So many pesamistics ^^... UO, its pvp system was great... and monitorable. Its basicly just half baked designs and little thought given that makes PvP in the recent games so faulty and undisrable. The main fualt is that all teh power is given to the Pker, and the victim usualy has little chance to fight back and either runs off or just dies where they stand. In UO players that Pk\'d had a timer, if this timer on kills was exceded within a certain time or there longterm kill count was exceded they became irrivocably open to attack from other players without the same penalties being applied to there attackers and there names where permanatly red, not to mention city gaurds would engage them on sight (unable to bank anywhere but the ungaurded city of pirates(forgot teh name), and they had to do ALOT of work or play there char for along time with out PKing, (however there open to all attacks with no penalties for teh attacks remained in place untill they became blue again) before they could become normal.
The downfall of the PK system in UO how ever was that the class or skill system allowed the Pkers to be both very defesive and very offensive in play style, the infamouse Platemail halebard weilding grand master mages/Fighters combo (which they fixed shortly before i left UO for EQ, ie penalties on mana and spell fizzles based on amounts of metal armor worn during casting).
UO also had a bounty system a player if PK\'d could talk to a special gaurd and the person that last killed them was placed on the bounty list and the pk\'d player could put forward money on there head, some notoriouse Pkers had some very LARGE bounties, some bounties where so high that you could buy a large ingame house from the reward, how ever finding them and disposing of them was a rare occorance, and often PKers would kill them selves adn turn in there own heads to get teh reward.
EQ was the major deathnell of PvP, with its none PvP stance it turned MMorpgs from being some what exciting to exp grinds and item hording and large social chat channels (if you want that sort of thing go play on a FFMMORPG or MUD. Thing is people have become fixed with that aspect and therefore demand it so newer developers remove PvP in favoure for a easier to design PvE only environment and a feel that the mindless masses think they want. and most games with PvP in them are designed from the PvE viewpoint but then have PvP tagged on as a seperate server useing teh combat rules of teh PvE system which ultimatly makes for bug\'s and huge imbalance. In EQ PvP a wizard can take a warrior apart with Roots, nukes and snares in a matter of minutes, and the warrior is helpless, while in the PvE environment teh Wizard needs the warrior inorder to survive since a mob will take teh wizard apart with out the warrior being the meatshield and the warrior needs the wizards nuke to finnish the mob off and to root adds and so forth.
I think now days developers are affraid to give PvP a proper look, and would rather simplifie the game design and coding than stick a well thought out system in. Closest one that so far has succeded is DaoC\'s RealmvRealm system, however even it has its fallbacks, as most combat becomes mass charges rather than co-ordinated attacks and defences,... but its still a fair site better than most PvP of recent years.
I for one will always be an advocate for well designed, realistic PvP (of which i have yet to see a realy good system)... unfortunatley the average player and upcoming players are becoming brainwashed into thinking its nothing but griefing, negative, and un-needed... unfortuanatly I can see why people have come to think that... And for that the blame lays sqaurly on the heads of both Developer and Player.
And kendaro you statement is alittle arrogant... it is possable, no ones realy put the time or imagination into it to get it right. You have to think both like a PvEer and PvPer at the same time, unfortuantly this is never done. And most upcoming if not all MMorpgs im aware of have some form of PvP in them or another.
