Ok, PVP has too many facets to go into, but the part that makes it a problem is an easy one to see.
Player viewpoint.
In EQ (1), people PVPed (dueled) to see who could beat who, because it was a challenge/answer system with no other reward than bragging rights and no other penalty than the typical loss of xp and the (yay fun) corpserun.
What this basicly amounts to is the occasional spat, but mostly friendly "lets see whos is bigger" contest, that normally ends at the end of the duel (barring a few taunts thrown around afterwards). The downside is "kids" online who love the petty harassments with no worries as to direct player recourse.
L2 is on the other end of that spectrum. PVP nets you no xp gain, but the player you beat has a chance of dropping equipment, and the only consequence is at best a temporary flag for people to attack you without penalty, or at worse, a penalty that can be easy to get rid of through remote hunting or death. When you couple that with the fact that you need no challenge to engage in PVP, sust simply the opportunity to attack someone, it opens up the door and indeed attracts the type of personality who will attack other players simply in the hope that they drop something for you to pick up.
Taking it a bit further, GMs in L2 will never, under any circumstances, step in to resolve player conflict of any sort, and actually suggest you get your friends to go gank the person harassing/ganking/griefing you.
What THIS basicly amounts to is a game of "clan warfare", where ganking and griefing is not only allowed, but encouraged by the staff at NCsoft. It is a society where (in the high-end game, at least) Gang Warfare is the rule of thumb, not the exeption, and most players spend as much time looking out for "Reds" as they do hunting with their friends. A game where most players are not only trying to get the bigger, better armor and weapons, biut also trying to replace those items dropped when someone came along, killed you and stole the item you took weeks trying to get.
>>>>OK, yes, I have a point, and here it is
<<<<
I believe PVP can be fun, and having NO PVP can be dulorous, and invite kids who love to harass and be snide to do so without regards to the people who share the server with them. However, I do NOT believe that PVP should be rewarded in the form of your opponent/target suffering loss of items or XP, because griefers are called that for a reason... they love causing grief.
So here are my suggestions...
1)It should be a challenge system, based on challenging someone 3 times, giving them 2 chances to answer you. if it isnt answered by the third challenge, the challenger may still attack the challenged (or vice-versa), with the challenges spaced out in 5 second intervals, giving the challenged party time to escape whereas the challenger can only walk at best, not run, and therefore preventing griefing. (challenges may not be issued to a player allready involved in combat, avoiding the "kill him while he cant defend himself" scenario)
2)No penalty should be forced on the challenged party of a PVP instance, especially if they were trying to get away before the third challenge was issued.
3)If a reward is to be given to the winner of a PVP instance, it should be in the form of an xp reward only. Hell, you get XP for beating everything else in the game, so why not?
4)There should be severe penalties, regardless of the PVP system used, for attacking other players well below your level/stature. N00b/lowbie hunting is inexusable cowardess in its lowest form.
5) (and this may be a little off subject, but it does apply...) Skills gained in a level should no longer be accessable if that level is lost. nothing is worse in PVP than facing an opponent your level, only to find he has skills/abilities normally found on a character 10, 20, sometimes 30 levels higher than your own. (yes, de-leveling for this effect is a commonplace thing in L2)
/Rant OFF
Well, there is my 2 cents... sorry it was such a long read. Kudos to those who bore with me and actually read the whole thing, lol
Xhar
