I honestly would sacrifice a baby to avoid the restricted gear fest prior to red august.
Restricted RP-pvp will always be problematic- Because ultimately, it is a compromise of systems, people, and their wishes and wants from the encounter. RP by definition is a collaborative thing, so there’s that 2.
But unrestricted pvp? Has none of those problems. It’s plain and simple, doesn’t have any problems (save for class balance, but that can be compensated for with larger group sizes and compositions), and genuinely works because it, surprise surprise, uses a system that was supposed to be used to handle pvp in this game.
What it does lack (for a lot of people) is the RP element- While I don’t see that it’s the case, it’s pointless and somewhat arrogant to go and tell people that what they enjoy more is wrong.
But still, it’s unfortunately the best system there is- If you can immerse yourself in it, that is.
You could get away with restricted pvp a whole lot better back in the day, because gear in PVP was normalized thanks to things like scaling pvp gear or pvp power- All that is gone now, which has done a lot of disservice to both the systems.
I don’t see an optimal solution for conducting the PVP honestly- It’s just about choosing the lesser of two evils. All I know is that if -you- as a player want to have the best experience possible (and want to represent your character as powerful as you can), you better gear up your character sufficiently.
Regardless, we had more or less the same situation during Legion as well, so we shouldn’t think that this is simply a flaw with the system we’re using- It isn’t.
The issue is, like most hard things, rooted in the social aspect and interactions we have in this game.
As others have said, the “I must win” mentality, while healthy in some dosages (as it keeps you interested in pursuing a goal for your faction), can become v bad very quickly. Then there is the spite and the vitriol being thrown around, which also contributes to the problems- It doesn’t seem to me that people are so much angry about the outcomes of some events, but they want to spite a group of people they have disdain for in a campaign.
Lastly, the number issues which really makes this a core problem. While Horde’s literally always been outnumbered in every campaign ever on AD, the problem was never as glaring as it is now, and during the last few campaigns I’ve been part of, it has at times felt as if Alliance playerbase treats the Horde as little more than props for their amusement on an OOC level.
If anybody remembers, this was the exact same thing prior to the Red August. Up until then, campaigns were always Alliance dominated and the initiatives were very few (1-2 campaigns every year?), and the horde playerbase was told to suck it up during each and every time and accept it as it is.
This wasn’t a very good model because it just meant the two factions didn’t just RP with one another at all- Or it was x guild vs y guild (not a bad thing itself). And hey, that’s exactly what the Horde’s been doing lately.
Alliance, for whatever reason, seems to be incapable of creating engaging RP-pve events for itself for months to an end- The Horde on the other hand, seems to be able to pull this off (perhaps because the pool is much smaller on this side).
I’m unsure what needs to change- Since last time we had this paradigm change, all that was needed was us to run through Westgarde camp in full gear and slaughter all the Alliance -once- And people realized that you can actually have an alternative model to deciding these battles, and you don’t need to just “suck it up”.
It’s very simple. If the game feels rigged, you won’t play it. If it feels fair, you’ll play it.
With the current atmosphere, the only solution I see is scaling things down: Guilds vs guilds, instead of factions vs factions, as those are more easily controlled for the benefit of both parties. Of course, this means that campaigns don’t exist, but what can you do?
Either suck it up or be the change you want to see. Engage with the opposite side, push for good encounters and be ready to compromise. Yes, I say this unironically to myself as well.
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