PKing Played Down

Posted 3rd Jul 2008 06:55 PM by Elly

PKing was, and still is for those playing D2, the bane of many. Although no game-specifics are included, Diablo II Community Manager Bashiok gives Blizzard’s philosophical view of “griefing,” in a post on the official WoW forums.

Blizzard Quote:
We’re - in general - not big fans of griefing for any game. It’s really only “fun” for one person, and that definition of fun isn’t generally something we’re going to want to encourage. It’s far more positive to encourage and support meaningful and skillful options and systems within a game, than a mechanic for people to instantly turn against one another for no meaningful gameplay reasons.

I definitely remember running with my friends, and someone toggles it, and bam everyone is dead and your one friend is laughing. Ok, ok, good joke I guess, and then you run back and *bam*, you’ve toggled it to get them back. After a while everyone usually agrees to a truce because it’s just a waste of time. But I also remember running with random players and losing extremely nice items because of it, not cool. I’m sure that it was a feature that was right up some people’s alleys, I won’t deny there are some that would enjoy nothing more than to see others frustrated, but is that truly something that should be encouraged through design - if not directly opposed?

We have a large focus on cooperative play for Diablo III, and the mechanics and design decisions related to multiplayer are likely going to be based on supporting and encouraging it as much as possible, and not breaking it down.

That doesn’t mean that PvP won’t have its own focus, but those are details and features we aren’t yet discussing.




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Terenas
Posted 08, Jul 2008 01:27 PM
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I agree with Ishmayl. The times I’ve peen PK’d never were fun. It mainly happened while I was leveling and the killer generally left game as soon as I got back with a decent character.

Player Killing is not PvP (at least in my view), in this area Guild Wars just hit the spot with its system, you can’t be killed by some jerk going around to flaunt his items, ever. If you want PvP you play PvP (and in a far more strategic way than Diablo 2 ever allowed for).

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Thaquitz
Posted 08, Jul 2008 03:45 PM
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Simple imho, make both players chose to go hostile.  Then you cant die unless you agree to it.  To the guy that mentioned getting ganked in WoW, you can never "unwilling" be ganked.  You have to either a) flag yourself PvP or b) enter contested territory or opposing faction territory.  Both those are choices you made so then you can deal with it.  Having some random lvl 90 enter my game while I do Trist runs and decide to kill us all is not PvP.

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Zobimanguydo
Posted 09, Jul 2008 05:45 AM
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perhaps a “no naked kill” policy, that is if we even pick our bodies up once we’re slain in diablo 3…

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CombatShrine
Posted 09, Jul 2008 06:05 AM
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[QUOTE=Zobimanguydo;6599637]perhaps a “no naked kill” policy, that is if we even pick our bodies up once we’re slain in diablo 3…

whats the point. if any of the skills are prebuffs, they’ll just spam your corpse with spells so you’ll die as soon as you grab your body so you cant like, BO or bubble or anything.

pking is just dumb, there’s no way around it.

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Baranor
Posted 09, Jul 2008 10:13 AM
(0)
 

Speaking frmo the side of the pk-er, I can wholeheartedly agree with you. I’ve killed, killed, killed, and then killed some more players, and I would like to see forced hostility removed from the game. It is not that I do not like it, or would not use it if it is in DIII ( I shall use it if forced hostility exists), but I would rather see it gone. It is better that way, less grief.
[quote=Terenas;6597098]I agree with Ishmayl. The times I’ve peen PK’d never were fun. It mainly happened while I was leveling and the killer generally left game as soon as I got back with a decent character.
Player Killing is not PvP (at least in my view), in this area Guild Wars just hit the spot with its system, you can’t be killed by some jerk going around to flaunt his items, ever. If you want PvP you play PvP (and in a far more strategic way than Diablo 2 ever allowed for).

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AlexanderM
Posted 09, Jul 2008 11:55 PM
(0)
 

I agree with a lot of you, surprise-killing and ganking shouldn’t be part of D3. Arenas and voluntary PvP are definitely a must though, fighting against your friends always added a fun dynamic to D2. Flagging games as PvP on creation is also a good idea, allows the creator of the game to play the style they want.

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Elly
Posted 30, Jul 2008 02:59 PM
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And yet they’ve done nothing about ganking in WoW even with Lich King and don’t plan on addressing it at all.  If a level 70 decides he’s going to repeatedly kill your level 20 he can, and for as many times and for as long as he wants.  There’s absolutely no penalty. 

It’s left up to you to either abandon what you’re doing and move to another area or try to get a friend of his level, pull them off whatever they’re doing to come babysit you while you get through your quest line.  At which point they usually rally some friends, you do the same and before you know it you’re 2 hours into your game time, you’ve not got your quest done and it’s time to log off.

Age of Conan has one way of dealing with this.  A Notoriety System (http://www.aocwire.net/n/291/pvp-revamp-details), not suggesting that system is adopted here but I do think ganking should be addressed.  I’ve had to abandon play on more than one occasion because I can’t complete a quest because some tool keeps killing me.  I’m not talking PvP here - that’s fine, either dueling or getting jumped by someone of a similar level and having a scrap. But one-hit kills, nah they’re only fun for the gankers and frustrating for the player.

As for Griefing, Blizzard made an interesting post on the WoW forums which may give some more insight into what their philosophy is.

Blizzard Quote:
The accepted understanding of what is and what is not “griefing,” Warisa, is purposefully vague. Such ambiguity and flexibility disallows any sort of pigeon-holing to occur, as once you clearly define something, you place limitations on its purview.

Does that make sense? Yes, no?

Alright.

Our Harassment policies were created to protect the denizens of Azeroth (and now Outland) from behavior which would completely impede one’s intended in-game experience and progression. Stipulations regarding various levels of profanity cover verbal faux-pases and those listed as physical harassment, zone/area disruption, and ongoing griefing handle the more tangible aspect of game play. While verbal violations are more cut and dry—since what is and what is not profanity is fairly clear-cut or easily contextualized—placing a rather firm label of what’s considered “griefing” is a bit more tricky.

Why? 

Well, first you have take into account what the reported activity is. Repeatedly skinning corpses after a player has looted its contents? Repeatedly farming mining or herbing nodes within a particular region? Repeatedly killing a player at his or her corpse? Repeatedly blocking in-game NPCs and doodads? Repeatedly killing quest givers or vendors for an inordinate amount of time? Repeatedly attacking mobs in the same area as another player? Repeatedly MCing another player off the chain in Blackrock Mountain? Playing in an area much lower than one’s level? Repeatedly dragging Elite mobs into a zone with the intent to kill as many citizens within as possible?

Out of those, only four are potential violations. They’re quoted below.

  • Repeatedly killing a player at his or her corpse?
  • Repeatedly blocking in-game doodads?
  • Repeatedly killing quest givers or vendors for an inordinate amount of time?

From there, you have to review where such an activity occurred. Did the corpse camping occur on a PvP realm? Is the doodad within a highly-populated area? Were the quest givers in a low level zone; were they located in a central quest hub; was it on a PvE realm? Did the Elite get dragged into a highly-populated lower level city or quest point?

And, moving forward, you then have to know for what length of time such an activity lasted. Since the corpse camping occurred on a PvP realm, for what length of time did it take place? How long did the player block the doodad? For what period of time and at what frequency were the quest givers and vendors killed? How many times was an Elite mob dragged into a low level zone?

Continuing, though perhaps lastly, you have to determine and evaluate ALL remaining mitigating factors. Okay, so if the corpse camping occurred on a PvP realm and only lasted for one hour, was any other form of harassment taking place? Which doodad was blocked, specifically, and was the player asked to move at any point during the duration; did the player actually block the doodad completely? How many players were impeded by these repetitive killings—was a ransom offered? was in the spirit of RP? were players offered a reprieve through their own vices? What level was the Elite mob; was it Hogger?

I’m going to imput my own variables for each hypothetical situation—

Player was corpse-camped by a member of the opposite faction repeatedly for one hour. No other form of communication or interaction occurred.

Tauren on Kodo mount stood atop the mailbox in Orgrimmar for a period of 2 and a half hours. Was asked repeatedly and nicely to move, though continued to block FULL access to the doodad for the length of time previously listed.

Orc Rogue on an RP(PvE) realm decided to repeatedly kill [I]all quest givers within Sentinel Hill for a period of 45 minutes, resulting in over 35 NPC deaths. No clear attempts to roleplay are found. 15 separate reports are received, indicating a large audience. In-game observance clears shows that all NPCs are killed at the moment of their spawn, completely stopping quest progression within the zone.[/I]

Player attempted to drag—let’s say—Volchan to Goldshire for fun. From a low level player’s perspective, it appeared as though this player was purposefully (and repeatedly) attempting to grief the entire quest hub. Several reports are submitted. Further investigation, however, reveals that the player was simply trying to meet his/her friend within Stormwind so they could share the kill. The player was an inexperienced kiter, and lost control of the mob one or two times, but never purposefully let Volchan loose on the city itself. With this, no direct player deaths were caused by the activity.


I’ve italicized the examples which actually prove to be a violation and fall under the umbrella of “griefing.” As you can see, of the nine, only TWO qualify. This is because what player’s deem harassment isn’t actually what proves to be true.

Being really quick to grab profession nodes? Absolutely fine. Questing in an area much lower than one’s actual level? Perfectly acceptable. Engaging in repetitive world PvP combat? Yes, this is fine, too. Even so, all such things require oodles and oodles of context—context which players cannot always see.

This is why it’s always good to bump such matters up to our department if you’re concerned. While our policies provide excellent guidelines by which to judge, true assessment is pretty much moot on the player level. As we possess as much omniscience as is really possible, our perception and understanding of whether or not a specific behavior is harassing or benign will carry the most weight.

Hope that helps. smile

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