Most games that have an MMO setting with PVP usually have sides that are pretty much the same. There are variations of every class, and pretty much everything works the same way....My question is (and I got this idea after watching a History Channel special on the Rise of the Spartans, the part covering the war between Greece and Persia) Would the following scenario work in a PVP RPG. Greece: scenario of a player run city states, that fight amongst themselves have strong fighters and decent armor. Open GVG warfare is allowed. (Think Shadowbane) Persia: Scenario of a large empire, lots of money, and such. No GVG, Not fighting between its citizens. Would this type of thing work in a MMO?

and what happens when 1 "city state" completely takes over another city state?

Not much detail to go one (like what exactly each player is controlling) but it seems your proposing that the Greeces are allowed to fight amoungst themselves.

From a game balance point of view this is a nightmare. It is hard enough to balance game play when two sides have roughly similar abilities. If no cities fight then the total 10 Greek cities (for example) are at 100%. If one attacks another then the available strength to fight the Persians drops to 80% if another two start fighting it is down to 60% another two and its at 40%. Balancing those sort of differences isn''t realistic. You can''t simply send a plague to wipe out 60% of the Persian troops.

Of course sensible Greek players wouldn''t fight each other.... until the griefer joins the game for the sole purpose of messing up the Greeks chances.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions
Game Development & Design consultant

Yeah i know it would be a pain in the ass to balance. I was just wondering if a game with such a concept would work.

(As it went in RL there was no plauge to wipe out the Persians. It was an uneasy alliance between greek city-states. Spartans did a delaying tactic at a mountain pass while the rest of greece built up a defense, then in an Athenian ambush on the persian navy most of the supply ships were knocked out,forcing the persians to withdraw all but around 30k soldiers of the original 250k force The spartans then obliterated these with the help of the rest of greece.)