Several things I just couldn't understand this past weekend.
I've played other MMO's where high-leveled players ganking low-leveled players is permitted -- frowned upon, but certainly allowed -- and the whole point to doing so was usually to draw out the other high-leveled players so an even-leveled fight could ensue.
The PK'ers here, though, always managed to sprint back to the safe zones the very moment someone in their level range appeared. Four PK'ers brutally ganking lowbies, a same-leveled Lancer or Sorcerer shows up, and the PK'ers scatter in the wind to the four corners of every nearby safe zone, too scared to fight fairly.
That's not PvP. That's just d*uchebaggery. So please don't try to use the excuse that it's a PvP server to justify being an assh*le, especially when you aren't willing to actually PvP.
You're going to make the PvP servers lose out on a LOT of quality players to PvE servers, players who might otherwise become a fantastic PvP population, simply because you want to get your rocks off now, acting like you're an alpha-dog, and trying to prove you're somehow the superior player...
... because you're not.
It's pretty much how ganking worked in Lineage2. The only difference now is that there's no consequence or danger to it here. With no risk, the only reward of being able to show off your higher level is sufficient for people to camp quest npc's and bridges.
I was discussing this with a few people back in the forums I am a part of and we came with an interesting idea:
The biggest problem that most people have is griefing. Now this is pretty much the following: When you have a high level character kill a low level character that pretty much has little to no chance.
Now say the guy does this 3-4 times. That becomes redundant because now you're just causing people to want to play anymore. This is the biggest issue that will happen if there is a system that has little repercussions.
Now the thing is that the infamy system is all well and good but to me, I don't think it punishes people enough. You need something that may be a little more wary for the griefer to do and a little more gratifying if people decide to band against them; I propose a Bounty system.
1) A person goes into a zone and kills a person 6 to 10 levels lower than them. This happens once and nothing happens other than infamy points. However, after three times, a warning gets shot through the area that this individual is ganking people and that there is a general call for help. There is also a bounty placed on the individual's head. Now this bounty can be whatever; but it's a reward for people to band together and kill the griefer because he's doing something that makes no sense and takes little skill. (Sorry broseph, killing someone 10 levels lower than you is not skill. It's annoying and pretty childish. And to the person who says "Us adults want to kill people and laugh." You need to go back to COD or MW3 or whatever FPS you came from because that's NOT how adults are. Either that or look up the wording in the dictionary because you're doing it wrong.)
2) The bounty is placed and at this point this can actually make things interesting: a) the bounty now can be acquired by whoever decides to destroy the person, but the person who has the bounty can see just how long he can stay alive before it's claimed. Make it a game within a game. A bounty placed on the man grows bigger every half hour he is up. The more people he 'does' kill, makes the bounty go higher and higher. However the stipulation is that the guild he is with is the only guild that can actually 'protect' the person who has a bounty. This will stimulate the guild to want to protect to just see how long he can stay up there versus other guilds out there that want the bounty reward and pushes against the idea of griefing.
3) This could set things up to be pretty epic if an individual decides that he wants to bring this bounty up to the max. You could also tie other systems in which I won't go into detail (I got a few ideas in my mind) but the general gist is not only that it will allow people to try to band together to get rid of the people trying to grief, but it will reward people to get together to get rid of the griefer and allow the community to band together even moreso to police. And it doesn't throw griefers right out the window as they could essentially try to see just how long they can go. Have some sort of reward for highest bounty ever had.
There are ways to deal with griefing. It's up to the devs to do something but honestly, I like the idea of a bounty system. It allows us to still be in a position that we have to police ourselves like the devs want and it actually makes things interesting and removes the whole stain of griefing being ridiculous and pointless. Right now, griefing only pisses people off. Simple as that. And it also triggers comments such as "Go back to a PvE server." Some people like the thrill of a battle between even matched individuals. What people don't like is not even standing a chance at all.
Make it fun, and people won't see it as negative as people in this thread have been.
How about the flip side of the conversation. I have seen many instances where an out law character is on a ganking spree.
Then all of a sudden 4 other people jump in and attack said outlaw. Then the PVPer's complain about it not being not 1vs1, or troll area chat with "ha ha, it takes 4 of you to beat me, blah blah blah."
Tired of getting killed? Make friends..lots of friends...higher level friends. This isn't a 1 vs 1 arena. This isn't Street Fighter. Make it hard on the "grievers" fight back, holy crap folks....it's why you play!
Win some...lose allot..but make those few victories savory ones.