Cryptic is coming fast and furious with updates on Champions Online, and this week they've released some details on PVP. There was a press event in San Francisco where Executive Producer Bill Roper spoke on the subject, and Champions Online Daily News has the scoop. For the first time, there is info about the game that has me genuinely excited to give this game a spin!

One of the things I disliked about City of Heroes was its lack of PVP, and when it was implemented, it wasn't very good. Champions Online seems to be going in a very different direction than CoH in that regard. There aren't many details in the video, but I recommend reading the full preview on G4tv:



In regard to PVP it appears that Champions Online is taking a page out of World of Warcraft's book on this one. Instead of going with problematic large scale open world, zerg style PVP, they are going the arena/battleground route. Small, balanced (hopefully) matches have the potential to become very competitive. This has me excited to give it a try. One of the main reasons that I was looking forward to DC Universe Online was for the focus on PVP. The reason I wound up back in World of Warcraft was because I preferred this style of PVP over the large battles, so this particular implementation of PVP appeals to me.

The dueling system appears to be pretty unique, in that you can duel just about anywhere and become confined to a bubble. The first to lose all his/her health or leave the bubble loses. There's a free for all area for those that want to fight aimlessly, and then there's The Tournament of Champions which you can enter solo or in a team of 5. This tournament seems to have PVP rewards, so I suspect it will be highly popular. Oh, and the kicker? PVP experience! I'm so happy to see more games figuring out that there is a decent segment of just about every mmo game's player base that loves PVP and appreciates being able to gain experience through that part of the game instead of being forced to take more kill 10 rats quests.

Its good to see these PVP details from Cryptic. Without being in the beta, I don't have any hands on experience with it so I can't have an opinion on how fun/rewarding the PVP content may or may not be. However, I hope there is more than was shown here because this doesn't look like a whole lot of PVP content. Perhaps there are more maps and types of PVP games coming, lets hope sooner than later. Let's also hope that PVP wasn't added as an afterthought.

See you when my spandex super hero suit arrives!

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