Quote:
Originally Posted by Tatum
For the most part, I'd agree. You need incentives for PvP, but you also need penalties and consequences for random PK's. If some one wants to play the outlaw/murderer they should have that option, but it shouldn't be easy.
Really, I think you almost have to have a faction vs. faction and/or guild vs. guild system. Any kills within that system would be legal and this should give most players all the PvP they need.
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What is a "criminal" but who you define as one through arbitration or morality? In a freedom based game, common sense dictates that players themselves define criminal behavior, and dish out the punishments themselves. How can you prefer game mechanics for the arbitration process, making you become a global "criminal" for something as common as theft or killing?
I ask because "crime" is not always crime, and in some people's cases it is never regarded as such. To steal, for instance, from another group of players would be perfectly acceptable if they are your enemies. You aren't going to be "evil" for trying to compete in an assertive way in a video game all about competition, are you?
Everyone should be free to choose their own path, and be at the mercy of other players who judge them... rather than letting an intangible force keep track of their actions and impose penalties on them. Players merely need to be given the tools to set laws for the lands they conquer, instruct NPC guards to carry them out, and have at least some rudimentary method of managing it all with the in-game interface. Yes, if you act in a way that offends people in one area of the world you should have to face the music and be punished for it, but if that same behavior is acceptable to another group of players then you should be free to join them without some invisible monkey on your back because of some silly majority consensus on morality. Let players have the freedom and the tools to enforce laws that are as strict or as loose as they feel is necessary in their locality, don't make everyone abide by the same metaphysical limitations of one demographic's playing preference.
I say the whole system of orthodox alignment tracking in MMORPGs is obsolete, last-generation technology that just carries over to new games because of convention. You want to shed these silly global rules during "declared" PvP encounters for consensual Guild vs. Guild or "realm vs. realm" events already. Doesn't it seem a little convoluted to enforce these arbitrary rules the rest of the time when players could simply police themselves if given the tools to do so?
The penalty for PvP is death, and the loss of all your items, if you lose. I don't think you should force every player to be penalized simply for picking a style of play that you don't like.