There I am, minding my own business, killing unicorns (not the most noble of tasks, but it was to put them out of their misery) and along comes a high level Sorc. BAM! I am dead.

No problem, he may have thought I was mining or gathering and he wanted the nodes. I run back, spend forever getting my stamina back, and renew my mercy killing of the poor suffering unicorns. BAM! Dead again. Same Sorc.

Look, I have played the other MMOs. I have been ganked many, many times. But, in those other games it made sense. We were one faction and they were the other. We were at war and had killed their brethren. Red meant dead. Even if you knew attacking meant death, that is what you did, everywhere, all of the time.

Tera is different. There are no factions. There is no war. My guild and the Sorc's guild were at peace. In other games, with two factions, it made sense.

I hadn't done anything to that Sorc. I was minding my own business, killing monsters that would have attacked the Sorc if I hadn't been there to clear the field. But instead of letting me go about my innocent business, he kills me again.

He gained nothing from killing me again but a modicum of infamy, if that even. I didn't drop any loot. There was no epic PvP battle. He one shot me, when I was fighting a unicorn. It wasn't like there was any challenge (he one shot me with a left click). The kill was meaningless to him.

It wasn't honorable. It wasn't justifiable. It wasn't PvP (to be PvP, the whole "vP" part has to make sense. When your default left click one shots someone, that's not "vP." That's just button mashing). It was cold blooded murder, plain and simple.

That brings me to the point of all of this, I do not understand the personality associated with someone who gets off killing some lowbie over and over again. Is it the frustration factor you are going for? Intentionally making the game more of a headache for other others? Is that what it's all about? Why not go to the local playground and beat the snot out of a toddler? It's the exact same personality trait. Victimizing someone who has no hope of success.

When I ask the person who just killed me, they block me. It's like they are ashamed of who they are. I always ask politely.

Now, it's a game and PK servers are for PK. I get it. I don't mind, unless I have a short time to play and then I just switch channels. I did that in this case after the second kill. No biggie. I have played many, many MMOs and I rolled a PK server with eyes wide open. It's a part of the game and, in moderation, makes the game more fun.

I just don't get the griefer personality and am trying to understand why on earth it is fun to bully someone, because really, all BS aside, that's exactly what it is: bullying. Quite frankly, I think it's intended to upset the person being killed - not the avatar, but the real person behind the keyboard. That's why I think it's an interesting question because the bullying going on is more about real life than the game.

So, you know who you are. Don't be shy. Please let me know how killing someone 30 levels below you over and over is "fun." I know it would not be much fun for me. If I went around all day killing everything with one shot, I would get bored out of my skull.

Last two things:

1. This isn't about being a Carebear. There is Carebear ----- Normal ----- PKer ------------------ Bully; and

2. Don't kid yourself that this is just a game. If your intentions reach behind the game and you are really trying to effect the mood and behavior of someone playing the game, then this is an example of who you are as a person and will certainly manifest itself in other aspects of your life, whether you are conscious of it or not (i.e. many bullys were bullied themselves. They bully to empower themselves and, since bullying online is "safe" they grief others to make their real life situation tolerable).

They get beat up in school everyday and have to take out thier aggression somehow.

or

If they are adults, they are butthurt that they are not the boss for obvious reasons and have to beat on someone.

In both of these instances they are not able to kill anyone thier level so they go kill noobs.

I also am sure they like to torture animals and kill ants with a magnifying glass.

That's "hardcore" pvp for you, by cool kids designâ„¢

On the other hand, the fact that there is currently no real reason whatsoever to promote PvP you have to expect this kind of behaviour.
Although even with a good reason you still have to expect this.

Boredom, the power of being behind a keyboard, you know it can go from a simple need to relax (even at the expense of other people) up to a real necessity of being mean to compensate something that goes wrong IRL.

I guess the only answer lies here : PvP server.
If you signed up for it you have to expect it.

You kill NPCs which present no challenge all day and then question someone else for killing someone who presents no challenge.

The logic is not strong with this one.

I don't get it myself. There's a couple of level 60s on our server (Josh & Nytelite sprint to mind) who roam around Oblivion Woods / Celestial Hills and Lumbertown, relentlessly killing lowbies who're trying to level and have 9999 infamy 100% of the time they're online.

I can understand the concept could be moderately amusing for a brief period of time... but simply riding around for weeks on end 1 shotting each and every opponent you encounter? That'd bore me to tears.

S'pose it takes different beats of the drum to make the world dance? :|

k, gingersnapper,

i notice you did not mention this sorc doing any sort of smack talk.

did he even stick around at all after making the kill, or did he just run along looking for the next one?

i would assume that since he simply blocked you after you messaged him with the question that he did not make any smack talk.

You seem to be assigning motive using a very limited set of data. That modicrum of infamy? that's roughly an hour or two of being flagged, and yes there are players that want it maxed so they don't ever have to flip on the flag by using outlaw declaration. Lazy, i know.

This reads to me that he was simply farming infamy and may have assumed that anyone he killed messaging him was simply QQing. Not an accurate assumption clearly but an easy one to make if you're in a gindy mindset.

Plus, that murder comment, is overblown. A character in a videogame that revives when "slain" is not comparable to a human life lost. The most damage done here is wounded pride and while that's a legitimate wound, it is not comparable to the kind of pain one feels when they loose someone they care about, even if it's not due to another human's action.

Bottom line is there isn't enough info to determine this sorc's actual motive.

Now if you want to pursue the strawman argument, then people who are bullies (get their jollys by picking on the weak) are that way because they are profoundly insecure about their own value as humans and need some kind of validation of begin "better" than someone else at something.

But as i said, not enough evidence to pin that sorc as a "bully".

Lastly, i did not see a mention of changing channels after being killed. not the ideal solution as the other channels are usually Pretty barren but it is generally effective at avoiding pk'ers

This is flawed game design. The original plan was to give people progressive penalties for this type of killing, but the "hardcore" pvpers whined EnMasse into submission and they were removed. Now, idiots have a venue to play out their sadistic fantasies inside the game world. Bottom line is that the penalties should be in place. It was a good system ruined by partial implementation.

I waited in instance matching for over an hour last night. As soon as I got in, the party leader says, "nice crystals" and kicks me. Boom. I can't defend myself and let them know I have a PvE set that was not equipped in my bags. There is literally no repercussion whatsoever for this person. I was dps, so I was obviously immediately replaced. It was getting late, so I couldn't queue again. It was cross-server, so I couldn't even call the person out. People love to be vicious dictators whenever they are given the chance.

Don't let these people get to you though. Let this be a grim reminder about mankind's horrible tendency towards despotism.

Quote: Ruprect on 05/15/2012, 07:39 AM - view

I do agree with this statement but to the OP all I have to say is that ganking, griefing, and bullying come with the PvP territory. You can't roll on a PvP server and not expect PvP. The simple solution would be to re-roll on a PvEasy server where you can have all the watered down PvP, how you want it, and when you want it.

I personally think it's lame to gank lowbies that have no chance at fighting back but not everyone thinks like me. Some in fact think the exact opposite and it shows in the decisions that they choose to partake in. Like griefing for example.
I'm not against ganking as a whole though because I gank people my level or slightly higher/lower all the time. I consider this fun because the victim at least proposes a challenge to me being that they are equal level or at least very close to equal level.
Sorry OP, but ganking and also griefing (unfortunately) are all part of playing on a PvP server. I personally love the fact that I have to constantly look over my shoulder while leveling but that's just me.

Quote: CaptainNeutral on 05/15/2012, 08:35 AM - view

pvp 'flagging' needs to be separated from infamy, with flaggin as a toggle so teh pvpers who want to fight all the time can leave it on. That removes the primary justification for farming infamy (aside from attention) and given that hitting a red name does not give infamy, even if they are underleveled, it clears the way to re-introduce the progressive penalties for lowbie white name killing

Quote: Jayrune on 05/15/2012, 08:41 AM - view

I agree. Outlaw should be a toggle ability with a one minute delay once combat ends.