A common argument I've heard going around in the community is that PvP does not matter because less people do PvP than those that do PvE, and while this may seem reasonable on the surface, it's is flawed to the core, and that is what I would like to discuss in this post. As a game and community, it's time to think outside the box and ask ourselves what it would be like if other peopled played this game.

Here is on very good reason PvE players outnumber PvP players and why that can be a bad thing.
Pirate101 has a combat system that often times rewards players who were outplayed. This undermines the whole purpose of friendly competition, and it also causes people give up because the game picks random winners, and trying is fruitless. I promise, I will get to the PvE part later on in this essay. Let's move on and definite these chance based elements further.

So there are a few things in PvP that add an unnecessary element of chance. The first of these is the critical and damage roll system. If a hidden inferno shot says it does 1400 damage, it should not do under 800 damage against a target with no protections. That's unacceptable, it causes a lot of the match to be decided by mere chance, and once again defeats the purpose of competition in the first place. These elements could be removed completely. There is no reason to have these things in the game in the first place. Plain and simple, remove them completely.

The second element is the how powers show up in one's deck. Why not just have the powers show up in the way they were arranged. So many games have been lost and won due to the luck of the draw. What does this add to the game? Nothing! What do we loose by having it? The motivation to compete in PvP. It's simple, make the cards show in the way they were arranged.

The third element epics, and the randomness at witch they trigger. The one would easily be the most complicated to fix and would require a complete rework on all of the rank 5 epics we currently have available so if this fix is implemented last, I totally understand. Here it is: 1. Make relentlesses guaranteed basic attacks after an initial base hit at the beginning of each turn. This would be useful in the late game but not so much in the early game. 2 Make blade storms guaranteed basic attacks after a melee attacking ability like assassin strike is used. 3. Make vengeance strike a reactionary epic to blade storms and make riposte and reactionary epic to relentlesses. There is no reason to change first strike, repel, or hold the line however. 4. Increase the health of all Pirates and companions to counteract the increases guaranteed damage these changes would bring. This would make moves much more calculated instead of being simply left up to chance. 5. use the same concepts to fix shooty and staffy epics.

The forth element is the spawn and map size. Why not have a consistent map spawn? It makes no sense to have it be random, and players can lose a key advantage by having a companion or pirate spawn behind a pillar for example. This randomness is not needed and should be removed. It only takes way from the game. Furthermore, the map size should also be drastically increased, particularly in 3v3s and 4v4s so that getting 1st turn does not give too large of an advantage. This would also allow for more strategic play as well.

Alright, as promised, I'm back to talking about PvE and the game in general. The reason PvP players don't inhabit this game in large numbers is because of the problems mentioned above with the game mechanics. It has nothing to do with the awesome story and quest line we love. It has nothing to do with farming, pets, or any other element of the game. If this game improved it's PvP system and combat system in general, more people would play. The game would be more rewarding for the devs to work on, Kingsisle might be able to hire more employees and pay them better, and we'd be a lot more likely to also get more worlds released as a result. That's my take on it.

My main point is we're stuck looking at the players we currently have instead of trying to reach out to other players that haven't landed in this game yet. That's what I mean by thinking outside of the box. It would be much better to focus on growth instead of containment.