When PvP Arrives For Diablo III, It Won’t Be Pay-2-Win

More news from the Diablo front!

PvP is still a way off from being added to Diablo III, but the official community forums are rife with discussion surrounding how it can be made fair in a game which allows players to buy gear for real money. Surely someone who can afford to spend on more impressive items will gain the upper hand?

Not true, explains Bashiok, the Blizzard Diablo III community manager. The PvP matchmaking system will take into account a player’s gear, among other statistics to ensure you have a reasonable chance to defeat the people you’re put up against:

 

[The matchmaking system is]  based off of your win/loss record. It’s not dissimilar from the matchmaker found in StarCraft II, which is based off of the Elo system used for Chess championships. Your win/loss and who they were against determines a ‘skill rating’, which is used to match up against other players of a similar rating. The intent is to get an even/fair match. Regardless of any individual factors like build, gear, or player ability, you’ll find some equilibrium where you’re facing off against players that you’re about as likely to beat as you are to lose. If getting better gear raises your abilities then you’re simply matched against players of a higher rating. Changing builds or just getting better at PvP could have the same effect. But regardless if you move up or down you’re ultimately still netting around a 50/50 win/loss as you’re always matching against similarly rated players.

In the face of Blizzard’s various missteps surrounding the game, player cynicism is on the increase. It’s good to see Blizzard tackling misconceptions and false accusations when they arise, at least. Of course, Bashiok was quick to remind the community that while plans are being made to ensure a fair PvP experience, it’s still going to be a while before players are able to face one another in the arena:

I don’t want to squash any excitement about PvP, because we think it’s going to be a lot of fun, but a lot of the details are still in flux. We’re focusing on 1.0.4, and once that’s behind us we’ll be a lot closer to sharing some more concrete details on the “PvP patch” as they solidify.