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Inside Battlegrounds
Are You Ready to Rumble?
With the arrival of World of Warcraft patch 1.5 in June, players
got their first taste of game's PvP Battlegrounds; a major
feature that was noticeably absent when WoW was released in late
2004. Battlegrounds are instanced play areas that allow Alliance
and Horde to fight it out in a relatively balanced contest. They
are essentially games within the game, complete with their own
objectives, quests, NPCs, and so on. Here's a look at how the
first 2 Battlegrounds play out, and a glimpse at what the future
has in store.
The Dreaded Queue
Obviously, it would defeat the purpose of Battlegrounds to start
them without a certain number of players on each side, so a
queue system is used to organize matches. You join the queue by
going into the Battleground entrance or by talking to a
Battlemaster in one of cities. When there are enough players, a
Battleground instance will begin, and you can go about other
business in the world while you're sitting in the queue.
Unfortunately, in practice, there are a few bumps on this road.
Because the initial enthusiasm with which BGs were received by
the player base has cooled off a little, the wait to get into a
match is sometimes a very long one. You are presented with an
estimated wait time, but it can be off by hours, so it isn't
much help. Contributing to this issue is that there is clearly a
significant faction imbalance on many servers. Typically there
seem to be enough Alliance waiting to start several instances,
but only enough Horde around for 1 or 2.
Ideally, the queue would have an interface more like a lobby,
where you could see who was waiting on both sides, just to give
you some clue what was going on. There is talk of finding a way
to let Battlegrounds accept players from different servers,
which might help alleviate some of the problems.
Warsong Gulch
Warsong Gulch is a fast-paced 10 on 10 capture-the-flag
scenario. The objective is to get into the enemy's base, steal
their flag, and bring it back to your flag. The winner is the
first team to score 3 flag captures. This is a common type of
gameplay many gamers are familiar with from multiplayer
shooters.
Looting a corpse grants you a little coin and prevents the dead
player from being resurrected or revived on the spot. Dead
players must then respawn in the graveyard, where a Spirit Guide
brings players back to life at set intervals.
Each Warsong Gulch instance has a level range, so you don't have
to struggle against characters that are double your level.
Depending on your own level, you'll be fighting with players of
level 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, or 51-60. There have been calls to
restrict 60s to their own Warsong Gulch Battlegrounds, as they
tend to be far more well-equipped than characters in their 50s.
It's a good idea, with the only potential drawback being that it
might make the wait longer for high level players.
Any doubts I had about whether this concept was viable in an RPG
were put to rest quickly enough. Following the flag carrier
across the field as one team furiously casts roots and stuns,
while the other team is healing and buffing the same player to
beat hell, is so much fun it's sick. The latency is minimal with
only 20 players, and as long as both sides have a full team, you
can expect a somewhat balanced contest. It usually takes 40
minutes to an hour to resolve, which makes it a great way to get
a bit of PvP into a short game session.
Things can get ugly when you find your team outnumbered by 2 or
3 players, and there is no way to guarantee that characters on
the 2 teams will have the same average level. Nevertheless, the
group play makes up for some of the class imbalances in the
game, and it's a welcome change from the ganking, dueling, and
zerg raids that dominated PvP before Battlegrounds.
There is room for improvement. For example, you must have
possession of your own flag to score, which has led to efforts
to "hide" the enemy flag, or even deliberately delay ending the
match so your team can collect more kills. Making the flags
visible on the map, or not requiring a friendly flag at the
return point would go a long way toward resolving this problem.
Like anything else, you may grow tired of it after playing it
enough times, but until then it is terrific entertainment for
PvP fans.
Alterac Valley
This Battleground is only for players level 51 or higher, and it
involves a huge campaign with numerous controllable graveyards,
destroyable towers, and side quests. These 40 on 40 bloodbaths
are vaguely reminiscent of the old Tarren Mill/Southshore
tug-of-war, and they rage on for hours or even days.
To win you have to fight your way across the map and kill the
enemy's NPC General.
Alterac Valley is an outstanding example of what is possible in
World of Warcraft Battlegrounds. Not many RPGs feature PvP on
this scale, and when they do it's usually more about the size of
your team than anything else. In a full Battleground, you can't
rely solely on numbers to overwhelm the enemy.
The pace in Alterac Valley is considerably slower than in
Warsong Gulch, partly because each faction has a variety of NPC
defenders. These defenders are quite tough, and they pretty much
rule out running around solo capturing graveyards. By completing
specific quests throughout Alterac Valley, players can summon
even more powerful creatures to come to their aid. For example,
a player-controlled shredder can be acquired and unleashed on
the enemy. Under certain conditions, Lokholar the Ice Lord
(Horde) and Ivus the Forest Lord (Alliance) can be brought forth
to turn the tide of the battle.
Because of the myriad of secondary objectives, Alterac Valley is
far less repetitive than Warsong Gulch. Whether you're in an
offensive bringing down a tower, a small group trying to take
graveyards, or a full raid making a last stand at your base, one
trip into AV can be dramatically different from the next.
Some of the issues with Warsong Gulch apply here as well. It
takes a minimum of 30 players on each side to start a match, so
you can easily wait hours to get in. Again, as a Horde player,
you find your team seriously outnumbered at times. While you can
contribute at level 51, especially if you play a healer class,
you're going to get knocked around pretty hard by the level 60s,
including NPCs.
Minor grievances aside, Alterac Valley is a MMORPG milestone,
and arguably the best PvP available in a game of this kind right
now.
Arathi Basin
If you've played both of the current Battlegrounds, it's not
hard to imagine what something between the 2 might look like.
Arathi Basin will be the next Battleground released for the
game, opening up a 15 on 15 competition to control five resource
nodes spread throughout the area. You'll win by being the first
team to accumulate 2000 resources, so holding more nodes than
your enemy will be the key to victory.
I'm looking forward to Arathi Basin. The nice thing about
points-based win conditions is that you know it's only a matter
of time before one side prevails. In theory, there is really
nothing to prevent Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley from going
on forever.
Bottom Line
Though I think there is still room for persistent world PvP
objectives in WoW, Battlegrounds are a tremendous improvement to
the end game, and they make the game feel far more complete.
Arathi Basin should be available soon, and greater variety is
always a good thing. It remains to be seen what, if anything,
can be done about the wait times. I know I'll be in that queue
because this brand of PvP fracas is the most fun I've had yet in
World of Warcraft. Don't be too surprised if every other MMORPG
out there starts offering something similar..
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