Ganking Lowbies

[Ickorus]

You're in an MMO and are minding your own business killing pigs or crabs or demons from the fifth dimension of hell when suddenly another player comes along and one-shots you, if you've ever played on a PvP server you'll have experienced this at least once.

My question is this: What do you think of lowbie killing?

 

[Ickorus]

I personally dislike it, in my eyes it just shows the ganker to be extremely unskilled and unwilling to fight anyone who might pose a challenge.

Claiming killing someone many levels below you is PvP is akin to killing a critter and telling everyone it's a raid boss.

 

[thememan]

Much like nearly all trolls, I find it to be a pointless endeavor of those to stupid to actually do anything meaningful. Granted, some trolls are clever. Those I give props to. The standard fare trolls who think they are being clever have minimal respect from me, and I find as a pointless waste of time and space. So in MMOs if I ever witness said action, I make it a point to go far out of my way to continuously and relentlessly kill said person.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It sucks. It's also inevitable. Any PvP server that ALLOWS for lowbie killing is going to have non-stop lowbie killing. Indeed, 95% of all conflicts on any PvP server are going to be terrifically lopsided. Either you'll have a level advantage, or a numbers advantage, or a cohension advantage, or you'll just take someone completely unawares. I can count the number of truly even contests I've experienced on the fingers of one hand. It's always getting ganked, or ganking.

Sad but true.

 

[teqrevisited]

I usually left the other faction alone in WoW, but there were certain guilds that I'd kill on sight no matter what level they were or how underhanded the tactic. Quite a vicious, but fun, cycle.

When it happened to me I changed areas. When I couldn't get away there were two options:

1. Take a break for a while and come back to the game later
2. Say the word and have the guild descend upon their capital for an hour or so

We enjoyed option 2. Moreso when you could convince several full groups to go across multiple guilds.

 

[Rumpsteak]

I neither like nor dislike it. It is a part of pvp servers and that is why pve servers are offered as a choice.

 

[targren]

Dick players are dicks. Like Rumpsteak said above, wiser than he knew, "it's part of PvP servers." They attract 'that sort.'

Kind of like walking around the docks at midnight and being surrounded by crackheads, muggers, and spies.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

In the MMO's I've played, all "PvP" actually is, is endlevel assholes killing those far lower in level than them.

I thought PvP would mean open-warfare between factions. Zones could suddenly flare up in random large scale Player-vs-Player combat, but alas this rarely was the case. And PvP instead manifested itself in it's primary form of players with max-level characters hopelessly decimating someone far lower in level and putting a grinding halt to their... grinding.

Or in it's other form. Which is you killing giant spiders by yourself, then being blindsided by a player of equalish level who immediately uses their most powerful attacks to kill you quickly.

Basically, PvP in MMO's is almost never fun. Due to the mess of balancing issues regarding classes, gear, and levels. It's a shame too how my view on it went from being a possible awesome thing to see, making questing dynamic since you never know when a battle between players can suddenly begin, to a universal waste of time for every single person involved in PvP.

After playing several MMO's, and seeing "PvP" always become this, and having some truly horrible experiences with this sort of PvP, I've made my decision to swear off PvP servers entirely.

I don't see the allure of ganking, even for the sake of trolling. There's much better games available to me for whenever I feel the primal desire to kill another player.

 

[Qitz]

It's a legit strategy. You put your ass out there, you got spanked.

You're not there to be friends, the point of the game is to kill other players / monsters, yes, that includes someone whose just starting out while you're at max level.

It's like people who say cheesing in Star Craft 2 or ganking in League of Legends is bad form. It's not about playing nice, it's about kicking ass and taking names to pull off a win.

 

[Ickorus]

In the MMO's I've played, all "PvP" actually is, is endlevel assholes killing those far lower in level than them.

I thought PvP would mean open-warfare between factions. Zones could suddenly flare up in random large scale Player-vs-Player combat, but alas this rarely was the case. And PvP instead manifested itself in it's primary form of players with max-level characters hopelessly decimating someone far lower in level and putting a grinding halt to their... grinding.

Or in it's other form. Which is you killing giant spiders by yourself, then being blindsided by a player of equalish level who immediately uses their most powerful attacks to kill you quickly.

Basically, PvP in MMO's is almost never fun. Due to the mess of balancing issues regarding classes, gear, and levels. It's a shame too how my view on it went from being a possible awesome thing to see, making questing dynamic since you never know when a battle between players can suddenly begin, to a universal waste of time for every single person involved in PvP.

After playing several MMO's, and seeing "PvP" always become this, and having some truly horrible experiences with this sort of PvP, I've made my decision to swear off PvP servers entirely.

I don't see the allure of ganking, even for the sake of trolling. There's much better games available to me for whenever I feel the primal desire to kill another player.

I'm hoping Guild Wars 2 system of de-leveling players to suit the content will be picked up in other games so high level players will be de-leveled down to that of their victims; at least it would give the lowbies a chance to fight back even if just a small one.

 

[Dirty Apple]

[...]it's about kicking ass and taking names to pull off a win.

I'd be willing to grant a pass to high levels offing low levels from an rival guild, but targeting random strangers doesn't sit right. I mean a guaranteed win can't be all that fulfilling. It'd be like beating up a 3 year old and then bragging about it afterwards.

 

[thomaskattus]

It is the MMO equivalent of burning ants with a magnifying glass. Bullies picking on weaker folks because they are too cowardly to fight someone their own size

 

[Wolfram23]

Honestly, some of the most fun I had in WoW was dealing with gankers. Granted, the times the guy was level "skull" and just 1 shot me was bad, but if he kept going for me I'd log on my 60 (or whatever the max level at the time is) and go on the hunt for the douche. So much fun, especially when it turns into a little war as more and more people are involved.

Sometimes though the "ganker" is only 5-10 levels higher. I remember once on my rogue fighting off a dwarf warrior... he was kinda shit so I managed to actually kill him a couple times, though he got me a few as well. Eventually we just sort of left eachother alone, but it was fun.

Other times I've been the ganker, but I never did it mercilessly. I mean yeah I'd kill lowbies, but mostly I did it to draw out the higher levels and have some real fun. Nothing like fighting off 3 or 4 enemies at once even if only 1 of them is really a challenge.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

If they just so happen to be running by and see me than it's fine. When they spend any longer than 15 minutes doing it than it just becomes pathetic. And yes, I know PvP is competitive but taking a lead pip to a babies face is hardly competition.