The PvP system of Fallout 76 has sparked discussions from the very beginning. As Bethesda’s Pete Hines explained, the team was very surprised by how negatively players reacted to PvP.
What did Pete Hines mean? At the PAX East gaming convention, Pete Hines, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & Communications, explained that the developers were surprised by how few players liked PvP in Fallout 76.
Well, I mean, ultimately, our intention was always to release the game and see what the players think. Then we wanted to align future game elements with their reactions. I think we were a bit surprised by how few people wanted to participate in PvP and how many were interested in PvE. There are some players who like PvP, don’t get me wrong, but I believe it is a smaller percentage of our player base than we thought.
Pete Hines, Bethesda, at PAX East
What do Fallout fans want?
What did the fans want then? As Pete Hines himself explains, PvE is more popular than PvP. This can also be seen from the discussions on Reddit. There, the community is already discussing Hines’ statement.
- rather_be_a_hobbit says: “Imagine co-op Morrowind, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3… This is what people wanted in multiplayer mode. Not Fallout 76.”
- Tylorw09 explains: “It’s obvious what makes Fallout so interesting: it’s the single-player RPG aspects, not the combat.”
- Fimbulvetr writes: “If my decades of playing MMOs have taught me anything, it’s this: most people like the idea of PvP more than actually participating in it.”
Players prefer to spend time on unusual activities rather than PvP, as seen in this story:
In Fallout 76, players are trying to get every disease that exists in the game. There are several reasons for this:
- The first person to get a disease receives some atoms in-game currency as a gift
- It has developed into a sort of community challenge to get all diseases
It is these PvE things that players have an interest in.
Was die PvP-Abneigung wirklich so überraschend?
Andreas says: Integrating open PvP into a game with PvE where players complete quests is always difficult. Who wants to be constantly attacked while trying to finish a mission?
Fallout 76 was primarily aimed at Fallout fans. Of course, Bethesda wanted to broaden the target audience and find new fans. But initially, another part of the post-apocalyptic RPG series appeals to the fans. And among these, hardly any associated Fallout with PvP. At least not in the way that Fallout 76 implemented player-versus-player combat.
Fallout was always about exciting stories, interesting NPCs, good, varied quests, and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere. It seems a bit strange to me if Bethesda was genuinely surprised that PvP was received so poorly.
