Is this real life, or is it fantasy?

Even though your OP was designed to demean those who don't engage in PvP, I'll answer anyway. Fighting others in a group on group scenario is a lot of fun. Who cares if you die, res and jump back in. Having someone wind up and take you out while you're in town and engaged with a NPC merchant is not fun. Well, not fun for me; probably a lot of fun for the other guy. Also, someone stealing my stuff is never fun. I'm perplexed as to why that mechanic was added to the game.

 

as stated earlier the game should mitigate these things. There should be active guards in town centers or available for hire for events. As far as stealing, you can only steal from people that are pvp so just kill the thief if you are pvp enabled. I agree again though that there should be guards in public areas.

 

Now I have this song stuck in my head

Anyways, the only distinction I see here is that NPCs are part of a computer program, where as PCs are controlled by real people through a computer. So, why do people treat NPCs like real people? Good question. I personally don't in this game, but if the scripting is well done, and the game itself creates the atmosphere that helps pull you into said environment, then yes, it is possible to see that NPC as a real person. It's very much like reading a good book. A very well written book can pull you right into the fantasy world created by the writer. I really don't see this as a disorder, but sometimes people just want to immerse themselves into a fantasy world just to forget about their RL issues.

 

I'm hoping that, in the future, they'll implement something like super-powered guards teleporting to you and then insta-killing you (ala UO) if you perform a negative action against another PvP player while in town.

 

Well, that would be great if PvP actually had consequences outside of towns. There's really no point to guards helping. You are risking almost nothing by being flagged for PvP now, except for the annoyance of it.

 

Some people seem outraged that games sell virtual goods for real life money, but there are so many things which you can say are virtual in this life. I pay for my entertainment about £100 a month which include broadband and tv channels. Oh and a trip to the cinema, should I expect to be able to watch the film for free? after all it is virtual too .Why is it not ok for a gaming industry to sell goods for RL money dont they provide a service to you too ?

 

Having a red/blue reputation system would be really good too.

 

It makes me feel dirty, I guess I have a different set of morals. Its no biggie.

 

Ah what bothers me about the virtual goods is how it affects the gameplay; it takes these things out of the regular crafting economy or other in-game systems, makes it impossible to change them along development because they're purchased with real cash, creates game imbalances that are hard to deal with, incentivizes the devs to create items that don't fit the game, provides things as add-ons that should be a standard part of the game, possibly trivializes some aspects of gameplay... etc etc.

Otherwise, I don't care.

 

Beyond the rl sale of COTO's, could you provide an example of a "virtual good" sold in the store that "effects the gameplay" and/or "creates game imbalances" ?

 

Tax-free lot deeds are a major game imbalance, for one. Gold sinks intended for people who have them will be punitive for people with taxed deeds, and gold sinks intended for people who don't will be lax for people who don't have them.

A lot of the rest is redundant to what I already mentioned, and you snipped out for whatever reason. Every deco item that's a pledge reward or sold in the add-on store is taken out of a crafting profession and cannot be part of the crafting economy. Every tree or plant is taken out of the gardening system, every pet is removed from appearing in the wild, etc. Add-on items can never be changed significantly without much fuss if its decided they impact game systems or they could come up with a better design.

 

Ok, so we remove the tax-free deeds and the deco.... ( not suggesting that I agree with your assessment of them as creating game "imbalance" , which I don't ).

How, then, would you suggest that Port make the money it needs for development of this game ?

 

I don't consider the latest "stealing turns you PvP" idea non-consensual PvP. It is consensual PvP in the very basest definition of the term. No matter how many times you tell me "stealing from an NPC should not flag PvP!", you cannot tell me that it is non-consensual. The rules of the game have been set up, you choose to break them, thus consenting to PvP.

Why?

These are all opinions. You saying "No you are" to my "No I'm not" is not an argument.

Stealing from NPC being one of those steps. Thank you!

The person who PvPs you does value those pixels, in much the way you do. They value your pixels as a symbol representing your advancement in the game (which, they are). You can't possibly tell someone to value your pixels in another way, since this is a video game, and your avatar is widely regarded as a symbol representing your success. They do not, for any other person, represent your soul, spirit, or intellect in a totemistic or festishistic way. (I.e. "What you do to my totem happens to me).

I don't have a problem with it morally, I have a problem with it personally. This does not make it an invalid play style, morally wrong, or "against the rules".

 

Hey @FrostII I'm not even into that discussion right now; I'm just saying that it does affect gameplay and because of that would ideally, in a dream situation -- not even thinking about the funding concerns -- prefer a game world where everything in it was earned through the game world.

 

Roleplayers get attached to their characters sometimes. I haven't seen anyone take it too personally beyond that kid who killed himself over EverQuest gold years ago.

 

That sucks. I consider someone who is so emotionally attached to their avatar that it would negatively affect their emotions to that degree to have a "problem". They probably shouldn't play the game.

You know, recently I became upset with an online interaction. A large group of people I communicated with became "toxic", and a couple members of the group targeted me in a bullying manner. It really did affect my emotions negatively. They weren't attacking a symbol of my progress in a game, they were attacking me personally. Of course they don't really "know" me, they are just acquainted from me in an online discussion forum.

I left. I decided that I didn't want to expose myself to an environment in which I felt bad. I didn't complain and say "This is against the rules!"; by joining the community, I knew that such behavior was tolerated, and so I left. I'm glad I did, and I don't miss it in the least. I leave that "toxic" (to me) environment behind, to people who can better tolerate it.

 

Neither do I... And I'm likely the biggest Consensual PvP Only gadfly around.

So long as there is a warning that there may be that consequence to the theft and an opportunity to Not complete the action... along with the elimination of 'accidental' theft simply by inadvertently clicking on an object.

 

Well done mate!

 

Exactly why I left UO. Of course, there was no established community when UO Began... the toxic community grew up with the game.

 

Did you play after the servers were split into PvP/non-PvP varieties? Is there a non-PvP reason it made you feel bad? Do you see any portions of SotA heading in the same direction?