PvP game design

[Hoofhurr]

It's the level of attentiveness and focus required that draws you in and the immediacy of the consequences that keeps you on edge and engaged. I miss Rainbow Six Ravenshield!

I have to say though that Mechwarrior4 was just as intense as any FPS I've ever played and the battles lasted a lot longer because you could take a few shots in all the locations on the Mech you were piloting. Alpha strike single trigger kill shots were few and far between and the anticipation of knowing you were getting focus fired was intense in its own right. You needed a good connection to play this game competitively however.

Aiming is a big deal because you tap into primal instincts with that action. It comes from hunting and is the foundation of 99% of sports. You have to find something equally as primal if you want to have mass appeal and staying power.

The other component to FPS games that made the game more cerebral than simply aiming is learning a map inside and out. When Jake says it sucks to get shot without knowing where you got shot from, this is actually a misrepresentation. Experienced players know that there are usually only a handful of good angles that you might get shot from if you are doing a respectable job of using cover. After dying, you know immediately that your opponent has to be in one of a handful of places and you can attempt to go get revenge. You could pinpoint where people were going to be in EQ based on experience and that anticipation was half the fun. You also knew where they were mostly like to run to once you engaged them so you could have people waiting for them there. Learning the maps, trapping and getting trapped is a fun mini-game in and of itself.

On the risk/reward level I always thought it would be interesting to have a loot system that was open item-loot but you could not loot an item that was worth more in 'item-points' than anything you yourself were wearing. In this way you might have sick gear that allowed you to go on killing sprees against other players with lesser gear but you risked losing the item that gave you that advantage.