Saylah, over at Mystic Worlds, isn’t too happy about LotrO’s PvP. While I agree on some things (I think the game is going to be an abject failure, and I have no plans on playing it long-term), I disagree with her assessment of the Monster PvP. It’s very carebear, to be sure, but the idea itself has a lot of merit. In fact, it’s the only vaguely interesting design element I’ve heard them mention.

What I really want, though, is the ability to play the evil side. Not just a single character, but a component of the forces of evil. At low levels, you play the role of a goblin. It’s an open-PvP world, between your side and the good side. Evil players aren’t that powerful, relative to their good-side brethren. When they go to attack good players, they best travel in groups or (even better) swarms. The key difference is that once a goblin dies, there are no negative repercussions. After all, he was just a goblin. His life is for the good of the evil side.

He respawns at the nearest evil respawn point, and goes on his merry way. Back to the battle with him, or perhaps out into the countryside to do some ‘questing’ against the goodly NPCs.

For evil players, instead of the typical MMOG playstyle, it would be more apt to compare things to SOE’s Planetside. Evil players work together, and there isn’t a whole lot of the foofy elfy-welfy nonsense that bogs down a lot of fantasy MMOGs. You are an armed force, part of an army, and you act that way.

Just as with PS, as you gain ‘levels’ you gain access to new abilities and (awesomely) new vehicles (monsters). So, after being a goblin for a while, you become an orc, then perhaps an orc captain. From there, the sky is the limit, literally. Uruk’Hai, Cave Troll, Giant … Fell Beast? Mmmm.

These higher-level characters would be able to drop evil-side spawn points, so that evil’s minions could re-enter the battle more quickly. Perhaps some players would rather be more traditional PC-types, and could fill the roles of evil wizards, necromancers, etc.

The key here is … it would be lots of fun. Mobs would actually be *smart*, because they’d be controlled by real people. You could recreate epic battles more accurately, with the possibility that the good guys might not be the winners. Helm’s deep, especially, would be a hoot and a half.

So, while I totally agree that the Monster PvP as described seems like a giant waste of time … it doesn’t have to be.