The variance is the PvP itself.

Exactly. To me that gets repetitive and it isn’t all that interesting if that is all there is to it. PvP for the sole purpose to pvp is only so fun for so long. For me anyway. That goes triple for shooters where there is no meaningful outcome to winning or losing. Grinding rank in a competitive game isn’t interesting at all when the game play loop is simple. I’m talking games like counter strike.

I don’t have the time for it because the time investment is MASSIVE but the most interesting and fun pvp game for me was Eve online.

Lots and lots of pvp with huge losses. But the purpose and outcome of the pvp had devastating effects to the economical and geopolitical atmosphere in the region you were fighting in.

You weren’t fighting just to fight. Don’t get me wrong there was plenty of skirmishing. Lots of pointless and meaningless fights. Although they weren’t completely meaningless as every loss was a resource dump for the loser. Enough of those and an opponent might flee the region putting the war on hold to rebuild resources. War is real. There was something bigger in the game that was affected by your fighting.

I wish there were more games like Eve online. I want the pvp I engage in to be meaningful and have lasting effect on the overall game. That’s what keeps me engaged and striving.

The problem to me is that the vast majority of games have meaningless pvp. It’s an esports thing I guess. I don’t care for esports. I want engaging pvp. Esports isn’t it.