Warning pop up (accept/deny) message before entering PvP arena!

Dear GGG,

This just happened today that I was in the mood to check out the PvP arena if there was any change in the interior design of the place after the 2nd major content update.

I used to visit the arena for the same purpose with many of my characters before.

So I pooped in admiring the scenery when all of a sudden I got attacked by a TOTAL STRANGER without any prior warning. He killed me 4 seconds flat. (I was with my lvl 73 Duelist, merciless, Standard. Not that matters in any way, just stating that it was not a weak character)

How could this happen?

I don't care about dying as I'm no playing witht a HC character and didn't loose any XP after the duel either. It's the principle that this kind of thing shouldn't happen.

It's like walking into the Louvre to check out the Mona Lisa and have a total stranger walk behind you and stab you to death.
It's like walking into the Colosseum in Rome and getting killed by an overzealous LARPer dressed in a gladiator outfit while you checking out the scenery.

You got my idea.

So please add a warning message that says: "You're about to enter a free PvP fight!" prior to entering the arena. These could be followed by an accept/decline option. Also it would be nice to know who do you going to engage in the arena.

-I still don't know who murdered me in the arena today. Not a name, character or what level he/she was. The only thing I know that he/she was freezing me do death with a glacial cascade but it happened so fast that I hardly noticed anything beside that. Then I rage quitted immediately. When I got back I was flaming a tad bit in global. Then I got the idea to came here instead before they ban me for aggravating the people here.
I sometimes wonder how non caring the community is towards random individuals. Barely any people was giving any answer, let alone a helping one.

All in all I got my lesson and will not bother myself or anyone with PvP for the foreseeable future for both of my and anyone's sake. But future venturers in the same shoe like mine would sure welcome that Warning and some proper information on the fight that about to take place, before they got shredded.

Thank you for reading.

MMXIV. IX. XXII.

OMG, you again!

If you didn't listen before I explained in my wall of text :) that I had been in the arena before the latest update many times and no one was there besides me sightseeing.
What the hell is wrong with that.

Now after the update I wanted to check out if there was any new things in there. I didn't go there to fight since I assumed that like in any normal games I would be warned before entering to a fight. So my museum and Colosseum comparison is right in this case. We don't need this case to be white knighted as well.

Peole can still have free open world PvP if they want. No one wants to prevent them from doing so. My post wasn't about removing PvP arena. My post was about a trivial thing like posting bear attack signs in season in a national park.
It's the little things in life you appreciate. If we forget even those than what we are, my friend? Then we indeed just a bunch of angry apes running trough life like Darwin suggested.

Gosh!

You still don't understand me.

For the third time. I don't want to hurt the free PvP that's in place. I just want an option:
To either go into the arena to fight or just to check it out before a potential fight. So there should be a box like :

Option 1: Enter free Pvp (maybe a short description about who is currently in there, what's his/her lever, character etc. which isn't hard to do for the devs.)

Option 2: Enter the arena or rather explore the arena. This would be a good option for players who are new to free PvP (like me). Also it doesn't hurt to check out where you would fight.

You mentioned the box ring where you can clearly see where you will fight. Also you have the option to check out how it feels to be in the ring without any guy trying to knock you out. You have the option to challenge a guy beforehand, but only if you want to.
I'm just asking the same for PoE arena.

I can imagine someone just walking into the arena (to fight), but he/she didn't have the chance (like right now is the case) to actually see the place beforehand where he/she would be fighting or with whom. In the middle of the fight he/she realizes that he/she doesn't like the arena because it doesn't fit the his/her playstile and he/she has to compromise which puts him/her into a disadvantage.

I bet it's why many people just simply don't care about PvP at all. GGG realized that and that's why they added the new CTF and team deathmatch play modes. Too bad they left free PvP as it is now.

Plus there is just one arena tipe with the same tileset over and over again. I hope they realize the potential of the free PvP and in later content updates they add an option to select from a range of arena layout/tileset before PvP fights.

Until then I just won't play PvP.

The Sarn Arena is instanced similar to World areas, so you can actually see who is in an instance before entering (CTRL + Click entrance to Sarn Arena).

Also, your death counter does not increase, your experience does not drop, and your characters are not moved from HC to SC for dying in the Sarn Arena.

If you want to sight see, I recommend checking any open instances for being empty of players, and then entering at your own risk. However, there is no good reason to not just yolo enter and run around checking the place out; death does not matter. Just yolo enter and have fun!

Furthermore, I do not think a prompt before entering the Sarn Arena would serve any genuine purpose; it would not protect players from anything real because death in the Arena is meaningless. Players are free to sight see and/or engage in open PvP without risk of loss.

I understand that it is a world instance and I know that I suffered no loss. It's that I didn't expected to be attacked. Why was there no one in there before then. I entered like 25-30 times with other characters and I was the only one there so that's why I was surprised when I was attacked and killed and that's why I brought up the comparisons etc.

Still, things I recommended like multiple variations of the arena that would be only accessible for those players that agree on PvP beforehand could be a feasible thing alongside this open PvP thing. I understand that you could challenge other people for PvP (I got some requests already, which I denied since I don't very much like PvP or get beaten. Even if I would win that would be meaningless since there is no bets.)

There could be a new item that could be farmed: PvP maps, maps with mods like the ones we have now, only they were always a certain size.

Bet system/prize fight. Similar to trade, but whoever wins take it all. In case of multiple combatants each one gets a piece equal to his/her contribution to the victory.
Players would agree on the type of prize(s) before the battle: Which could be orbs, items of varying rarity etc.

This way people with less or no item rarity and quantity bonuses could get themselves things that they normally wouldn't be able to get (i.e: Shavronne's Wrappings, Mirror of Kallandra, 100 of exalted orbs etc. just to mention a few things I desire).

That would allow more diversity in builds also, as less people would build their character around IIR and IIQ, thus allowing other mods to gain advantage in builds.
There would be two sides: The one that grind up rare, unique items and orbs with loads of IIR and IIQ and sell it or offer it for prize fight and those who buy or win it.