by Nike Okami
An In-depth look at player killing
Imagine this plucky scenario: You’re fighting hordes of monsters in your favourite MMORPG alongside your friends to off the end boss and snag the shiny loot. The action is intense but the group makes use of smart tactics and even smarter smack-talking to put the beasts down in style.
Just when you all take a moment to heal, a high level opponent appears out of hiding and kills everyone within seconds. Was that the monsters’ trump card? The monster boss himself? Freddy Kreuger? Not at all — you’ve just been player-killed (PKed), a term used when a player attacks another player without the least bit of provocation and the worst case of killer intent. The aforementioned PKer dancing over your corpse and stealing your treasure is the result.
Now imagine this: Your band of notorious player killers discovers a neat little group of relatively weak newbies, and plot their assault. Suddenly, your team is wiped out. How? It seems those “newbies” weren’t so new to the game after all. They took the assistance of a Player-Killer Killer (PKK) — a high level player strong enough to take on PKers, and who actively hunts them to the point where he’d even go “Hulk smash!” his own comrades to kill a PKer.
Player-killing is as old as online role playing games themselves. The first player killers found their way on to Ultima Online and Everquest, routinely slaughtering player’s characters, getting banned and then making their way back into the game once more (while ranting about “player rights” on the side). Since then, they’ve been a part of almost any MMORPG you can think of, the most popular being World Of Warcraft. Player-killing has also evolved into it’s own subculture. Take a look at Karas Hur, formerly PK-HQ, a community of PKers who offer tips on quick leveling, battling and of course, successful player-killing.
The Dot Hack series of games, developed by Bandai, used player-killing as a major storytelling tool. When a player is killed by certain entities within the The World (the game all Dot Hack characters play), he or she goes into a coma. Players within The World also feel actual pain (how much is never made clear) when they are attacked and killed, owing the virtual reality-like nature of the game. In this way, the negative implications of player-killing become more serious when the death is real and permanent. Haseo, the protagonist of Dot Hack GU, goes on a PK rampage when his friend falls into a coma caused by the PKer Tri-Edge. The GU series of games even feature a special class that you can level up by killing other players.
The response of game developers on the issue has also evolved since the first player kill. While some have punishment for repeated offences, others believe in outright banning of PKing altogether.
Then, there are a few developers trying to counter it with Player Versus Player (PvP) gameplay, where two players can engage in a mutually agreed upon fight.
This is done in the belief that all PKers want is a chance to take on other players. Urban Dead, an opensource title developed by Kevin Davis, is a good example of this.It’s set in a world where zombies rule, and where organisations don’t exactly treat other survivors of the undead infestation as brothers. Players killing other players is a core mechanic of the game; heck, it’s encouraged!
However, there’s more to PKing than it’s literal translation implies.To start with, the practice of PKing is a bit ambiguous. If a PKer attacks you, and you end up killing him, does that make you a PKer, too? If your character’s death isn’t permanent, is it any different from being killed by a monster? If you can escape a player killer, is it any different from going up against a monster, at all? If you’re a person who hunts other player killers, aren’t you as bad as them, especially to the point where you’d trample other players to get at them?
Player-killers are divided into different groups based on their overall approach to PKing. This helps you decide if you’ve treaded the immoral path or not.
If you’re a super-powerful individual who’s trying to prove something by hunting and killing only weaker players, then you’re a PKer with an inferiority complex. This type never attacks other PKs — they are that scared of losing.
There are the psychopaths, who PK for the thrill of causing pain to others.
The vengeful PKer is one who believes that if people are gonna gang up and kill him for points, then he should have no restraint in doing the same. Some people may have a bad first experience involving PKs in their game and this provokes them into exacting their revenge on the whole world, innocent or not.
The vicious PKer is one of the more dangerous of the lot, since these are the experienced fighters and veterans who suddenly feel the need to experiment with their play experience.
The macho PKer, on the other hand, believes he’s the best, and as long as other players realise that, he’s A-Okay. His superiority complex obviously prevents him from getting along with other macho PKers. Some PKers do it “just like that”, and others simply appear to add some “spice” to your gaming session (they never target you when you’re unprepared, though).
The line is drawn based on how well you cooperate with society within a game. You can believe the rules governing order within the game are subject to change, so long as it doesn’t affect the stability of the society itself. If you go around causing emotional hurt to others through their character’s death (and yes, it’s very heart-crushing to be randomly killed after a tough battle), then you’re a certified player killer. Attacking without provocation is your main modus operandi, and whether you’re a PKKer who defends lesser mortals or just some one who’s looking for something new and exciting, you’re going against the very nature of the game.
There’ll always be some cases where a player kills another by accident, or attacks some one who he suspects is a PKer, but it all boils down to the circumstances faced when committing the act. PKers often suffer from mental problems and self-esteem issues. Dealing with them in the real world is very different from facing them in an MMORPG, PKing as a component of online gaming won’t die since PKers are still paying customers.
Just like in the real world, though, if you bump off the law-abiding members of society, some one’s gonna pull the plug. Whether it’s sooner or later doesn’t matter. As appealing as PKing may be, it’s not worth the risk of losing all of your experience and treasure upon getting banned.
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