How PK's ruin it for all

[Senses]

This game/era is hard. Thats why after all this time, people are still playing it. Obviously it isn't the graphics Part of the learning process is how hard it is to just start out, and in an age where most MMO games hand-hold people in the hope that an easy instantly rewarding (even last place gets a hustle trophy!) newbie experience will result in a years worth of subscription fees, its nice to go back to the beginning and play around in a dangerous sandbox.

Certainly, though untrue to the era, the managers of this shard could make it easier for newbies in the hope to bring more people, but lets break that decision down. If you give a newbie 2 weeks of hand-holding, won't they just get a mistaken view of the game that will end shortly after the 2 weeks is over? Won't it be that much more dissapointing after working up their skills and getting some money only to get raped and robbed outside of town the first day the 2 weeks is up? Its like meeting a hot chick at a bar, then getting her home and seeing her without all the makeup and the belly belt thats holding the 200lb skin flap at bay. Where do you draw the line? Either the game is a dangerous and insecure place from day one, or it never is. People will adapt, or quit, and while more people is always healthy for the shard, changing the shard just to get more people really doesn't accomplish anything.

All that being said, one thing that will never be "true to the era," is the sheer percentage of people who really understand the game to those that don't. Obviously it can't be measured, but the server is really full of very good pks/players in a way the original UO shards never were. This makes it perhaps more challenging than maybe the era intended. With 3 free accounts, people are min/maxxed far more than they could be in the original and I think it does take away a little from the experience. Whether or not thats a good thing or a bad one remains to be seen, but I don't think it requires a rule change.

[Derrick]

I agree wholeheartedly with the above post.

Solutions aren't always rule changes. We're trying to implement that game that was, but we don't monitor in-game behavior. It's a big big sandbox, with very few rules, and room for near limitless ingenuity.

[Tarvok]

As I said before, PKs don't ruin the game... they MAKE the game, for guys like me that want to play a meaningful "good vs. evil" (or at least Law vs. Chaos) game. Just yesterday, I went, for my first time, to Brit GY... not to hunt, but to camp PKs. I stood around and watched a newbie farm for a bit (while I idly auto-defended against whatever happened to come my way). Then the noob ran away... probably to bank his loot, since I'd been there for nearly two minutes without him running before. Then I hid at the entance, and said noob returned shortly afterward. Next thing I know, here comes another name... blue, so I held my fire... but named such that I suspected he intended foul play.

Sure enough, the newbie came running out with the other in hot pursuit. One spell later (I don't know how to identify by animation yet), the noob was dead, the PK was now gray... and I launched my attack. I'm an archer, so that first shot hurt... but I suck at clicking, and for some reason, Razor doesn't register its own hotkeys on my system (Linux with wine), so I was unable to switch to my sword quickly enough to follow up. The PK ran. I tracked him, found his location... but I don't have reveal (I'm considering dropping magery for reveal, and using this char primarily in group hunts). I returned to my post. He returned, I attacked again, hit me with two spells, and now I was dead... but not before a horde of blues showed up and continued the pursuit. I honestly don't know what happened after that, since I returned to town to res and restock. I like to think those who followed me managed to get him, and precisely because I occupied him long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

But all in all... IT WAS AWESOME! And there is no freaking way I could have an experience like that if the shard lacked despicable villains... true villains, not lame ass mobs... to try to be all heroic against. In all honestly, unless you're going to roleplay the "gentleman highwayman" to the hilt, I'd rather be drylooted. It makes the experience more genuine. It's just a game to the man behind the curtain... but to the character Tarvok, it's war!