Planetside 2 - A critical look

[I Hate MMORPGs]

Originally Posted by Wahooo

The first MMORPG I ever played? Rift. I've played plenty of RPGs, computer types and the "old" way, you know face to face with people and paper and dice.
My Guild was all X-planetsiders with some who have more time in WoW and EQ than they ever did in PS, but to the point it helped having them know my shooter back ground to walk me through some of the things RPGers take as 'normal'. I was actually a little stunned that there was no real consequence to ingame death, especially when i made level 20ish and got into the pvp zones of the open world. I started getting ganked by level geared out 50's (this was in the headstart week even). So I thought I was going to be losing stuff and they would be getting something. Nope, they really gained nothing other than to feel a little better about themselves for turning the tide of what real life had been doing to them for so many years and they got to pick on someone who was much weaker. Had their been real consequences? I probably would have quit the game. It wouldn't have made it more thrilling or exciting, simply frustrating. An epiced out 50 doesn't gain anything from a lowly level 20 they are just griefing. If I lost my stuff as well? Then it just would have made the griefing worse.

It makes sense that this is a Rift perspective (not an insult, just a comment), but Rift is an example of a game where equipment is anything but trivial. In a game with real PvP consequences, equipment is supposed to be a common resource that can be bought or sold easily. In that type of a system you can actually profit from being a bandit, but you can just as easily have everything taken from you.