At what level does PK become acceptable?

[The Zealot]

I'm just curious when people believe it's acceptable to start PK'ing. There seems to be a general perception that any sub-30 kills are n00b or trashy, that 30-40 is fairish, and 40+ is a free for all.

Understandably, the RP threshold for a level 15 kill would have to be substantially higher than a 50, because of the danger of turning new or inexperienced players off the game, as well as the more general balance issues at that stage.

However, is it still legitimate to fight in the 10-30 range? And by legitimate, I don't mean 'do the rules allow it', but rather 'is it acceptable'.

I would expect most experienced players not to, because it just makes the ranking harder, and they generally play for pinnacle. But surely fighting at a younger age could be a valid RP tool.

No, I'm not posting this because I've recently been called trash, or have been reprimanded for it. I'm just coming back to the game after a year long break.

I've got a character in the mid-teens at the moment. I was sitting in town and - out of habit - typing 'where pk', 'who pk' obsessively, before realising there wasn't much point, since no one attacks at that rank.

[Davairus]

Sorry dont know why these polls werent showing up in recent post.

[theobserver]

I think they should be 'responsible' pk as early as possible.

When I used to regularly play, there was quite an extensive check list of things you simply had to do before hitting level ten-

Purple potions had to be collected, various weapons must be strapped to the characters person, shields must be tightened and muscles loosened in preparation for the inevitable fighting! And the fights did come. They came despite my paranoid 'where pk' typing, came despite me picking a remote and harder ranking spot rather than risking the slaughter of the emerald forest. And the fights were incredibly frustrating, rewarding, exciting. But the thing was, they were predictable! You knew that ranking in the emerald forest was going to get you attacked at least once and this was what made the game fun.

Then the ethos of the game changed. It became unacceptable to kill in the lower levels and that early death assumed far more significance because it was so unexpected rather than just routine. Then people began taking more and more personal offense to dying because it happened less and less.

For me, saying no fighting until at least level 30ish is the same as saying no fun until after a few hours of tedious mob killing. I understand the idea of having to 'earn' a high level character but within the framework of a game, ‘earn’ must refer to overcoming entertaining challenges, not tedious repetitive tasks. Dull repetitive tasks are called work and in the real world people have to pay you for that!! In AR I think, that challenge can only come through pk.

No one wants a trashy mud because it drives off old and new players. But what type of new players do we realistically hope to attract? We will be hard pushed to keep pure role players because they are honestly better rp games out there; people who want to run around and kill static mobs are all playing WoW so the only group left are the pk'ers and by making the game dull in the early and mid stage, we are reducing our chances of keeping those players.

So that’s why I think responsible pk should be encouraged from level ten upwards. Hell, even setup level 15 - 35 mini-cabals called academies to promote it!

[/b]

[Davairus]

Please elaborate on that academy thing you mentioned

[_Clifton_]

Level 15. Mino Zerker.

[theobserver]

Urm, I kinda pulled it out of my ass when I was writing the last post.

I was thinking of the theory which says the most fundamental drive a person has is the desire to be important. This is what drives some people to work hard in their office jobs, it drives others to join charities, setup up social clubs, etc.

From that viewpoint, games like AR are successful because they allow people to become 'important' in a way they cannot achieve in the real world. It's why people like yourself stay despite the hard work or why I spent so many hours working on boring herald mystiques - it gave a sense of importance. Also under this theory, people like artane throw temper tantrums, when they have to answer to authority and lose their sense of being important.

Anyway, this got me thinking of ways to reduce the negative feelings of dying for people (because dying is basically failing to be important). So the idea popped into my head that to promote responsible pk'ing and to help reduce the negative feelings of dying, we could shift the focus a little and put the player in situations where he *is* going to die and that’s just fine because every death is a learning process rather than a loss. So I pondered:
1) I would like more responsible pk at the lower ranks.
2) New guys need friends and allies to get fully involved in the game
3) New guys needs to learn that it is fine to die.

So I thought that cabals gave a framework that fulfilled all of these requirements - promoted fighting, gave allies and flatly made the game more interesting. So the idea of mini-cabals or academies sprang up. It would work pretty much like competing cabals for those who wish to join. Academies would be set against one another, given tasks etc. I called them academies because I like the idea of cabals running 'schools' to gather potential recruits.

But the motivation is to get players involved in pk earlier within acceptable limits and to teach new players the game in a more goal focused way where deaths can be lessons rather than defeats. Graduation day is at level 30!

So urm, it just poped into my head as I was typing the response to the poll. Not exactly well thought out.

[theobserver]

[Davairus]

I have to be honest, its not really bouncing off me favourably. I felt like there might be something interesting there, but this is something I'd definitely steer clear of.

What about just one academy with perks, accept anybody who completed description and they get to stay on newbie chat til 30 or something

[Erlwith]

Newbie chat past level 10 is a good idea and I think long over due at the very lest for NEW players (if it's not already)

[Kalist19]

Are you guys familiar with how each NHL team has a farm team that they can pick up players from at any point? What if the cabals had that kind of thing? Like, say, you had to declare cabal intent at level 15. It would be like squire-ship from 15-40 (nothing to defend but the cabal knows you want to join it so they can give you advice or orders). This would promote a little RP (knight wannabes helping eachother and neutrals while legion-wannabes jockey for position and status).

[Vanisse]

Kalist - don't people kind of do that already? I recall a lot of the time I used to rank (way back when) there'd always be some lighty in my group especially around 15-25th ranks going Ooo, I want to join Knights and roleplaying extremely well in that regard, or someone who made themselves out to be badass which gave off hints of their Legion intentions. I guess the idea would be just to make it official or something.

Well, to be honest, I haven't seriously ranked up a mortal for perhaps a year now, so my perspective is a bit outdated. (Groups existed?! What?!)

[Slade]

20-30 is fine for newer to early intermediate players. Veterans shouldn't really be doing anything pre 30. 30-36 is a good late newer player all the way to poor veteran range. 36+ is the start of real PK and begins the free for all, though elites shouldn't have too many more than a few kills before 40, aiming to hit 50 asap.