if they could not defend themselves as in the Falador massacre, a bug that allowed players to PK outside the wilderness.
Tibia
Tibia (computer game) has different game worlds. You make your character and put on one specific world, where it will stay. There are 3 types of worlds: non-pvp, pvp, and pvp-enforced. On non-pvp worlds, there is no attacking whatsoever. Spells that involve fire, poison, and energy dissapate after about 3 seconds. On pvp enforced worlds all pvp is accepted. You may attack anyone at any time regardless of level. (Except in a few "protection zones" or pz.) In regular pvp attacking someone randomly gives you a "white skull" in which any player may attack you without penalty. Killing 3 people in one day gives you a red skull. It is the same as white skull, except the skull lasts for 30 days, and you lose all equipment when you die.
Asheron's Call
In Asheron's Call, players adventure and hunt in a fully 3D environment. Making your character on a set game world, you start off training in the Hall. There are 3 sets of PvP on Asheron's Call; Player Killer, where you can fully attack any other player that is a Player Killer. If you die in this mode, the person that kills you may 'loot' your corpse for valuable items dropped on death.; Player Killer Lite, where you can fight other PKlites without the risk of losing items. Players killed in this way will not gain you any level xp.; Finally, the game world of Darktide. Here you are a Player Killer permanently, withoutt a choice. In this world there are two major clans that constantly fight. It's a dangerous world, and only used by advanced and skilled PKers.
PVP in Live-Action Roleplaying
LARP has always featured player vs player conflicts; partly because even in PVM games the monsters are played by other players ('monster crew') rather than by GMs/referee/computer, partly because there is little a human referee can do to prevent one player-character attacking another player-character (apart from asking 'please don't do this'), and partly because it is often considered that another free-willed player is a more worthy opponent than an NPC whose background, choices and abilities may be determined by a plotwriter.
PVP conflict is not limited to lethal combat - in LARP it might include theft, social one-up-manship, political manoevouring, economic domination, or even romantic affairs. Still, the most direct and unambiguous PVP conflict is combat.
While there are a few LARP (or LARP-like) games whose primary focus is on killing other PCs, a lot of LARP gaming styles do not look fondly on unmotivated killings, or players who abandon any kind of characterisation but simply look for opportunities to kill monsters and characters, as might be normal in some CRPGs.
Some few LARPs ban player-killing outright. Many games have a stronger focus on PVM than PVP play, and social conventions deter (for example) the killing of a low-level character by a high-level character, at least without considerable provocation. Some LARPs, especially the larger ones, make complex PVP a principle element of the game.
PVP can be an advantage in LARP, especially large-scale LARP (hundreds of players or more) since it reduces the need for monster crew and plotwriting, can enhance the sense of fair play, and can produce a wider variety of opponents than a small plotwriting team could easily create. However, it can be hard to maintain PVP alongside some kinds of PVM plot (for example, if the end of the world is at stake, the rational strategy is to temporarily ally with your enemies until the threat is over.)
The term PVP has been gaining adoption in LARP circles with the rise of internet-based discussion groups.