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World of Warcraft Honor System Launches!

Watch every fork in the road, travel in packs, and keep your weapons close at hand - player-versus-player (PvP) combat in World of Warcraft just got a little more competitive. The Honor System is up and running, and players will be ranked weekly based on how well they do in the PvP game and can earn special rewards based on that rank. We recently caught up with Tom Chilton - a Lead Game Designer on the World of Warcraft team - and asked him a few questions about the Honor System and how it was implemented.

Why was it decided to implement a ranking system [in World of Warcraft] that is similar to the Warcraft III ladders on Battle.net??

Since player-versus-player (PvP) is competitive by nature, we felt that the system that measures success in World of Warcraft's PvP should be a competitive system. A ladder-style ranking offers many benefits that other systems don't.
For example, since a limited number of players at any given time can make use of the PvP rewards, it ensures that the honor system rewards are very meaningful without running the risk of the PvP rewards drastically devaluing PvE loot (i.e. if it took less total playtime to get the PvP rewards in comparison to the player-vs-environment (PvE loot). This is important to us as PvP and PvE are both aspects of World of Warcraft as a whole, and not two games that are completely independent of each other.Due to this, the loot awarded for both aspects of the game need to compliment each other and not run the risk of having one render another obsolete.

In addition, a ladder-style system ensures that players entering the game long after the honor system has been active have a chance to rise to the top ranks. This isn't the case in an ever-inflationary system where players who have been in the game for years can never be caught up to by other players that join later, regardless of whether the more recent players are more effective.

Finally, one of the major benefits is that a ladder system helps ensure that over time, the game world does not become inflated with "Generals" and "Warlords".

We have taken some in-game video of the horde and alliance barracks which shows off some of the honor rewards.

To view the horde barracks: PC Users click here. and MAC Users click here.

To view the alliance barracks: PC Users click here. and MAC Users click here.

What are the major design goals of this system?
The primary design goal for the honor system is to give players a way to measure success in World of Warcraft PvP, and a way to reward players for how successful they've been in that aspect of the game. Players that engage in PvP crave competition, and the honor system is intended to fuel that desire to compete.

How do you think the addition of the honor system will affect how the game is played?
We expect that it will increase the amount of PvP that takes place in the game. In addition, it will give the PvP community a tool to use for bragging rights.

Why was it decided to not include penalties for higher level players that gank players of a lower level?
Ensuring that penalties for this kind of behavior are warranted complicate the system tremendously. Some examples...
What happens if a high level player is attacked by a low-level player? Do we have to start tracking who "started" the fight? How does the player see that in their interface? More target colors? More UI flags?

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