Discuss, as per title.
Why does PvP in OPEN even exist?Please Discuss
+Rep Dietger, great topic.
I know this topic has been posted before, but it's one of those topics that I think warrants discussion, and what follows is just my own opinion and thoughts on this topic.
There are many types of gamers.
Some prefer to play solo, some prefer co-op.
Some prefer PvE, and others prefer competitive PvP.
And yes, some prefer griefing aka abusing/harassing/bothering other gamers minding their own business.
It's always been this way.
In a recent interview with Richard Garriott on IGN, he shared a story about some of the first players to login to Ultima Online, one of the very first open world games.
One player chose to be a fisherman, and was minding his own business fishing when another player who had been playing as a Knight walked up to the fisherman and offered to give him some armor and help him level up.
An argument ensued, with neither the knight or fisherman understanding the other's choice on how to play the game.
Why fight when you can fish? Why fish when you can fight? The answer - gamers are not all alike.
Options game companies take to appeal to different types of gamers.
There are many games that are single player only, and many games that are online PvP only.
But many (if not most) developers try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
Some games provide single player experiences which can also be played in co-op.
Some games provide a PVP mode with "free for all" and "team" options.
But when it comes to open world games, they typically have either:
(1) Safe zones with no PvP
or
(2) PvP zones specifically designed for PvP, with the rest of the open world being PvE only.
While I personally wish Elite used either of the two above designs, I'm quite happy with the Private Group and Solo options.
If I can't play with friends atm, I play in solo to let them know I can't wing up.
If I can play with friends, I play in PG which allows me to enjoy multiplayer with friends, but also prevents greifing by strangers.
tl;dr
We have unrestricted PVP in Elite Dangerous's Open Mode because Frontier wanted it.
It just seems to me that they wanted Elite's open mode to be an open world where anything goes, similar to Ultima Online.
And while that's not what I prefer, I'm happy I can avoid greifers by playing in PG or Solo.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have purchased so many copies of the game, and would have returned my original purchase if it turned out to be
Elite: Grief-fest.
