Player versus player in World of Warcraft

Player versus player interaction in World of Warcraft (WoW) has continuously evolved since the game's release on November 23, 2004. Initial opportunities for player-versus-player ("PvP") interaction were limited to to player-initiated duels or attacking players of the opposing faction, but subsequent patches have made PvP a significant part of the game. Certain areas of the fantasy universe are dedicated to competition between Alliance and Horde for control, while instance-based venues provide an opportunity for like-minded players to engage one another at any time. The venues consist of both "battlegrounds"-skirmish-like events such as capture the flag-and gladiatorial arena matches, which pit pre-formed teams against one another. Rewards from participating in various types of PvP combat have varied but generally include upgraded gear and specific titles.

Mechanics
Player combat in WoW is governed by a system in which one must be "flagged" for PvP in order to attack or be attacked by other players. Servers in WoW, called realms, are labeled as either "Normal" (also called player versus environment, abbreviated PvE) or PvP. On a PvE server, a player is only flagged for PvP by either manually enabling it or entering specific areas such as enemy capital cities and . PvP effectively must be consensual to occur. Meanwhile, PvP servers flag all players for PvP combat unless they are in specific areas designed for low-level characters. Attacking a player or NPC from the opposing faction will result in automatic PvP flagging on either type of server. A notable exception to flagging rules is the "sanctuary" of Shattrath City, where no PvP combat can occur. In neutral goblin-controlled towns, PvP combat is not allowed, and attacking a flagged player will result in painful retribution from the town guards.

World PvP
Traditionally, certain areas have been hotbeds of PvP action. These include the zones of Arathi Highlands and Stranglethorn Vale. However, in mid-2006, the concept of "world PvP" was expanded with the introduction of zone-wide PvP objectives. An early proof of concept for world PvP objectives is located in Silithus, where players are tasked to collect samples of a dust-like object called "Silithyst" and turn it in to their respective faction's camp. A tally of how much Silithyst each side has collected is visible to anyone present in the zone, and when one side reaches 200 samples, players of that faction gain a temporary buff and the counter resets.

The Eastern Plaguelands was another testing ground for world PvP objectives. The zone is home to four towers, which can be "captured" by standing on one for a brief time. When one side simultaneously controls all four towers, players on that side gain a beneficial buff, but upon losing control of any of the towers, the buff disappears. The PvP objectives in Silithus and the Eastern Plaguelands were released in patch 1.12 of the game. Blizzard opted to promote the Plaguelands PvP release more heavily, however.

The release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to WoW, made world PvP objectives a significant part of the game. For instance, the first zone of Outland, Hellfire Peninsula, contains a situation similar to that of the Eastern Plaguelands: three towers in the center of the zone may be "captured" by standing on them for a period of time, and controlling all three towers provides certain benefits. World PvP objectives exist in most zones of Outland.

Honor system

Early versions of the game introduced an honor system in which players were rewarded for participating in PvP campaigns of any type. The honor system was divided into 14 ranks of increasing achievement. . Rankings were updated on a weekly basis, and each player's PvP statistics would be published on the World of Warcraft website. Published rankings for that period were broken down into server and factions, so that players of individual servers could compare and compete with their fellow faction members. Each player's current rank was displayed as a title preceding their character's name, viewable by any player who activated the option to see such titles.

There were several statistics associated with this honor system:

* Honor kills (HK) was the number of opposing players which were killed.
* Dishonorable kills (DK, or less commonly DHK) were a penalty that was applied when a player killed an NPC flagged as a "civilian". This penalty was applied to earned honor, reducing that player's honor, and might even reduce their rank.
* Earned honor, or honor points, was a weighted value which took into consideration the rank of each successful kill. Killing characters of higher rank would earn more honor than characters of lower rank, yet each would earn a single HK. A law of diminishing returns was integrated into the system to prevent the exploitation of repeatedly killing the same character. Successive kills of the same character would earn less honor, until no honor was earned.

The honor system was subject to "honor decay". If players did not participate in PvP, their earned honor points would begin to decay, reducing players rank to lower ranks. Higher rankings would decay at a faster rate than lower ranks, until the character ultimately returned to rank 1. On most servers, the competition for the higher ranks was fierce enough that a character who achieved rank 14 would typically only retain it until the next week's calculations.

The cities of Orgrimmar and Stormwind house special "officer's quarters" or "lounges" which characters of rank six or higher were entitled to access. Inside were vendors from which players could purchase rewards based on current rank. For characters who were lower than rank six, another vendor was located outside this building who would sell a limited inventory also based on current rank.

Originally, if a character's rank decayed to a lower rank, that character was no longer eligible to purchase the higher ranked rewards. During this period, it was not uncommon for players to "make the rush", earning the highest level rank possible, and then purchasing all available rewards before they were locked out. This particular limitation was eventually removed, allowing players to purchase rewards based upon their character's lifetime rank rather than current rank.

Ultimately, this entire honor system was scrapped in favor of the current system introduced with patch 2.0.1, released 2006-12-05. Honor decay was removed, along with dishonorable kills—NPCs no longer have any affect on the honor system, positive or negative. Earned honor is still weighted against the opposing character's PvP accomplishments; more or less honor is earned depending on the opponent's individual PvP statistics. Accumulated honor is now used as a type of currency for purchasing gear and items. Although it is no longer possible to gain new ranks since the ranking system was also eliminated in this patch, players who had achieved a ranking in the old system have the option to continue to display their highest lifetime rank as a title.

To illustrate some of these statistics, a sample screenshot is provided on the left.
* This player is of the Horde faction. This is indicated by the icon which is located to the right of the word "Honor". Alliance players have a corresponding icon.
* Due to the presence of an honor rank, First Sergeant, this indicates that this player participated in PvP prior to the honor system changes detailed above. This rank indicated is a Horde title, in this case, First Sergeant being Rank 5.
* Player has accumulated a total of 3,406 lifetime kills; 102 being the prior day.
* Accumulated honor is 2092, which is a calculated value based on a number of related statistics.
* Player does not participate in the arena system, as the lack of stats for the arena indicates.

Comparatively, this player does not often participate in PvP campaigns.

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds are instanced based zones in which players participate in combat. There are several different battlegrounds in which players may join, each having their own objectives. Battleground instances run until a clear victory has been achieved by one side or the other.

In prior versions, players would only be able to compete with players of the same realm. Patch 1.12 introduced "cross-server" battlegrounds, which allowed players to compete with others from the same battlegroup, rather than simply those on their own server.

Future developments
It has been announced that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will contain new PvP elements. Players will be able to "Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path."

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