There has been a lot of heated debate on the forums regarding World PVP and ganking. Ganking boils down to camping, picking on lowbies and ganging up on people or in general griefing others. While Blizzard has a limited stance on defending ganking, the truth is that it won’t go away. However, sadly enough there isn’t much to discourage camping and lowbie griefing and that’s where a better solution overall is needed.
I used to belong to a PVP server, Ner’zhul because my friend was there. I had little idea what PVP meant at that time since it was my first time playing through. While leveling, I found it incredibly difficult at times since people would occasionally camp me or interfere while I was questing. As a result, I ended up grinding most of my levels via dungeons and lost any opportunity to experience most of the vanilla content, which still bothers me to this day. I think if I had a better idea at the time what PVP meant I probably would’ve started on a PVE server.
But the whole experience left a terrible taste in my mouth. I’m still very hesitant about joining a PVP server for that reason. I think that World PVP has it’s place but the reality of what goes on is something I’m not certain Blizzard intended. I think originally Blizzard felt World PVP was, “Hey, there’s a mining spot. Some asshat is stealing it. I’m going to kick him in the shin and get it back!” In other words, what you see in normal Warcraft. Either that or “There’s 10 guys over there. My 10 guys will then meet them in the middle!”
Unfortunately, neither scenario is what PVP really is. PVP brings out the worst in people and surfaces the lowest of the low. It is the lowest common denominator in mankind and it rears its ugly head at all turns whenever brought up. Yet it exist and we have to figure out how to make it less detestable in its current form. I mean, essentially you’re enforcing gang mentality in World PVP, so the way I see it Blizzard is advocating gangs. That’s why I think they need to re-think the way World PVP works because it does contribute to a mental sickness.
Going back to the forums, the main thing discussed has been a penalty for ganking. The best thread I found talked about the idea of bounty hunters. In short, rewarding those who manage to kill people that rise up in infamy. It’s a really good idea and is something I considered in my own RPG that I’m developing. The primary difference is that in my RPG you could become a traitor to the alignment/faction you belong to, causing others to hunt you down. Here, the proposed idea was a reward in getting rid of the ganker with a point system.
Someone countered that the system would eventually lead to point trading. I can certainly see something like that occurring on a server. Also, how would this work for Cross Realm Zones? Thus, I came up with a one up solution that is similar to that and the older dishonorable kills. The idea is that consistent griefers need to be handled. That’s where the real trouble lies. To do this, I would create a 3 strikes type of rule where the griefer in question would essentially become a red mob to all if they grief someone more than 3 times in a row for a certain period. They lose the ability to communicate with their faction and can be attacked by their faction. If they are in their own faction’s zone, all NPCs for that faction will become hostile towards that person and attack on sight.
This would only occur outside in the world, not in battlegrounds nor in major cities since there is the city defender aspect. The penalty will occur for level disparities and whatever the top level is for that expansion and anything lower. For instance, a level 90 who has top PVP gear would receive a penalty even against an 89. The idea is to ensure a level playing ground.
Those who might ask why a person would be ostracized from their own faction. It’s simple: they dishonored their faction. Even Garrosh would frown upon ganking. I would impose this penalty for about an hour. That way they can still gank but won’t be recognizable from a hostile mob. I think that has some interesting consequences.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.