To murder hobo or not to murder hobo?

[Kiko]

Alright, as a fairly new player, having played briefly in w5 and just returning to play in w6 around a week ago, I understand my inexperience with the community may colour this post quite heavily. However, I'd like to raise the topic of the game's community, primarily how random encounters with miscellaneous people affect the community. From my understanding there's been a long tradition of "pantsing" new players in order to teach them the all valued rule of "don't trust that guy, he may steal your pants." It's also rather funny, I'm unable to say if this has devolved into a flee on sight order if you're remotly suspicious that there may or may not be a person there, but this is what it seems to be. I understand that running from potential enemies and killing people you find are going to prevelant in a game featuring perma death and a system that rewards you for pvp but has it become worse or was it always like this? I realise that I'm a latecomer into this world, by quite a bit from my understanding, so I suppose I missed the early days of the world where everyone is unable to attack people so I assume you would have a friendlier relation but it seems that people are extremly vicious when it comes to confronting a player that as far as they know, poses no threat to them. People pretending to be a noob may be the cause of it but I'd like to pose the community at large a question; "What do you do when confronting a player that seems to be new to the game?"

Many of you are probably thinking that I'm raging because I just died like an idiot by not running from potential enemies, I did just die, however I'm certianly not raging. I went into the situation thinking "I ran from the last couple guys I met, fuck it, I'm going to man up and befreind the fuck out of these guys." Sadly all I got to type was a short "Yo" before being killed.

[popfor]

I've taken their pants and kinned them since I first started. Although I rarely flee of sight, I have become a expert runner T-T

[Nila-Hood]

I keep a low profile, and stay away from most people, I can't afford getting tracked due to murder scents.

[zacty]

i introduce myself and provide some medial amount of aid, making friends is better than making enemies.

also if they're dicks i pants them, or in one case kill them

[chocolaterain]

I always kill hobo's...

.. Wait..

Are we talking about the game?

[hazzor]

usually my reaction to noobs is dependent entirely on their reaction to me, i always say hi, and usually wear a top hat, i don't look particularly menacing (not that i have one now, since i died) and if they say hi back i try to strike up a conversation that with any luck ends with me making a friend and in some cases i've had them move to living just outside my wall and then i help them out and provide some sort of protection, albeit just from minor threats (like tracking scents that appear in their camp)

in the event that they run from me, i KO them, some call me a dick for this, and it may be the case that they simply don't understand hi, though i think that's somewhat universal, but either way, when they run from me, i see them as free curios, and of course, they can say goodbye to their pants

some people are just retarded... really really dumb, and say something stupid like "can i have free stuff" or, as i've known a surprising amount of unfortunate noobs to say, simply "nigger" they get shanked promptly

[Kiko]

With the input from you guys I suppose it was just bad luck to run into someone that's going to murder the shit out of me as a first instinct. I suppose I'll pose another question here since Nila reminded me, do scents float? In regards to death over or in water do the scents remain or will they "drown"?
On the topic though, do you guys think that random murders hurt the community or refine it? I've heard both sides and it's an interesting arguement, I've got nothing against the elitism but it seems there are a lot of cases where people die, they quit. On the other hand it teaches the right lessons as a much heftier price than pantsing.

[saska123321]

i always say hi if they're friendly i act friendly back if they run off i leave them alone if they act like a jerk i kill them :p

[zacty]

With the input from you guys I suppose it was just bad luck to run into someone that's going to murder the shit out of me as a first instinct. I suppose I'll pose another question here since Nila reminded me, do scents float? In regards to death over or in water do the scents remain or will they "drown"?
On the topic though, do you guys think that random murders hurt the community or refine it? I've heard both sides and it's an interesting arguement, I've got nothing against the elitism but it seems there are a lot of cases where people die, they quit. On the other hand it teaches the right lessons as a much heftier price than pantsing.

1, yes, they float.
2. i think they help weed out the annoying ones, you know, the ones who are going to bitch and moan constantly, since those people tend to rage quit and never return after being randomly killed, wehereas the ones who return are more refined in their knowledge of how things work, consider death a curio, but only people with enough attention will study it, and the rest simply throw it away and leave
addition: there is a raisin only around 500 people play this game, not that many people are "hardcore" enough to want to go about after dying

[FictionRyu]

I try not to be a threat to anyone.

This world I have taken an oath to not look menacing while out exploring. I'm but a simple farmer who prefers peace(against other players). So I have worn my farmers hat since I have made it. Though I occasionaly do make a better quality one when needed. I tend to wear basic leather armor to protect against any Boars I may come across(saved my ass once already--I had no stanima left from walking around in a swamp trying to chase after the being heunted boar). Other then that, I have a Boar Tusk Helmet and a Bear Cape, but I tend not to use the cape unless superior(superior to my base) strength is needed.But to answer the proposed question: I usally try to run. Because in my experience, all players--regardless of how they are dressed could be possible threats.