Can PvP and PvE coexist in harmony?

I undercut your auctions. I stole your best customer with my alt. I tracked you down for a week. We finally met, unaware of whom I was or why I was there. I took the first shot – that one shot you’ll always remember. No quest written at me or a thousand others before came close to this moment. Not one.

Geoff Tuffli, one of the lead combat system designers on City of Villains who is also responsible for player versus player recently posted about PvP from a theoretical design perspective, a first post in a promised “pvp design” theory-crafting series. Tuffli more or less establishes the ground work and poses the question how can you approach pve and pvp design and make the two cuddle with one another with the inherent balance problems between them. I look forward to his answer, it’s not often players can read insider thoughts from a pvp developer and its particularly important for any City of Villains player interested in pvp to take notice and respond there so that their comments have a better chance at being read.

In a real pvp game, pvp is the only way to do it - divorce the pve, send it packing. I’m talking about the real deal pvp and not the bastardized tacked-on version with no real meaning or connection to the world. PvP being something other than the big flashy leader board in the sky calculating when you can afford your next welfare epic. PvP being something much more intricate, intertwined into a struggle of nations. The political guile, the espionage, the back and forth smear campaigns between different corporations in Eve is the best example. What happens is all that meta-game in and outside Eve is better than any pve content, it’s dynamic, foul, gritty, and entertaining. It’s better than what we know as traditional static pve content, player versus player is the experience. This experience, this creation is better than any pez-dispensed quest asking me to pick a flower for some npc I won’t remember in five minutes.