Most people that played on PvP servers don't care about class balancing so much that they won't play a weaker class. Some classes weren't meant for killing, and that's why you stick with buddies.
We're talking about sick and twisted little individuals who's only desire is to play EQ with the thrill of having some a-hole come in and try to fight you for a camping spot. Or maybe you go to the EW orc camp and some group got there first - time to fight for your rights buddy. There is a certain level of pride when you have to fight for every experience point you gain and you just can't get that on an optionally pvp server.
Here's what I suggest, we do one (1) weekend where everyone - and I mean everyone is flagged for PvP. I vote we accept a level difference of 4-6 levels for fights to engage, because that still prevents some of the newer guys from getting completely smashed constantly with no hope of retaliation. Maybe not everyone I spose, if your under level 10 then your not flagged? (Lets not scare away the new people) Most of the characters on this server are 65+ anyways.
I won't touch on the class balancing portion of the pvp here, but one thing I would like to have is make it so that at least there is a chance of running away. What that would equate to in the game mechanics I suggest is to make roots and slows and blind spells very hard to resist for pvp. It may already be this way. Sure, buffing is sometimes a lot harder to get away with due to having to cast dispells on yourself constantly to clear the dots / roots / blinds and whatnot, but that's what it was all about. Everyone else has the same game mechanics, and no matter what class you are, your not going to survive against multiple enemies unless your really twinked.
And so what if there is a twink class running around punishing the have-nots? It's only for a weekend. I've been in the large mass of players that eventually bring the twink down, and I gotta say hunting him down over and over again with the 20 other guys is a lot of fun. Especially when we all spread out to find out what zone he's in cause he's anonymous. Those rare times when you manage to save your own skin by zoning away just those extra two seconds faster are also exciting. Sure, he may have killed you personally 20 times, but his one loss will be remembered forever. I killed a twink on Tallon Zek once that chased me all the way up the pass in the badlands and managed to kill him by managing to land a knockback spell on him and knocking him off the ledge. He kept 100 platinum on him (it was a lot for a level 20 on live) and you bet it was worth all the times he killed me.
What I was used to seeing is pvp almost always coming down to whomever had more friends, or more powerful friends. And there is almost never a clear victor in any situation, fights go for so long that all the original parties have logged off by the time the war comes to a close. The reason for the fight starting gets lost pretty quickly usually. Lets do away with the decency rules, allow player harassment during this weekend and let the players decide how long to grind their enemies into the dirt. Just tell everyone up front that the GM's aren't listening, and if you decide to keep an eye out for actual legitimate issues, you can do that.
I was usually on the receiving end of punishment during my time on live, and it was still incredibly exciting even when I was getting utterly destroyed because sometimes it was just me intentionally keeping the twink busy till more people arrived. If your the casual player that has no friends, then yes this weekend may not be for you. But I think that even if you don't play seriously anymore you'd be interested to come back for this weekend, since you've got nothing to lose. I think the only people that this would guaranteed negatively affect are the hard core advancement guilds that have set raiding times, so we can schedule this to at least let them know the crazy is imminent.
I think there are enough people interested in pvp to warrant doing a weekend of chaos. If you don't want to pvp, you don't have to play. We can even take away all death penalties during this weekend just to make dying not so big a deal. (Not that it is anyways) I'm an avid fan of pvp, and that is the one thing shards doesn't excel at. I'm not interested in being a developer, but I will dedicate a large amount of time and energy to this cause. I'd rate myself intermediate at C++ and would spend as necessary to get a system setup to turn pvp on for a weekend.
