Never wrote a blog

Just some topics that concern me.

Author: Entreri28

Hmmm, I dunno about that.  Most often a pk happens when the player being attacked is trying to accomplish something i.e. leveling, traveling.  That 's where the annoyance comes in, and the whining and name calling.  To use your sports analogy, it would be like if you were out golfing...concentating...lining up your shot...and then BAM someone comes out of nowhere and punches you in the mouth.  I'm not whining myself because I enjoy the feature, the added danger makes things interesting and I like the option to be able to attack someone if they steal my kill or loot or they are just being plain mouthy...but sometimes it's a little annoying, escpecially in games where you lose XP from death >_<

True, but that isn't unique to pking.  You could be playing WoW and get attacked by enemy faction or someone just comes and steals your kills so you can't quest.

I don't blame the Player Killers so much as I blame the developers when they dangle the Carebear carrot over the Player Killer pit.  We Carebears blithely walk into the pit thinking that we're going to get a Carebear experience.  Then the wolves descend.

Ultima Online is the poster child for griefing because the publisher created the mismatch between player expectations and what the game could actually deliver.  Since that gameI know of no other that intentionally throws the Carebears in with the Player Killers.

Entreri28: "Pkers arn't anti-social or children, you would just be stereotyping to say that. "

A Player Killer that preys on those who are clearly weaker than they are is being anti-social, childish - and a griefer.  This is something that we're all supposed to learn in Kindergarten.  The environment that Ultima Online created provided fertile ground for people to exert their character's power over weaker characters.  Unfortunately, the players weren't mature enough to handle that temptation, and they turned to griefing.

Player killing is almost stupid in most games which allow it.  It only every supports the vets, or guilds of veteran players.  Even if the gap is small...the pain of the experience is not.  Using the UO example...I never once got to see the outside of a city in that game.  Never.  Not once.

From the day I started in it...I was slaughtered the moment I left ANY gate in ANY town.  I'm sorry...PK'er suck.  Its not their fault they suck either.  Its the devs fault for NOT punishing such actions.  I dunno about you...but if I were an NPC shopkeeper I wouldn't bother selling goods to murderers whom disallow people to leave the city.  If I were a guard I would hunt them down, mercilessly, as we do real killers in real life.  The games do not reflect any actual dissuasion to the PKer, they choose to reward the act of making the game unplayable for someone else.

So we can sit here and defend that type of game play all we want.  But you know what, its the act of turning a player into a mob.  As fun as playing the level 2 orc that gets killed 1000000000000 times a day sounds, I'd rather be playing something else.  There is no exaggeration here either, in any truly open PKing game I've played I was farmed like rabbits in a newbie zone for gear no one needed.  All for the sake of laughing at the fact I could NEVER have fun.  I couldn't even TRY to catch up to compete.  In Tibia, just as soon as I had FINALLY worked my way back down some dungeon to regain the mace I had lost 12 times already (so that I could actually level the skill, that I might COMPETE) I was boxed in and killed AGAIN.  Looted, and left with nothing.

I'm sick of those systems.  They are only fun to the guy who already got to earn his super levels and gear.  For the rest of us, it is a reduction of game play from something active and fun...to something more akin to walking into a ghetto with money falling out of your shirt and wearing all the wrong colors.  Not fun for anybody.  Except those getting your loot after spanking you every three seconds.

You need a couple of things to make PK-ing not feel completely retarded for the victims.

I PK'd in Diablo 2 quite a bit, and 90% of people would just exit the game when you hostiled, and most of the rest would exit if you came near. Fine, the real thrill was when people decided to fight back (sometimes if I was lucky, the whole party).

Usually in MMO's you can't just bolt out of the game, you have to wait to log out, and then you have your problem because people are forced to fight when they know they can't take you and would really rather avoid it.

Another thing you need is for the victim to have a chance to fight back. If your combat system is retarded (involves stuns that render a character unable to do anything or even move), or doesn't allow low levels to even make a dint in high levels (miss chance amplified with level difference), then it will be no fun.

Comparing PK-ers to children is an age-old argument that carries very little weight with PK-ers, I really wouldn't bother. It's a fun activity to them, they will never not do something I find to be the most amount of fun IN A GAME, regardless of how many people it will irritate. And nor should we expect them to...

We should however expect the devs to make the PK experience not completely one-sided.

Your comment that you have never met a griefer... PK griefers do exist and are relatively common. The griefer is the player who camps outside the low level areas fo those "easy" kills hes the one who believes bind spot camping is a good joke. The griefer is the player who doesn't care that there is a person on the other end of the avatar hes just put on a perm die repop die again loop by camping the bind stone.

To force someone out of the game and to play an alt because oterwise he woudn't be allowed to have fun is the act of a griefer,,,,

Just my 2 cents

Gadareth

 Most of your points were fine. But you are just plain wrong on griefing. There is a select few that you can thank as to why there are little to no FFA pvp games these days. I mean every game has them , Im astounded you would make such a statement.

 That is just a sterotype on people not being good because they camp lowbie zones , that is not always true. And whether it is to cause grief or not ....it is still griefing.

 I agree that limiting accounts to 1 character could solve some of those problems. But i imagine alot of people If they liked the game would just have a second account like other games.

I def agree with a lot of the points. Especially in games that have xp debt, it can be very frustrating when you can't even get started. Then you have games like EQ2 that allow players to lock their level but still acquire AA points. So even though they are in the appropriate level range they have an huge advantage over the lesser experienced. I enjoy games that have specific pvp zones like CoH. I have also dabbled with EVE which I find very interesting. EVE has a sink or swim mentality but I think they have done a lot to bring in new players. I had a lot of fun just going out to mine and never got ganked. I'm sure I was lucky but even in EVE there are some anti measures to griefing. I think the biggest thing is just getting a level playing field where skill and strategy matter over exploiting the games systems just to win. I like the direction they have taken with Fury. In the new Fury League everyone has access to every ability and starts with 10000 gold to buy armor and such. You can then build your character with whatever abilities you want. This puts the focus on gamer skill. I've been playing it for the last week and having a blast.

< It's just part of the game, there is a winner and a loser and you can't win all the time 

I agree with u there, but Pking gets boring after a while. I mean I get tired of getting PKed then going out and Pking that person in the name of revenge.

Some games are smart enough to have it  where pk is not allowed in low lvl zones, and other games make pking low lvls a pain. Like in wow, one faction had to travel to the total opposite side of the world to go pk someone, in the end it was not worth the time spent. Every game will have the low life who pks and keeps spawn/corpse camping. But in every game i've ever played I was with friends (higher and lower lvl) .  If someone spawn camped me, then guess what a friend would come get me out of the situation. And I would do the same for other friends. In most games you can yell out in a world chat such and such is out here ganking. Well people like me who achieve a high lvl and love player vs player will head to the area and handle it. There are people who if they were to pk would do so vs a higher lvl, this is to see how strong they are.  A single pk even to a low lvl is frustrating but acceptable. It's only when it's done in excess that it becomes out of hand. This is why game dev's have a hard time saying pk or no pk. Some of us like to pk to test skill and help others/protect our mobs/loot. Others pk for the pure joy of being a pain to someone else. It will never stop.