I had wanted to write earlier this week about things like tactless WoW players who expect everyone to be as "hardcore" and "knowledgeable" as they are while completely ignoring tactical suggestions because of the fact that other players are not as "hardcore" as it were, but I chose to hold back and write after I have calmed down sufficiently.
Which is today, since said event happened 2 days ago.
Anyway, tactless WoW players. If you go to the WoW forums and run dungeons and group quests in the game enough, you will know that there are many of these socially inept, rude, grammatically challenged, basement dwelling, munchkin troglodytes around. I've also discovered that as you level yourself up, they become more and more common. Which is no surprise really.
Most casual players I know don't powergame as much.
Anyway, when I think about how some MMO players behave and the general chaos on internet
forums, is it any wonder that some people write books about computers concluding that the human race is bad for the planet and therefore must be eliminated?
Because it's true sometimes. This world is a beautiful place, except for the humans in it. People are just really, really bad.
Anyway, I have digressed. Back to WoW now.
I also encountered 2 more types of players in WoW, The Beggar and The Tourist.
Now, what The Beggar is is quite obvious. He begs. For money. And equipment. And assistance for things that he should be able to do himself if he was arsed enough to do it. It is of course perfectly okay to ask for help. But some players ALWAYS ask for money/stuff when they see you. And usually type their appeal in a very badly spelled, "leet" kind of way.
It gets annoying after the 3rd consecutive day.
The Tourist?
He wants to see all the cool places and all the cool creatures who drop all the phat lewts relative to his lowish level. But he can't go there because the creatures/enemies there are like 27 levels above him and will wallop him dead in 0.05 seconds. Usually, Tourists are low level and the world of Warcraft (as well as many other MMO universes) is set up in such a way that some areas are just too dangerous for low level guys.
Anyway, so what can he do about it? As soon as you log on with your level 20-ish toon, he will send you a private message asking you to log out and log back in with your uber-ish level 58 character. This is so that you can spend the next 2 and half hours walking him through a dungeon. Or taking him on a guided tour to see (and kill and loot) things like dragons and whatnot in more dangerous parts of the world.
In other words, you exist to help him and only that. Who cares about leveling your own toon. Usually I don't mind helping and doing stuff for other players who are lower level than me. Countless players have gotten free stuff from me. Or be saved by me. Or be buffed by me. And countless other players have done the same to me.
But if people ORDER me to do it as if I'm their butler, it gets annoying.
I could also write about the stereotypical munchkin "hardcore" power gamer who looks down on you because you're a casual noob and because you don't spend 40 hours a week raiding, but thousands of words have been written about people like that. So I won't do that.
Besides, this is the worst type of MMO player and it just pisses me off to think about it.
And there goes my WoW/MMO rantage for this week. Despite all this, I'm still playing but I've decided to be a little bit more careful with players I group with. I don't pay USD14.99 a month to be aggravated by thoughtless people.
Anyway, after that unfortunate spat of incidents earlier in the week I haven't played WoW much over the last 2 days.
First thing, I discovered the glorious wonder of a game that is Company of Heroes! It's bloody brilliant. And the graphics have to be seen to be believed. I haven't finished playing it (and this post is getting a little long) so I'll write about it next time.
The second thing?
The eagle-eyed amongst you would notice that I used the word "munchkin" in this post. Twice.
Jerome came back from Singapore with a gem of a card game. And let me tell you, Munchkin is absolutely brilliant. And evil. And has many expansions that I want to buy!
I'm actually looking forward to playing it more than WoW when I get off work.
I'll also write about that next time. Now I will go and contemplate helping boost our game of Munchkin with some expansions of my own...
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Ganking
I read two articles about "ganking" just now. For those of you who don't know, the term "gank" is an online gaming term meaning to attack and kill another player who has no means to effectively defend him/herself. Usually, the attacked player is much, much lower level the the attacker.
In other words, ganking is bullying. A ganker kills other players and griefs them just because. Usually, there are no ingame rewards for such activities. The just do it for kicks
There are many opinions regarding the practice of griefing and ganking in MMOs. Many people don't approve of such behaviour, myself included. Other people seem to think that it's acceptable.
People who may argue for the case of ganking\griefing as acceptable behaviour sometimes use the phrase "it's only a game" to justify their argument.
The problem is, it's not only a game. An MMO like WoW is not only a game, it is also a social construct, There are real people in the game world. So basically, ganking\griefing apologists condone the practise of enjoying themselves at other people's expense? Says a lot about their own personalities I think.
The thing that I sometimes find rather perplexing is that gankers\griefers and their fanboys act all surprised when people complain and condemn them on forums and other places.
They can twist and turn their argument any way they like, but the at the end of it all the truth is ganking\griefing is unacceptable and people who defend\indulge in it are assholes. They can use a million excuses but the fact remains that while they feel quite good after killing and corpse camping a level 8 character with their level 55, there is someone else out there who is getting pissed off and frustrated, and he can't do anything about it.
The entire thing is pointless and is the equivalent of schoolyard bullying. Pointless and a total waste of other people's time. Justifiable?
Obviously, having been camped to death and toyed with myself, I don't appreciate the ganking\griefing. The same way I hate bullying in fact.
Anyway, ever since I went back to WoW I've accepted the fact that if I play on a PvP server, I will probably be regularly killed like a sotong by some piece of shit 25 levels higher than me. It's fine. I'm not going to lose my temper because of something happening in an MMO. Only this time, I'm going to write down their names...
In fact, within 90 minutes of my first log on to my lvl 33 priest character I was attacked and nearly killed by a lvl 51 Night Elf hunter. Thank goodness for Fear...
I have an idea on how to reduce ganking in WoW actually. In WoW, when a player selects a target, he/she will be able to see the targets level. That level is denoted by a coloured number or a red skull. It's relative to the player's own level.
The skull indicates an opponent who's level is so much higher than the player and that combat is suicide.
A red number denotes a much higher level mob\player who is substantially more powerful than the player. A player who fights an opponent whose number is red will lose 99 out of 100 times.
An orange number indicates that the target's level is some way higher than the player and would make a very tough opponent.
A yellow number indicates and opponent that is similar in combat ability to the player.
A green number means a lower level opponent that will probably be easier to kill.
A black number means that the target is so low level, killing it will yield no XP or honor or reward of any kind.
Now, if Blizzard really wanted to control ganking\griefing they could introduce a PvP rule where a player cannot initiate combat in open play with another player whose level is too low in relation to himself (ie. denoted by a green or black number). Combat may be joined if the lower level player initiates combat first.
I'd put this in the WoW forum but I'll be hounded by ganker\griefer apologists who will accuse me of being a "carebear" or other terms like that, so I won't bother.
Besides, I feel Blizzard feeds off this issue and the controversy that it generates.
Anyways, I've made peace with the idea of being griefed in an MMO. It is a social construct and like the other social construct that it mirrors (ie real life) there will be assholes and criminals who prey on the weak and defenseless.
At least unlike in real life, I can eventually avenge myself without consequence...
In other WoW news, I'm also back to playing my highest level character, a lvl 51 warrior on a PVE server. You can't get ganked on a PVE server.
It's so much less nerve wracking.
I can also report that the pings I've been getting are pretty decent and the game doesn't lag quite like it used to.
I'm very pleased.
In other words, ganking is bullying. A ganker kills other players and griefs them just because. Usually, there are no ingame rewards for such activities. The just do it for kicks
There are many opinions regarding the practice of griefing and ganking in MMOs. Many people don't approve of such behaviour, myself included. Other people seem to think that it's acceptable.
People who may argue for the case of ganking\griefing as acceptable behaviour sometimes use the phrase "it's only a game" to justify their argument.
The problem is, it's not only a game. An MMO like WoW is not only a game, it is also a social construct, There are real people in the game world. So basically, ganking\griefing apologists condone the practise of enjoying themselves at other people's expense? Says a lot about their own personalities I think.
The thing that I sometimes find rather perplexing is that gankers\griefers and their fanboys act all surprised when people complain and condemn them on forums and other places.
They can twist and turn their argument any way they like, but the at the end of it all the truth is ganking\griefing is unacceptable and people who defend\indulge in it are assholes. They can use a million excuses but the fact remains that while they feel quite good after killing and corpse camping a level 8 character with their level 55, there is someone else out there who is getting pissed off and frustrated, and he can't do anything about it.
The entire thing is pointless and is the equivalent of schoolyard bullying. Pointless and a total waste of other people's time. Justifiable?
Obviously, having been camped to death and toyed with myself, I don't appreciate the ganking\griefing. The same way I hate bullying in fact.
Anyway, ever since I went back to WoW I've accepted the fact that if I play on a PvP server, I will probably be regularly killed like a sotong by some piece of shit 25 levels higher than me. It's fine. I'm not going to lose my temper because of something happening in an MMO. Only this time, I'm going to write down their names...
In fact, within 90 minutes of my first log on to my lvl 33 priest character I was attacked and nearly killed by a lvl 51 Night Elf hunter. Thank goodness for Fear...
I have an idea on how to reduce ganking in WoW actually. In WoW, when a player selects a target, he/she will be able to see the targets level. That level is denoted by a coloured number or a red skull. It's relative to the player's own level.
The skull indicates an opponent who's level is so much higher than the player and that combat is suicide.
A red number denotes a much higher level mob\player who is substantially more powerful than the player. A player who fights an opponent whose number is red will lose 99 out of 100 times.
An orange number indicates that the target's level is some way higher than the player and would make a very tough opponent.
A yellow number indicates and opponent that is similar in combat ability to the player.
A green number means a lower level opponent that will probably be easier to kill.
A black number means that the target is so low level, killing it will yield no XP or honor or reward of any kind.
Now, if Blizzard really wanted to control ganking\griefing they could introduce a PvP rule where a player cannot initiate combat in open play with another player whose level is too low in relation to himself (ie. denoted by a green or black number). Combat may be joined if the lower level player initiates combat first.
I'd put this in the WoW forum but I'll be hounded by ganker\griefer apologists who will accuse me of being a "carebear" or other terms like that, so I won't bother.
Besides, I feel Blizzard feeds off this issue and the controversy that it generates.
Anyways, I've made peace with the idea of being griefed in an MMO. It is a social construct and like the other social construct that it mirrors (ie real life) there will be assholes and criminals who prey on the weak and defenseless.
At least unlike in real life, I can eventually avenge myself without consequence...
In other WoW news, I'm also back to playing my highest level character, a lvl 51 warrior on a PVE server. You can't get ganked on a PVE server.
It's so much less nerve wracking.
I can also report that the pings I've been getting are pretty decent and the game doesn't lag quite like it used to.
I'm very pleased.
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