[MUD-Dev] The Relationship between pkers and monster AI?

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Thu, 9 Sep 1999, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

> From: Travis Casey <efindel at io.com>
> 
> 
> By inference proponents of non-consensual PvP in a discussion are 
> also likely to be immature, exhibiting inferior emotional development, 
> or, as has even been suggested on past threads, sociopathic.  

*foams at the mouth, rabidly*

> 
> Is it theoretically possible that there are many more immature 
> anti-PKers than immature pro-PKers?  
> Is the inability to deal with or handle harassment, violence, or offensive 
> behavior without recourse to authority a sign of immaturity or stunted
> emotional development?  

Well, perhaps it's not a sign of immaturity, but it's surely a sign of
dependence and weakness. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Even though I
am an advocate of non-consensual PK, I will agree that there is a good
portion of PKers who are nothing but teenage thugs. In dealing with
Pk-related complaints in Achaea, I tend to distinguish between teenage
thugs and, say, evil players who actually contribute to the game by virtue
of being feared. As an example, we had a player named Khaseem whom no one
liked. He was a decent (though not brilliant) fighter, and he had started
playing before we started charging people money, so his skills were fairly
high. When he kiled people, no one became afraid of him, as he was just a
nuisance. He was definitely one of the whiner/immature PKers. On the other
hand, we have some players who are just as brutal, but who contribute to
the atmosphere of the game. They couch everything they do in terms of
roleplay (don't kill those goblins, they are my allies), and are respected
and feared for it. They are assets to the game, and as such, I give them
much greater leeway.

As to anti-PKers, I find that a good portion of them are what I would term
immature, though probably a smaller proportion than the teenage thugs are
of PKers. I remember having an argument with an anti-PKer. She made some
asinine statement about how she is opposed to violence, and why, if she
can walk down her street irl with almost no chance of being attacked, she
can't do it in Achaea. Mind you, this same person, who claimed to be a
pacifist, used to regularly go out and kill mobiles (I hate that kind of
hypocrisy). I had absolute disgust for this woman's argument, and I would
definitely classify her as incredibly naive, and possibly immature. Why
does she think she can walk down the street safely irl? It's only because
other people are willing to commit violence on her behalf. The only
effective way to stop violence is with more violence (by violence I mean
the use of physical force). That's the strategy behind police, behind
militaries, behind all governments (who are nothing but organizations of
thugs anyway). This woman refused to recognize what a coddled, spoiled
brat she was acting like. It IS, as you suggest, I think, a hallmark of
immaturity when the first thing you do upon encountering a stressful
situation is run to your proverbial mommy or daddy to fix the problem
instead of fixing it yourself.
--matt




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