Player vs. Environment

Commonly referred to as PvE by most online games and gamers. Simply put, it is the player-controlled character (you) competing against the game world and its computer-controlled denizens, as opposed to Player vs Player.

Additional notes:

• Player vs. Environment is the dominant form of MMORPG game.
• Blizzard refers to PvE servers as "Normal" servers.
• Also (incorrectly) known as "Player vs. Everything/Everyone".
• In some online games PvE is known as Player versus Monster (PvM for short).

PvE also refers to PvE Realms, which are Realms where "Consensual Combat" generally prevails. This means most players will only engage in PvP combat if they choose or do some action that enables their PvP flag. See PvP Flag for more information, or you can also see the official Realm Types page.

PvE Realms

Pros and Cons of PvE realms

Pros

• Some players consider being able to play with no risk of random player vs. player combat a pro. You can level and train skills without interruption.
• If you prefer Alliance-favored population imbalance, research has shown that the population of PvE servers are much more prone to be Alliance weighted, with population ratios often hovering around 2:1.
• If you are a casual player who just wants to play the game and train with no interruption, then PvE servers may just be the server for you.

Cons

• Some players like the thrill and risk of random player vs. player combat, and would consider PvE servers to have a difficulty that is too low.
• If you prefer more population balance, , research has shown that the population of PvE servers are much more prone to be Alliance weighted, with population ratios often hovering around 2:1.