Players are more than capable of devising their own conflicts and dramas. Adding some form of RvR would be a massive waste of development time.
What we need are systems that encourage PvP, and less punishment and busywork for those who choose to PvP. And more content in general.
I don't think trying to slap on an RvR system this late in the game's lifecycle is the genius stroke you think it is!
Clearly you just didn't read anything I wrote. I admit it was a rather lengthy read. My main point is creating delineation between being a blue and a red player that makes sense for both playstyles. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, do I promote RvR with conflicts determined by the devs as you and others want to suggest.
The game is destined for, & to remain in, the sub1000 graveyard pop if it does not do something in the way of meaningful content that doesn't involve hardcore RPK guilds. Very few people actually want to play MO1 or Darkfall style GvG zergfests because it's simply not fun for the majority of playstyles. You can only cater to the most aggressive/toxic, hardcore portion of your potential player-base for so long before everyone except them leave, and that's just a fact... Then you have massive Nave with 300 regulars all belonging to one of the big guilds.
What I'm suggesting is actual in-game mechanics that facilitate outlaw vs lawful playstyles in ways that are sensible, vs the terrible system that exists currently. Currently the murdercount system fails at protecting blueberries AND fails at allowing for a fun RPK system for outlaws. It's kind of worst of both worlds and actually deters from what should be the main content of the game... E.g. at the moment, the deterrent for being an outlaw is simply that you have more tedious rez-walks... It's not a meaningful or fun deterrent and just makes the game overall less fun for people who want to kill and will kill regardless. The 'deterrent' should not be a deterrent at all, but something that facilitates non RPK people to exist in armed resistance to the more aggressive RPK outlaw guilds. In tandem, some changes to increase the amount of grey priests, maybe even to pepper in a few extra unlawful towns, etc. could be done to facilitate more pvp.
All I'm saying is, if you do something to facilitate 'lawful' type characters, like SV clearly does want to do to some extent, you will facilitate a larger playerbase & create an environment that is more conductive to PvP overall. If you look at recent changes, SV clearly realizes to some extent what I'm saying here... But I'm doubtful the change can happen without a mechanic that either resigns or heavily reworks the MC/flag/guard system. That's my overarching point here. Nowhere do I say I want RvR determined by devs themepark style like WoW or WAR or something.
Ie. a mechanic that organizes the less hardcore to engage in active PvP with the hardcore & not doing this by 'Horde Alliance' RvR bullshit, but doing it by creating City-State factions that are explicit alliances of blue guilds within a city, kind of like EVE University in EVE Online to some extent, but in a cool in-game mechanic that fits the theme of the game, complete with mechanics re: the cities operation & the city-states inner workings, with guild voting etc... In tandem take away a lot of the, frankly rather tedious, 'penalties' to being RPK/outlaw atm.
PvP should always be sandbox. Nowhere do I suggest otherwise. I just think the framework mechanics behind PvP at the moment are bad for everyone. A GvG rework that borrows some concepts from RvR, and not a move to RvR itself.
Sorry, this ended up being another long post, here's a tl;dr
TL;DR:
I'm not promoting RvR, I'm promoting mechanics that create a meaningful place in the world for casual non-RPK players who are generally less organized & less aggressive, but many of whom love the concept of the game & leave due to the toxic community/extreme grief. I'm also suggesting that, if you did so with the right mechanic(ie. reworking outlaw mechanics also, more grey priests, more grey towns), you could effectively encourage more meaningful PvP for everyone and have a better game in general without taking away from the realism.
At the very least, I'm suggesting that the murder-count/flag/guard mechanics are going to kill the game and should be heavily reworked if not completely discarded for something that meets the goals of encouraging pvp overall, but discouraging extreme grief for new players, better... I don't think the current system meets, or can meet, these goals. Then I give my pipe-dream version of what I think would be an awesome way to meet said goal while bolstering immersion.
If you disagree that's fine, but if you go, "NO RvR!" you clearly just didn't read or didn't understand what I was saying. The lack of features is not a feature. This wouldn't be RvR, just a different way to organize GvG that doesn't effectively kill the game long-term.
