PK Rant

[Occhidiangela]

Now I have no problem with duelling, but IMO Blizzard made a bogus, irresponsible, and possibly mean-spirited move when they decided to allow unilateral hostility. A mutual requirement won't bother anyone BUT griefers, so how can it be opposed? Certainly not on grounds of gameplay value for non-griefers.

Kas, it is a game design feature: End of sentence, for better or worse. Given that it is a feature, and Blizzard made it, there is still room to keep the desired flavor, for whatever reason, and make adjustments so it does not favor the Grief Player over everyone else in too unbalanced a fashion. Griefers pay money for games too, and Blizz knew that: that is why PK is possible. Now, they have adjusted D II PK a bit since release, and they can adjust it again. What is not worth arguing at all is 'should Blizzard have put it in this way.' The die is cast.

"Should the electoral system be included in the national voting process?" Uh, hello my poofy friends in Florida, it is the system.

The required mutual hostility would preclude the sanction of other non PK griefers

I don't follow this at all. How would it preclude it? As far as I can tell, at the moment there is no way to sanction ANY griefers of any kind, aside from fleeing the game, which means they've won: they managed to disrupt your play experience. Every time a non-grief player flees from a grief player, the grief player wins.

Leechers, beggars, drop stealers, nuisance jerks in a game who wake up monsters just to screw with other folks, Paladins who run around converting stuff when asked not to . . . there are all sorts of anti-social players in a pubbie against whom a quick hostile is the signal to shape up or GTFO. I don't use that method, but many perfectly decent bnet players do. If you had to let him hostile you back, then that ability to clean up a game is gone since the antisocial twerp just does not hit hostile. Folks who sit in town and talk smack can be squelched, no probs.

Think it through: a jerkoff using the boot button to screw with everyone who entered the game.

Easy answer to that, don't join games jerkoffs create. ^_^ IMO under such a system, if you create the game you can boot whoever you want. Your game, your rules; don't like it, make your own game. One requirement I would make: you (the game creator) must be in town to boot anyone. This would cut down on using booting to steal drops, which is the only real abuse of this that I can think of. I would require a minimum time spent in town (say 10 seconds) also, but this might prevent being able to stop a griefer before he does whatever he's planning. Yes, if someone wants to be a jerk, he can boot/ban people for no reason. But they'll just find other games; he'll be the one who winds up alone when people start to shun him. I don't see the problem.

Here is why I think the boot button would be abused: it is a blatant tool for a griefer, decent folks don't need it. Grief player makes a cow game, and tosses folks out at a whim. I see that being a way to taunt or abuse new players, or as a way to block folks from public games who are ladder running in large games.

The 'vote off the island' idea has some merit in large games. If everyone else in a game wants someone gone . . . OK, I can see it, but even that could be abused to where perfectly nice folks who aren't going to bother anyone get tossed out of a game . . . for no good reason.

Nope, I do not see that feature being useful more than abusable.

and the design feature that was intended: you have to watch your back in some games.  The problem is, not everyone is interested in this "feature". .

One option is of course Private games and, to a certain extent, level limits.

Again, I am not going to get into the why Blizzard put this feature in, that horse is long since glue. What I want to discuss is: Given this feature, what can be done to better balance out the desires of the varied playing audience to whom Blizzard caters? As I told Sirian, I accept it as part of the RoE, I have learned how to deal with arseholes, and so long as Blizz closes the loopholes and makes it so cheats can not sneak back in. (remember town kill?) A timer allows me to work the system just fine. PK's are rarely folks who bother me for very long: they are simply a feature of public games, as annyoing as MSLEB's. Do I like them? No, I think they are pricks. I adapt and adjust for the environment. It is the cheats and loopholes that make their presnce untenable, not their existence. Do I wish they weren't such pricks?

Of course, but I can wish in one hand, crap in the other, and guarantee you which hand will fill up first. :D