I Only Play Arc Raiders As A PvE Game, But PvE Servers Miss The Point

Arc Raiders will soon feature a trial run of Player-versus-Environment (PvE) servers, which would seem to be great news for a player like me, who exclusively plays the game as a PvE experience.

In actuality, PvE servers ignore one of the game’s best traits.

Embark Studios said that PvE-only servers are coming in a limited testing phase for one week beginning on October 13. Whether they come back after that isn’t known yet, not even to the studio itself. Embark cited a player survey that found just over half of respondents (51%) would be interested in PvE servers.

It took me 120 gameplay hours before I finally even attempted to kill another player in a round of Arc Raiders, and 100 hours later, I’ve still only killed three more. I just don’t want to do it. I refuse even at the expense of my own character’s progress, in many instances. But servers that eliminate the possibility of player-versus-player (PvP) interactions don’t appeal to me, because that chance of all hell breaking loose is what makes cooperating so incredibly rewarding.

In PvE-only servers, I’ll be matched with players who can’t kill me even if they want to. In the game’s standard PvPvE servers, I play with players who can kill me but choose not to. To me, that behavioral calculus is the main source of my appreciation for Arc Raiders, and something I hit on throughout my Arc Raiders review last fall.

The threat of PvP makes the reward of co-op so much sweeter.

Back then, no one knew the game featured aggression-based matchmaking, so when I’d tell people about my unforgettable adventures in emergent cooperation with strangers, banding together and having each other’s backs when the shit hit the fan, some told me my experience was anomalous and not reflective of the game’s broader vibe.

As it turns out, those people were telling on themselves. I’d kept my gun holstered in favor of diplomacy so consistently that the game eventually stuck to matching me with like-minded players. This was apparently something many others didn’t experience because, as we now can infer, they were resorting to violence at least some of the time.

But every once in a while, I do still get attacked by other players in what I’ve taken to calling my “utopian lobbies” of peaceful players. That aggression–and often, unexpected betrayal–reminds me why Arc Raiders works so well as a PvE experience, and yet why a forced PvE experience doesn’t have nearly the same appeal.

Working out issues in proximity chat rather than with weapons, running to rescue–and not rob–an injured raider when their flare shoots toward the sky, and asking a stranger to trust you in a resource-scarce world, then rewarding that trust; those are the repeatable, magical moments that make this game so incredible. That all evaporates if Embark makes the decision for players before they depart from Speranza.

In PvE-only servers, I’ll be matched with players who can’t kill me even if they want to. In the game’s standard PvPvE servers, I play with players who can kill me but choose not to.

PvE-only servers might even push out players like me, who want to maintain the threat of lethal action, even if they don’t plan to use it themselves. It could become harder to hop into a traditional Arc Raiders server and be rewarded with these memorable moments of opt-in, emergent co-op. The community may start to feel like those who prefer PvE should load into PvE-only servers exclusively, crowding PvP-leaning players into the game’s traditional servers and ending the possibility of the unexpected.

Thankfully, the addition of these servers is just a test run for now, and maybe that’s all it will ever be.

Nearly a year after the release of Arc Raiders, I still try my hardest not to trade wounds with other raiders, but I hope the possibility of such outcomes is never taken from players like me. It’s so much more satisfying to lend a helping hand when you could’ve chosen to strike someone down with your fists instead.