Reading about Black Desert's new game mode, War of the Roses, feels like the next evolution of World of Warcraft's legendary Alterac Valley. Despite a few issues, such as faction balance and toxic turtling, it remains a beloved early WoW PvP experience, and in War of the Roses, it's as if developer Pearl Abyss asked herself, "What if we did what Alterac Valley did, but on a much larger scale?"

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The game mode is 300 vs. 300; yes, 600 players at a time will compete for lucrative rewards and PvP glory in this galactic-scale, anime-style MMO brutalist battle. The first season of the new mode kicks off today, July 14, and it's bound to be a blood-drenched battle.

At least it will be for the players chosen to participate. The battle will take place only once every two weeks, and not everyone will be able to play. The leading guild in each camp will be determined by their performance in the Node Wars and Conquest Wars prior to the event, with the top two guilds or alliances securing the first 100 fighters in each camp. The remaining 200 slots for each team will be filled by a randomly selected third corps that meets the minimum equipment score (700 points) required for combat.

If it sounds complicated, that's because it is: 300 players each, huge battle maps, naval battles for flanking operations and coastal bombardment, destructible war machines, mini-bosses protecting strategic outposts, leaders giving tactical advice and missions in real time, War of the Roses is... . is a lot of fun.

Final victory is determined by killing the opposing faction's NPC commander in his home base; if the game is not won or lost within 2 hours, the side with the most commander HP remaining wins.

The responsibility for victory or defeat ultimately lies with the chieftain guilds of each faction. This is because the Leading Guild not only determines the majority of the battle roster, but is also empowered as the leader. Each leading guild elects a captain and three lutants. The lutants are individual players who have great authority to determine the course of the conflict. The captain has access to a special tactical map that allows him to set his own objectives, summon monsters, and produce powerful in-game effects such as teleporting platoons from one location to another. The lieutenant can issue missions to the 3rd Corps and can give some instructions to the 200 rogues who have joined up to become cannon fodder. [The reason is that accomplishing the missions given by the leadership guild will increase the rewards at the end of the battle. The 3rd Legion is tasked with attacking and holding sanctums (small strongholds that are on the route to the enemy and give bonuses to their comrades during suppression).

Sounds chaotic and fun, but my first thought is about the poor graphics cards and processors out there. The combat in Black Desert looks a lot like a fighting game, with timing counters, combos, etc. I can't imagine that a battle of 600 players trying to unleash their awesome martial arts powers on each other would result in anything other than a slide show, but I doubt it. The pre-season of War of the Roses has been underway for been underway for some time, player feedback helped shape the final version of the new Pearl Abyss crash.

War is an ambitious new direction for PvP in the Black Desert, with Pearl Abyss developers saying of the mode, "It reflects a new direction for large-scale PvP gameplay. We wanted to innovate and create PvP content with a focus on strategy and the importance of objectives." If this new mode gains community support, it could become fertile ground for the occasional MMO player legend like EVE Online's most daring white-collar criminal. Time will tell.