Once again, if you want equal footing in PvP you are referring to a more one dimensional game. UO requires you to not only know how to use your character but how to design a template that fits your playstyle and your ability to acquire the best suit for that template. It adds several degrees of uniqueness and fun. The alternative are games like WOW where everyone grinds for the same exact gear and once most people have it they change the standard so you have to grind all over again or you play a game where you dont have any choice in gear which get boring very quickly. I prefer the sandbox where you have several avenues to get what you want and you can try new things all the time as the game and the players change tactics.
Well, why should the diversity be just (or mostly) with items and not reached through skills/stats and their combinations and variations ?
Also, I can live with items being a factor in PvP fights but only as long as these items can then be readily and cheaply obtained by all players and not limited to a limited number of players.
The PvP combat part of game, as I see it, can only thrive as long as it is fun and challenging for both parties involved in the fight. Which means, that it is vital, IMHO, that players adventuring the PvP aspects of the game get to loose some fights, but also win some fights. I doubt that there is many players out there enjoying losing most if not all of their fights. So, in order to have people participate joyfully and enthusiastically in PvP, the game must have dynamics and rules that somehow maitain a balance between the participants to the PvP combats ensuring that "equal footing"....
To my opinion, this is not only important for those players who tend to loose more fights then they win, but also to ensure fun for those players who tend to win more fights then they loose. If there are out there players who, thanking to their superior gear/weapons because of the itemization of the game and the dynamics and rules of combat win most if not all of their PvP fights, chances are, is my opinion, that eventually they will get bored of the game because the challenge aspects of fights have gone away and for them, to win versus a human opponent has become not much different than playing against a computer controlled one. They get bored for winning always, too easily, thanking to their superior gear and modifiers and eventually leave the game for more challenging ones.
So, I think, the "equal footing" is important to help those players loosing one too many fights to also win a few but ALSO, to help those with large wealth and having the very best gear and weapons to maintain their fights as challenging with open ended outcomes which keep the thrill of a fight always high.
That's at least as I see it.
noticed that, too...
