Jerks (me)

[Ling]

I fink I vill step back into the jerks talk.

Sitting here in my cosy seat, it seems to me that the current crop of
messages about jerks is from the experience on the receiving end or from
the admin's point of view.  Well, against my better judgement I figured
you'd like to prod at someone who was dealing out the damage.  I'm that
person. 

I used to play a mud which had pk in it to add spice to the game, I don't
anymore so I'm not exactly prime material (lost my flair).  When I first
started playing, I did it coz I had nothing better to do (that's how most
people get into mudding I suspect).  After an afternoon of playing around,
I got pked.  I didn't complain.  I just asked for my kit back.  It
happened again and again.  Each time I asked for my kit back (sometimes
getting it, mostly not).  I think this helped me out later coz the mud was
dominated by an Edinburough posse and the fact that I didn't complain
meant they didn't treat me like the other usual newbies who made a big
thing about it and said they'll kill them or whatever.

After that, I played a lot more carefully (after figuring out that raising
stats is a good thing and raising levels isn't).  And, most importantly,
the Edin lot left the mud out of sheer boredom/bad grades, I found that
the playing field was suddenly level again.  Everyone was around level 5
out of 20 because we usually got pked down.  So off I did to work up
levels...  I never thought about pking coz it was such a taboo.  One day,
I thought:  Hey, why not, the mud is too easy without some predators.  And
off I went.

I found killing fun.  I made sure my character was level 12 and kept it
that way so I could pk characters half my level and double my level
(everyone who was anyone).  A lot of my pickings were naturally weaker
characters but some of them were even and a few were a lot stronger than
me, including a couple of level 20s (I was astonished to have kill them). 
My tactics usually involved expending vast amounts of money on healing
myself and trying to locate my prey.  Often, I would figure out where my
prey was and guess what he was killing and then wait at a suitable path
hoping to kill him as he returns in a weakened state.  Usually it worked,
sometimes I'd get kicked in quite thoroughly.  However, it was my attitude
that gave me the edge.  I couldn't care less whether my character died or
not.  I wasn't proud, I knew someone who, after dying just once, would
terminate his character.  That's just stupid.  I viewed my character as a
means to get an adrenaline rush. 

Later, I found out I had a reputation for being a good player (although I
did use and abuse a client).  Whenever I logged on, someone would shout my
name (to my irritation) and everyone (I mean everyone, including
characters I knew I couldn't beat) would hide in a safe room like a shop
or adventurer's guild.  I wasn't originally working towards a reputation
or anything, to me, it was a game.  Anyway, this same reputation forced me
to retire.  I could have started up a new character but didn't.  I never
did bother to get to level 20 in the end.  And as Matt C pointed out,
players tend to want games to suit their style instead of the other way
round.  So I never did repeat all this in another mud (I evolved my style
from the first mud).

Although, did managed to succeed on tron after that.  Then it all went
pear-shaped after the summer so I figured I oughta stick to coding. :)

I've missed a few things out but feel free to provoke.  I'll leave you
guys to work out my intentions and what nots.

Btw:  I'm an LPer trying to learn ColdC.

PS:   Situated in England, as in my sig, if anyone wanna visit. :)

  |    Ling Lo, freshwater fish (cod variant)		Be of Good Heart
_O_O_  EEE, Loughborough University, England          Another 'Screemer!