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What percentage of current players do you think are heavily into PvP, and how do you derive that data?
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I'm not even going to try to answer that one, because I don't think it's relevant. You don't have to be 'heavily' into PvP to make use of the feature.
You wouldn't ask me what percentage of the player base was heavily into bases or heavily into playing Dominators, and yet both of these features are flawed, and need fixing, and will most likely get it.
Judge how much a feature needs attention by how broken it is, not by how many people are using it.
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When you put money into something 5 times in a row, and fail all 5 times
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Fail?
The Arena isn't much used, true. But the Arena doesn't WORK right. It's bugged, and tournaments don't work, and you can't bet on matches, and IIRC the special Arena badges aren't even functioning.
As for the other zones 'failing' - they are being used, currently, DESPITE their flaws. That in itself suggests not that PvP is unsupported by the players, but that there are players still willing to PvP in CoX even though so much is wrong with it. Now, stop and consider how many more would participate if it worked as it should.
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None of those ways has managed to capture more then a handful of people.
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Did you see the test of RV when there was auto-levelling to 40? PvP still draws plenty of support, WHEN IT WORKS.
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Most people who might come to PvP couldn't care less about that.
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And many of the people who would otherwise be consistently PvPing DO care about it. What's the sense in alienating those of your playerbase who WANT to PvP, but find the feature too bugged to use?
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the only ones who will enjoy a fixed arena are 1-5% of the total game population.
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You're seriously wrong. You are basing your figures on a snapshot, and on your own inferences. You have no way of knowing how many people
- pvp a lot of the time
- pvp some of the time
- pvp very casually, but still appreciate the presence of pvp in COX
- would pvp a lot, but don't because of bugs
- want to try pvp but are scared off
- want to try pvp but don't know how to start
You're mistakenly assuming a static target market - a fixed percentage of the player base 'who PvP' - and not seeing PvP as what it is, which is an optional FEATURE of the game, and as deserving of attention as any other feature, be it task forces, Dominators, badges, or PvE content.
In short, you have the situation back to front. It's not that the PvPers are a small percentage of the population and so PvP doesn't warrant attention - it's about maintaining a feature that was introduced.
Don't try to divide up the player base into 'pvpers' and 'non-pvpers'. That's as arbitrary as dividing them into tankers and non-tankers, or base-builders and non-base-builders, or badge-positive and badge-indifferent. See the PvP features as FEATURES, which may or may not be used by players, and work from there. That gives a much clearer picture of what's happening and why.
Cryptic INSTIGATED PvP features in this game, and because of that, they have a responsibility to maintain them. It's not throwing good money after bad, it's patching up what was broken when you put it in.
Just look at RV, for heaven's sake. A lot about RV is magnificent, but consider how it actually plays out - you do the best by NOT winning, and putting off victory, until you have 1000 points! (And the temp power is mediocre, and it has only one use!) Where's the incentive to actually win? What's the point of introducing a PvP zone where the basic concept is so wonky that people don't play to win there?
Look at bases! Why are the rooms so big and airy? Because bases were designed primarily as a player-built PvP map. The Items of Power only existed to give people something to PvP over. And base raids are STILL borked.
Oh, and every time you get a salvage drop, think of PvP, because half the salvage recipes are for PvP items. Turrets, defences, widgets to rebuild broken stuff, defence screens. Now tell me that PvP is irrelevant.
It's all very well for Lighthouse to point out that this was developed as a PvE game, but you know, it wasn't US who put the PvP features in, it was the Devs, and since they opted to do that, we're well within our rights to ask them to make those features work.
Frankly, it doesn't matter how many people you or I might think PvP in this game. That's not important. What's important is that the Devs take care of what they introduced.
'Let's put chilli on the menu!'
'This chilli is way too hot.'
'Look, only a few people are eating our chilli.'
'Hey, manager, could you fix this chilli?'
'No, we have to prioritise all our other dishes. Only a few of you are eating the chilli.'
'But the chilli is really hot.'
'Sorry, this wasn't a chilli restaurant when it opened.'
'But I like chilli. Could you just make it a little less hot?'
'Hey, are the managers catering to those obnoxious chilli eaters again?'
'I hear they nerfed the pizza because of the chilli. I hate chilli eaters. I ate chilli once and it was horrible.'
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Well said. There is interest in PvP out there. The PvP in this game has some great potential, If only the devs would give it the time of day. People will not quit the game because they didn't get that pair of gloves or that one extra badge they wanted added to the game. People will quit the game if the PvP problems are ignored by the devs.
If you fix it, they will come. It will attract a whole new crowd to the game if it becomes well known for its PvP, as opposed to scaring them away, like it is now.
