Fcn wrote:See, this is my problem. The concept of the killing of an offline player as a retaliation for theft. You have a specific mindset that really doesn't work in a permadeath environment. The person who destroyed the other person's crops - yes, one could argue that killing them is an appropriate response, but it should have involved hunting them down and killing them, rather than killing a stationary target. You seem to believe that if a crime is committed they should be punished, and it must be made so by the game mechanics, not that they COULD be punished, if the thief is sloppy. That's part of the RPG aspect, there's nothing very immersive about killing someone's offline avatar. How many good stories about video games start with "So I was killing this guy while he was asleep irl.."
Now I agree, I don't believe that you shouldn't be able to kill thieves, you should be able to kill anyone at any time, and suffer the repercussions of your actions. My argument is that it is unbalanced to force summon thieves, and to a lesser extent murderers and murder them while they are not actively playing the game. It removes the skill aspect entirely and just encourages people to turtle behind brick walls.
Why? The vandalism that drove the victim out of the game was performed while that player was offline. Why should it be OK to steal and destroy when your victim is absent, but not to murder? Remember, we're talking of sufficient destruction to drive the victim out of the game - whereas the multi-alt macroer who claimed responsibility was not driven away when various of his alts were put down.
Besides, griefers aren't role playing, whatever they may claim; they are acting out their normal real life personalities - getting their jollies by upsetting others, the more upset the better. It's an attack on the
player, not the character, and should be responded to in kind.
You weren't here when griefers were working hard to make the game unplayable for everyone else - at least, you weren't here for what was very nearly their victory. The mechanics have made griefing somewhat more difficult, but only recently, and I'm sure there will be counters developed - indeed, I've seen new strategies already enacted. The devs don't choose to ban players for egregious grieving, which is what I've seen in many other games. It's excessive and immoral to hunt them down in real life and beat the stuffing out of them, not to mention illegal. Killing them while offline is a poor second to banning them, but I'm glad the devs at least give us that. And no, I have zero interest in role playing a man hunt - or more correctly a vermin extermination trip.
If it were just theft, and not too easy or safe to perform, I'd be less adamant. But it's not just theft, nor even mostly theft - at least in game terms. It's destroying other people's fun with no benefit to the in game criminal whatsoever - just benefit to the player, who apparently gets his or her rocks off by hurting and upsetting others.
[Edit: And as for turtling behind brick walls, well, if that's what the current mechanics require me to do in order to play the game that appeals to me, rather than being dragged into someone else's idea of fun-by-victimizing-others, then I'll go put some more bricks in the smelter right now
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