After going through an extensive debate about this topic on IRC, I decided we could all (in a civilized manner) pitch in our thoughts in regards to accessibility of Arenas and the role it plays in a game's longevity.





For the sake of having a good understanding of my perspective (and why I see things the way I do): my gaming background is mostly full of fighting game titles, Korean MMOs, MOBAs, and widely known for being part of Team Legacy’s structured PvP team





Games have always tried to fulfil their most basic function: to provide entertainment, regardless of how much time you have available, the way these games are presented to you, or the medium through which they are experienced.





WildStar is no exception, I believe. When I first stumbled upon WildStar, what attracted me to it was the game’s attempt to cater to many different demographics.





Structured (or small scale) PvP-modes such as Arena have a following of its own. These are people that love being part of a competitive environment and engaging in fights against other players; every player has different behaviours and styles that make each encounter memorable and challenging.





Arenas have been promoted as being part of the “Elder game” (which seems to be synonymous with “End game”). This has been the main argument to promote the idea of Arenas only being an activity aimed for level-capped people.





Although there’s no official stance on the matter as of yet, I believe making this feature of the game accessible at all levels (without rating enforced at lower levels) will be healthy for the game and could become a good selling-point.

We all love games, although not all for the same reasons, and we all have different responsibilities when it comes to real life.





This leads on to my next question: Should we really make Arenas an exclusive feature that will have such a lengthy process involved, such as hitting the level cap?





Not all of us have the same amount of time on our hands - people’s time commitments vary greatly, whether they are college students, workers, unemployed, parents, high school students or even children. But there is something we can all have in common, and that is being driven by our competitive nature. Anyone should be able to to experience the content they want in a game; allowing these people to install the game and immediately be able to experience Arenas, without ever having to go through leveling, PvE, or other aspects of the game they dislike, is a form of freedom that many look for in a game.

Latest post with information on Arenas had the following statement in it:





“Web support (such as PvP leaderboards, profile pages, and reports), spectator modes, and

support for streaming tools

are items which we are either looking to tackle for launch or are putting on a wish list for future development.”





What kind of games do most enjoy watching people stream?





It’s pretty simple. We love interacting with the streamers, and love the streamers interacting with us, their viewer base. Watching, for example, League of Legends streamers and being able to play custom games with them without any sort of pre-requisites to do so (or very few, installing a game may be one..) is a big part of why this works.





We cannot have a rough entry for people that find WildStar through streamers - some of these streamers may be Arena players, and their audience could be made up entirely of people that love doing nothing but Arenas. There is a big difference between being able to jump into a custom/casual/unranked Arena match with a streamer, after just installing the game, and having to grind through leveling (what some may consider a burden) or other prerequisites before you’re able to play with them.





For those of you unfamiliar with League of Legends, it is a game aimed at all sorts of individuals, with one of the fastest growing communities. A big part of their success comes from the fact that the main format of the game is accessible to all levels (Summoner’s Rift, the main and only 5v5 map, also the only map that sees professional play), with certain minor limitations, which brings us back to one of my first points: we don’t need to have rating-attached-play in all level brackets of the game, all we need is for people to get involved in WildStar Arenas from the get go.





When I’ve asked a few of my friends - be it the RP guys, or the hardcore raiding guys - as to reasons to why they’re so afraid to get themselves into PvP, Arenas to be more precise, it always comes down to the same general reasoning:

They are max level, they’re at the stage of the game where people assume you will know how to engage in PvP in a competent way. Your every action will be judged and will significantly impact the outcome of an Arena match, and the simple thought of it, makes them nervous.

However, PvP is something that will better them in multiple aspects of the game, from the second they’ve stepped into it; most importantly, knowing all the ins and outs of their class, as well as how to handle any kind of situation in a fight.

The pressure felt by these people of having reached end-game without fully understanding PvP, yet being expected to suddenly perform well, is something we should try to get rid of. Being able to get comfortable with Arenas at lower levels and incorporating it into the level experience will help to ease the transition from PvE or less-structured or larger types of PvP to Arena. Let us feel like a “noob” when we’re supposed to, in the low levels, while nobody expects us to be good

Here are also some of the reasons that have been brought up as to why the game shouldn’t have structured, small scale PvP accessible at all levels, as well as why I don’t share these opinions:





This point was brought up on IRC, that Battlegrounds and Warplots somehow have a more valuable and rich story to tell people. Needless to say, I was very confused by it.

Why can’t Arenas be part of the story?

Why can’t Arenas be meaningful for the people that want every aspect of the game tell us a little more about Nexus?

Arenas can certainly be part of Nexus’s story, and mean just as much as the Gladiators’ stories, based on ancient Rome.

Lower level PvP wont be balanced, neither will be higher level PvP, nor will anything ever reach perfect balance. Some imbalances may be amplified by the amount of skills available, sure, but all of it is entirely optional. As well, depending on how fast leveling through PvP is, it may become just a way to duel/skirmish against other people and get used to the game mode without feeling overwhelmed, something I’ve personally seen people experience in other PvP titles such as Guild Wars 2, where, because of the entry barrier being so large due to the amount of choices, people would just rather not experience small-scale PvP at all.







