This first post is about some thoughts I had about a post by Gevlon, The Greedy Goblin. You can read his post here: http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/12/value-of-pvp.html
The willingness to step out of your comfort zone and try something you have not done before is the only way to improve. You must be willing to take a chance to try something new in order to grow. What can you learn from PVP? I have noticed when I step into a battleground that I immediately start to experience some higher anxiety. It is kill or be killed. My heart rate goes up, my adrenaline flows. I try to keep looking all around for the other guy, the guy who is going to kill me. When I first started playing, I was terrible. I would panic and just start hitting keys, hoping to defend myself and kill the other guy. I reacted. I died over and over and over. It was the same feeling every time I entered the BG. I basically did not know what I was doing. I did not think. Overtime, I read up on various abilities, I read what others had to say about tactics and how to improve. I got better. I’m still not that good. But I believe the exposure to this type of situation made me react less emotionally panicked and I was able to think a little more. I would recognize who I was fighting against and what attacks I needed to counter. The dynamic ever changing situations forced me to learn to improvise, use the environment, and remain calm and try to carry out the appropriate counter attacks and press the offensive when I could. It is surprising to think that the tactics and strategies for not losing your temper and remaining objective really are just that important.
I have learned that preparation is important. You have to be willing to work at this in order to improve. You need to be able to evaluate what went wrong, what mistakes you made, what you need to do differently the next time. Sometimes you realize that you were in the wrong spec and gear. Sometimes you don’t know what went wrong. You learn to pay more attention.
What else have I learned? That people will bring themselves into this game. What do I mean? I mean that the way people behave and the way they approach life will be reflected in the way they play this game. People who blame others for their problems in real life will blame others for the things that go wrong in the game. People who tend to accept blame for things in real life will do the same in this game. People who accept responsibility for their actions and responsibility for their lives are probably some of the best people you will run into in this game.
So getting back to the subject, what’s the value of PVP for me? It makes me step out of my comfort zone and thereby forcing me to try new things. The experiences that you gain are the reward. It’s not about a shiny new piece of loot. It’s about the journey, not necessarily the destination.
So am I any good at this game? No, but I’m better than I was when I started.
