PvE

Gameplay where the game system provides the challenge rather than other players.

Games needs challenges. While many games create challenges by making players compete against each other in various forms, other do so by having the game itself create opposition to the players' intentions. This second form was given the name PvE (for "Player versus Environment") by players in massively multiplayer online games to distinguish it from the first one (PvP, or "Player versus Player"). Note that the two types of challenges are not mutually incompatible and players may simultaneously have both types of challenges.

Examples

What games have PvE gameplay depend on what requirements on puts on the game to have an "environment". Taking an inclusive view, Jigsaw Puzzles and Solitaire are games that retroactively can be considered PvE since they are single-player games and logically the challenge in them must come from the game design. Collaborative Category:Board Games such as Arkham Horror, Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, Ghost Stories, Lord of the Rings, Pandemic, and Shadows over Camelot also have PvE as the core gameplay although some include small elements of player conflicts (this is supported in Arkham Horror, Lord of the Rings, and Pandemic by game expansions).

Judging that Computer Games is often quite easy and many of these games have PvE gameplay. To mention just a few, PvE can be found in the Asteroids, Centipede, and Plants vs. Zombies, and the Doom, Fallout, Pik-Min and Super Mario series. Examples of games that mixed PvE and PvP heavily include Defense of the Ancients, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft and the Board Game Republic of Rome.

The web site GiantBomb as a page dedicated to the concept of PvE.

Using the pattern

Can Be Instantiated By

Enemies, Combat, Conflicts

Traps Environmental Effects Puzzle Solving

PvE and PvP gameplay is not in opposition to each other, but most games are skewed towards one or the other. Due to this, one can consider the patterns as being able to modulate each other through introducing elements of the other pattern. Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game and Shadows over Camelot are examples of games with mainly PvE gameplay but with some PvP aspects.

Consequences

PvE is one of the basic ways of providing challenges in both Single-Player and Multiplayer Games. Regardless of type of game, it can provide the motivation for Cooperation since the players have common Enemies and may postpone any eventual conflicts they have to handle this challenge first.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Cooperation

Can Modulate

Multiplayer Games, PvP, Single-Player Games

Can Be Instantiated By

Combat, Conflicts, Enemies, Environmental Effects, Puzzle Solving, Traps

Can Be Modulated By

PvP

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

New pattern created in this wiki.

Acknowledgements

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