As a blue whose played many PvP games over the years as an ARPK I'm noticing a fundamentally wrong school of thought in many others in the blue/ARPK community. This school of thought is most obviously expressed in the idea that reds hunting reds via bounties is somehow a bad thing.
The new bounty system is a fundamentally anti-red mechanic because you can only get bounties on reds. It remains an anti-red mechanic regardless of who can take these new random NPC-generated contracts. Why then, the concerns of reds killing each other? Let me tell you why you should NOT be concerned:
It is true, some reds hunt newbs at graveyards specifically because they're either looking for weak targets they feel capable of killing, or because they're truly miserable people that enjoy ruining others experience by subjecting every newcomer to one-sided fights to make sure they are "strong enough" to play a game like MO2. But a lot of reds like to hang around towns because... that's where people are. They're simply looking for a fight in any place they know they can find one. Newb, vet, somewhere in between, they just want to kill stuff.
For the first type of player only discouragement works. Hopefully in the form of ARPK guilds doing their job and protecting people, but sometimes through mechanics if the problem is out of hand. But for the second type of player, the most effective way to discourage them from haunting newbs at graveyards who just want to be left alone... is to give them tastier targets that actually want to fight with them.
That's why reds hunting reds is a GOOD thing. A red hunting a red is not hunting a newb at a graveyard. Not only should this be a no-brainer "yes, we want this" from anyone who considers themselves pro blue. You should be pushing for MORE things like this. I'll give some examples of other carrots from other games:
- In EVE factional warfare creates sites where groups looking for fights can go and PVE for rewards, at a much higher chance of PvP
- In EVE players can steal taxes from sites in the systems of groups who own null-sec territory.
- In Darkfall towns had special nodes that generated more resources than traditional nodes. Every time I wanted a fight I'd go hit someone's "Rare Ore Mine" Giving a message to their entire guild I was there stealing from them.
- In Darkfall there were villages across the map with taxed houses. Taxes had timers on them from their last collection and anyone could come collect the taxes when the time was up. Running around collecting taxes was a sure way to make money, and you were generally going to get a fight at least every other time you tried it.
- In Darkfall there were sea towers that came up on occasion with big rewards to the guilds that cleared them. They resulted in huge naval battles.
- In Crowfall much of a campaigns win mechanic came from capturing outposts for your faction/guild. People would see when you are flipping their outposts and it would draw them to you for combat.
- In Wurm Online PvP Maps have an event called "Hunt of the Ancients". A game that sometimes popped up and players could compete in it for rewards.
You see the point. What all these mechanics have in common is they create a scenario where people who are like "I'm sooooo bored. Give me PvP content!" can go and find said content. Sometimes it's infrequent events to create huge epic battles like Wurm's HOTA or Darkfall's sea towers. Sometimes it's constant small things to fight over like Darkfalls village taxes and rare ore mines or EVE's factional warfare. But all of them are kind of aimed at addressing the issue of "I kill blues at graveyard because it's the only way to find PvP"
MO2 is in MAJOR need of more carrots. Reds hunting reds via bounties is only scratching the surfaces. Instead of constantly lobbying for more sticks, let's lobby SV for more carrots to encourage healthy PvP that the reds (and frankly all of us on both sides of the ARPK/RPK fence) could really use.
The new bounty system is a fundamentally anti-red mechanic because you can only get bounties on reds. It remains an anti-red mechanic regardless of who can take these new random NPC-generated contracts. Why then, the concerns of reds killing each other? Let me tell you why you should NOT be concerned:
It is true, some reds hunt newbs at graveyards specifically because they're either looking for weak targets they feel capable of killing, or because they're truly miserable people that enjoy ruining others experience by subjecting every newcomer to one-sided fights to make sure they are "strong enough" to play a game like MO2. But a lot of reds like to hang around towns because... that's where people are. They're simply looking for a fight in any place they know they can find one. Newb, vet, somewhere in between, they just want to kill stuff.
For the first type of player only discouragement works. Hopefully in the form of ARPK guilds doing their job and protecting people, but sometimes through mechanics if the problem is out of hand. But for the second type of player, the most effective way to discourage them from haunting newbs at graveyards who just want to be left alone... is to give them tastier targets that actually want to fight with them.
That's why reds hunting reds is a GOOD thing. A red hunting a red is not hunting a newb at a graveyard. Not only should this be a no-brainer "yes, we want this" from anyone who considers themselves pro blue. You should be pushing for MORE things like this. I'll give some examples of other carrots from other games:
- In EVE factional warfare creates sites where groups looking for fights can go and PVE for rewards, at a much higher chance of PvP
- In EVE players can steal taxes from sites in the systems of groups who own null-sec territory.
- In Darkfall towns had special nodes that generated more resources than traditional nodes. Every time I wanted a fight I'd go hit someone's "Rare Ore Mine" Giving a message to their entire guild I was there stealing from them.
- In Darkfall there were villages across the map with taxed houses. Taxes had timers on them from their last collection and anyone could come collect the taxes when the time was up. Running around collecting taxes was a sure way to make money, and you were generally going to get a fight at least every other time you tried it.
- In Darkfall there were sea towers that came up on occasion with big rewards to the guilds that cleared them. They resulted in huge naval battles.
- In Crowfall much of a campaigns win mechanic came from capturing outposts for your faction/guild. People would see when you are flipping their outposts and it would draw them to you for combat.
- In Wurm Online PvP Maps have an event called "Hunt of the Ancients". A game that sometimes popped up and players could compete in it for rewards.
You see the point. What all these mechanics have in common is they create a scenario where people who are like "I'm sooooo bored. Give me PvP content!" can go and find said content. Sometimes it's infrequent events to create huge epic battles like Wurm's HOTA or Darkfall's sea towers. Sometimes it's constant small things to fight over like Darkfalls village taxes and rare ore mines or EVE's factional warfare. But all of them are kind of aimed at addressing the issue of "I kill blues at graveyard because it's the only way to find PvP"
MO2 is in MAJOR need of more carrots. Reds hunting reds via bounties is only scratching the surfaces. Instead of constantly lobbying for more sticks, let's lobby SV for more carrots to encourage healthy PvP that the reds (and frankly all of us on both sides of the ARPK/RPK fence) could really use.
