What is Realm vs. Realm (RvR)?

May 27, 2008 – 4:51 pm

This may seem a bit elementary to those who have already participated in RvR, but I thought it might be fun to come up with a somewhat formal explanation. Feel free to improve upon it in the comments and I’ll amend!

Realm vs. Realm (RvR) is a term Mythic trademarked with the release of it’s pseudo-historical MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot back in 2001. Like Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP), RvR describes a gaming niche.

The simplest definition of RvR is this:

You and your allies (faction/realm) fight against a common enemy.

In terms of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, this means that players of Order are locked in a never-ending war with the players of Destruction. High Elf, Empire, and Dwarfen players battle hordes of Greenskins, Chaos, and Dark Elfs.

The overall motivation to compete is centered around the many, not the few, and PvE and PvP are given greater meaning than in most traditional MMORPGs. A player may have individual, selfish motivations, but they will still end up contributing towards their realm’s overall success.

In Warhammer Online, you are literally fighting an opposing realm for zone control. Everything you do in PvE, including individual quests, public quests, dungeon raiding, and even NPC-grinding count towards this control. For this reason, you could hate the idea of PvP and never even participate, but you will still help out your realm in the “end game.” On the other hand, every enemy you kill in skirmishes and scenarios and all battlefield objectives you own will also contribute to your realm’s control. For this reason, you could hate PvE, participating as minimally as possible, and still contribute to your realm’s overall achievements.

RvR is really a win-win for both gamer-types.

Antonym: Free For All (FFA)

FFA systems allow anyone to attack anyone else. There are no factions, aside from the particular group of people you happen to be hunting with that day. Free for All is just that… every man, woman, and greenskin for him, her, or itself. For these reasons, I don’t think FFA servers will make their way into Warhammer Online, for it is a game designed around an RvR core.

The only way I could see this happen is if they completely removed the concept of city capture and focused primarily on keep warfare. Unfortunately the lore is pretty restrictive. E.g., A High Elf who attacks other High Elves is technically a Dark Elf. I suppose you could make a Greenskin FFA server because they’ll fight anything with a pulse, including members of their own “realm!”

How do you define RvR?