The Mordred Problem

[Morreion]

The Mordred Problem

...every PvP-centric MMO released to date has seen this. Even PvP-specific servers, released to great fanfare with their users, see this curve. And the reason is pretty simple - because people enjoy hardcore PvP in the abstract. Or, to put another way, many more people believe they are ‘hardc0re’ than actually are. And they dislike being proved wrong pretty powerfully...

The Mordred problem is simply that a great majority of the people who believe they are hardcore are not, and after being violently disabused of the notion, will leave.

Thus, the curve. Servers that will be massively overpopulated one month, ghost towns the next.

[EchoVamper]

It seems also that PvP accentuates the rift between power gamers and casual gamers and haves vs. have-nots in a game, leading to dissatisfaction and a nurturing the predatory instincts of some gamers. It's tough to balance on the razor's edge of various gamers' needs in that environment.