I mean, if we're being honest, even in games like Arc Raiders it puts people off the game.
I'd say the only place it's actually ever been successful is battle royales, the CoD/BF franchises, and for some reason Eve. Outside of that, pvp is just toxic every time.
It's super interesting from a sociological/psychological perspective, the way PvP changes people's behavior a full matrix of active and passive positive and negative behaviors. One can see how societies and areas of lawlessness developed and "how the West was won" so to speak, in that order was brought to areas previously unsafe to travel in.
I have never enjoyed the PVP parts of any MMO games because that's not why I play RPGs. FPS games were always how I played PVP; short matches, equal equipment, small maps. People who want to PVP in RPG MMOs aren't looking for that kind of setup; typically when someone says "good fights" and there are those people who are interested in them, what they mean are unbalanced fights "newb stomps" spawn camp murder sprees etc. It's like the RL "hunters" sitting with 20k gear in a deer stand waiting to shoot a yearling. That's not hunting.
Eve is the perfect example of how a PVP MMO should work. It's what New World needed to prevent the bottoming out of prices and/or constant inflation as players constantly pumped currency and items into the game.
-Corps drive everything outside of 0.0, player generated content
-New/low skilled players could contribute right away as tacklers on large target ships in combat or as miners/transporters.
-Area control was not quickly achieved but delivered real rewards in the form of defense, resources, and money making potential
-Economy/itemization is driven by the constant destruction.
-Named items/green/blue/purple/orange rares don't drive itemization; best items are player made and store/stall/station bought
-Allows trade route/trade wars to be a part of player generated content
-Destruction by combat drives churn in gear and limits player attachment, incentivizing risk taking and limiting fear of loss
-Provides a role for those who don't want to participate in risk/pvp by allowing basic mining and crafting/transport of said goods to contribute to upper end econ and war effort.
DAOC when I played also worked pretty well, 3 separate borderlands where folks knew there would be PVP. ESO did it pretty great as well I thought.
It's so hard to get both the balance right and attract/keep the right crowd so one doesn't drive off the other.
Edit: I would have loved to play a more traditionally formatted Eve PvE Campaign, and I know they have had their moments of it but between my work schedule, my experience with MMO guilds, and my ADD I am not interested in Corp intrigue. I've got a few multi million skill point characters stranded at what were at the time GOON stations a decade ago.
