Neither levelling your toon nor getting equipment have to be for the sake of PvP - they're prerequisites, but PvP is not the necessary consequence.
Fair enough but I really don’t see there being enough in-game content to really justify playing the game unless you are interested in PvP in some capacity.
PvE is the prerequistie for PvP, in so far PvP is actually excluded mildly from the sandboxing because you have to do so many other things to get to the PvP (or cheat like there's no tomorrow).
I would say that PvE is the engine where you stay competitive in PvP.
The quests are interesting to explore (because there is so little known about them), the lore is excellently unobstrusive so as to make a near perfect roleplaying environment, character customisation is incredibly time-consuming but existant (just playing until I have all the armour sets I want for Mielle, and yes, that is character customisation, will take me years).
You and I very much differ on this. I concede that the lore is interesting and that it is unobtrusive but it has always been my stance that the implementation is poor at best, that the quests need to be streamlined a bit because there is just too much running around, quest text is too small, run together and sometimes is unclear. (which is where we differ on opinion).
Just because people do not like to play in the L2 sandbox does not mean it does not exist. There is plenty to do - and if it's swimming down a random river and frantically scrabbling out as you nearly drown (which is good fun if done in the right company).
Well, as long as you are enjoying yourself.
I will stress again: The game has nearly unskippable grind, but active participation PvP is 100% optional. The design does not focus down towards PvP (or there would be no melees, and no pole classes, and for that matter no experience penalty on PvP).
PvP is candy added to give people more incentive to PvE, not the other way around.
I completely disagree with this statement.
PvP is not optional. It is not optional to be kicked out of your lvling spot by a stronger character or party, nor is it optional to be pk’ed when you don’t want to be pk’ed. No matter what, a player will run into a situation where they either need to fight or flee. Happens more to some and less to others given the variables involved. Even if you are involved in a clan that does not PvP regularly, all it takes is one member to piss off someone in another clan and you can be thrust in the conflict. No optional there.
PS: Roleplaying and PvP are not mutually exclusive. They would, in fact, if the game encouraged PvP more, come together more commonly. In fact, they're usually more disconnected from their characters than the average other player.
I agree with the first part but I don’t feel that the more hardcore PvP’ers are into roleplaying. Still, there are PvP’ers that are Roleplayers.
Let’s put it this way. When I was a child, I used to use ordinary household items as toys. I would pretend that my mother [censored] was a space ship. Did this with a variety of things. It still doesn’t preclude the fact that the items clearly had another idea in mind with their design.
I feel the same thing with L2 (or any online game).
All Roads lead to Rome. All gameplay elements in L2 lead toward PvP. I mean, the end game is either sigeing, clan wars or Olympiad.
There is a karma element as well as a death penalty element to give more meaning to death and pk’ing. But I get the feeling that the original design of this game is that pk’ing is punished but that the majority of Koreans PvP during sieges and Clan wars.
I’ve heard that there is very little pk’ing in Korean. I don’t know if this is true but from the screenshots I’ve seen I tend to believe it.
I get the feeling that this game is made toward a different interpretation of what PvP game is supposed to be.
However, you don’t lvl up to do the great quests. As it is, the quests do not provide, overall, great xp for their completion like other games. In more PvE oriented games, you can lvl up by JUST doing the quests. Not so in L2. Sure, there are a few quests that offer decent xp rewards but those seem to be mostly the class change quests.
I believe the reason that this game is the way it is, is that the grind provides a social gameplay engine for lvling and interaction. That the sole reason to lvl is to be useful during sieges or clan wars.
Though one might find other ways to enjoy the world, I really don’t see anything that would lead me to believe that the original intent is for anything other than NC Softs idea of what PvP should be. My opinion but I believe it’s true.