Why do they say RvR instead of PvP?

Just in case someone doesn’t know, the terms below are going to be used a great deal in the coming part of the War Guide.

RvR is an abbreviation for Realm vs Realm.
PvE is an abbreviation for Player vs Environment.
PvP is an abbreviation for Player vs Player.

Players might assume that since RvR is all about fighting the enemies, it is simply PvP. However RvR consists of more then just hacking your enemies up with your weapon, or frying them with your spells. It is about opposing them in every facet of the game.

This is what makes WAR so exceptional. Even the most basic quests, ones that may not even have any interaction with the enemy; are all about building your realm up to prepare, or take part in the current war. Now whilst some quests might simply be more of a “story” theme to build up the atmosphere, a great many quests actually pit you against the enemy. So you may be competing to save a bridge, whilst the enemy is trying to blow the bridge up.

It has been hinted that as fights and quests are won and lost the actual in game territory will move back and forth between armies. This then brings us to the end game, which involves one side sieging the Capital city of the other side. So RvR is not just attacking another player, it encapsulates everything about the game, from simple quests through to epic sieges.

RvR is about war.

The game sounds good and all, but how much does it cost us Aussies? Will we expected to pay more because we live in an awesome country?

So this week I got my first real taste of RvR battlefronts, notably the Siege warfare play.

At first I didn’t expect the game play to change much from the scenario RVR (think WoW battleground style stuff), but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was by complete chance that I came to discover the wonders of siege warfare! I was attempting to take a short cut to one of the many quest way points, during which I haphazardly ran into 50 odd destruction players laying siege to one of our keeps (Ostlands). What I observed is the following:

At the front was a large pack of Chosen warriors with battering rams, hacking and slashing at the Guarding NPCS while the battering ram pounded loudly on the door, just behind them lay a row of support healers and ranged dps casters, and further behind them still was a battery of player built and controlled catapults and bolt throwers (which are to scale), which were raining a steady flow of ordnance on to the ramparts above.

On the walls and in the ramparts of the fortress lay less then 20 players with a handful of NPC champions, they were armed with their own bolt throwers, cannons and cauldrons of burning oil. I broke on through to join the defenders in the keep, from this point the battle ranged on for close to 20 mins before the attackers broke through the gate and stormed the keep - Dire times where ahead!

After the initial slaughter of the defending players, the NPC keep lord was engaged (again, for the WoW players thing the Generals in AV), however unfortunately for the Destruction players they had little to no healers to assist and were soon repelled by a reinforcement wave of fresh Order players (The respawn point is actually a fair distance away for both sides).

With the numbers now beginning to balance out, the battle came to a loose stalemate, in which we (the Order players) could not break out with out being massacred by the Chosen Heavy Forces below, but at the same time the attackers could not advance due to a constant hail of fire balls arrows and cannon balls.

After 20 mins (when the gate was repaired) the Destruction players attempted another assault on the gate, but this time it was quashed and a counter attack ensued which overran the enemy battery and emplacements. We surged forth from the safety of our keep to engage the remaining force of 30+ on the road and in the open. A “stalemate” type situation occurred again when the destruction players closed ranks, basically forming a tight block in the middle of the road between two sloping mounds. We were in a loose line forming a semi circle around them, then without warning they broke and began to flee! And we followed them in earnest! Like a proper rout they spread and ran in all directions, most of them being singled out and cut down as they did!

This carried on until we reached their fort and the whole thing then played out again, but in reverse.

Right, so PvP then. Got it.

WoW at this point in the beta stage was more polished,

then the little things like targeting, the UI & other things you'd file away under the "polish" category should have been dealt with by now.

If they're aiming to be a WoW-killer (and they're kidding if they say otherwise)

Open Beta also starts on September 7th for anyone who preodered it or if you have a fileplanet subscription

Wouldn't it be smarter from a marketing point of view to allow anyone to jump into the beta instead of people already committed to buying the game

Wouldn't it be smarter from a marketing point of view to allow anyone to jump into the beta instead of people already committed to buying the game

Wouldn't it be smarter from a marketing point of view to allow anyone to jump into the beta instead of people already committed to buying the game (excluding fileplanet)?

can anyone supply a ip or hostname for the australia based war server? i want to run a latency test... if its lower then 80ms i'll change from wow to war on this one point alone.

lvl 2-3 bright wizards can do crits 4-5x larger them me... some healers are fkn impossible to kill without help from another person, atm the game isn't close to balanced and i just feel some classes aren't at the same standard as others

some healers are fkn impossible to kill without help from another person

Classes should be designed so that each side has a counter to each other to balance things.