Arena PVP Won't Be a Spectator Sport
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 22nd 2006 at 10:04PM
Over on the forums, Tseric has confirmed that while arena spectators would be a really great idea, Blue won't have it done in time for the expansion's release (whenever that will be). It's going to have to go on the list of "implemented at a future date."Which is too bad, because ever since the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches were announced, I've been excited to see the results live and in person. Sure, technically it's probably not super easy (especially in popular matches, considering the lag in Ironforge when people squeeze into a small space), but when Tom Chiton hinted at the idea of a Super Brawl, I at least figured it was a possibility. Watching big matches live would be much more awesome then having to watch them on FRAPS later.
So how are we going to know what happens in these matches? Not that I can't trust the players (although some of them, I probably can't), but Blizzard must be able to somehow show us in game what matches are happening and their outcome. Maybe they can put an Arena Bar in the main cities, with NPCs reporting matches and scores as they finish. Or there can be an Arena Board to show the results of all matches in the past day or so. I guess they could just report the matches and their outcome on a seperate website, but ingame would be much more fun.
And being able to check the results of matches ingame means the very next step is gambling on matches, right? I'd be much more interested in which teams are good or bad when I have the option to put my gold where my mouth is (and make others do the same)!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hjungle Aug 23rd 2006 2:20PM
That was a bit of a let down as it seems to take away a tremendous reason for calling it an arena battle to begin with. Still, at least they mentioned that it is something they'd like to do in the future (along with player housing, hero classes, etc) ;)
We've been plugging away at PvE/PvP arena ideas for a few months now on the general forums and though I don't think we were at all responisble for the announcement of the new arenas we do at least feel vindicated. Check it out if you're bored!
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general&T=8332680&P=1
dtrawk Aug 23rd 2006 3:48PM
i still think their should be in-game 'newspapers' you can buy in every main city, these would feature 'sales' from certain vendors, dates of interest, and also the scores on all the big matches, i'd pay a few silver to find out whats going on around azeroth
Tris Aug 23rd 2006 7:09PM
I'd love to see, at all the town taverns, an ESPN like crystal ball. You could pick the battle ground to watch and can cycle through players to watch, kind of like a mindcontrol but deactivate any ability to control any attack or anything other than viewing. Hey, just for kicks, throw in a ticker along the bottom of how the teams' last ten fights went... like a number of kills and deaths... Could even put the town crier to good use by annoucing winners from that realm for the day. I know this'll require a lot of programming but it'd be pretty cool. Maybe even be able to save a best kill or something to view later or have others view.
onetrueping Aug 23rd 2006 7:27PM
I'd think Blizzard would shie away from gambling on the Arena matches, for a few reasons. One of the big ones would be corruption. What guarantee do you have that someone won't make a big bet on the other team, then take a fall, just to clean up on gold and get some new gear?
Fear the Blood Elf Mafia! :P