From: brumleve@gauss (Dan Brumleve)
Subject: Re: Player killing ....
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:44:55 GMT

dburgdor@cwis.unomaha.edu (Darryl Burgdorf) writes:

>Two examples:

>1)  A high-powered mage makes himself invisible and sits outside the city
>gate, casting "instant death" spells on anyone who leaves the city.  (I should
>point out that on this particular MUD, levels and other such "game" rather 
>than "gameworld" information is not readily visible, so he could not see that
>I was only a first level character.  However, if he'd bothered to look at my
>equipment, it would have been fairly obvious that I was NOT very experienced.)

>2)  On another MUD, I was playing in what was specifically a newbie area.  I
>sat down to rest and recover a bit.  Another character came in and sat down.
>He looked at me (no doubt seeing both that I was wounded and that I was
>carrying nothing of significance).  I said "hello".  He stood up, swung at me
>and killed me.  No reason, no provocation.  As my ghost hovered there, unable
>to do or say anything, the jerk cackles gleefully and "thanks" me for the
>stuff he's now stealing.  (Which, incidentally, was worthless to him, as it
>was un-sellable "newbie" equipment.)

     In my experience, I've found that there are three "types" of player
killers, referring to people that specifically seek out to attack other
players, not people who do it for self-defense/whatever:

1) People who kill other players for an ego boost or because they don't
like "nerds who play MUDs".  In short, assholes.

2) "Player-killer-killers".  People who rampantly slaughter anyone
suspected of killing an other player, because they like to be
"heroes".  These people are the same as 1), except they are supported
by the other players in their acts.

3) People who kill players for the challenge of a living opponent (I
myself belong to this category).  I've played with/against very few
people who are 3), so I'll explain my personal motives.  I usually
try to prolong the fight as long as possible (unless the victim becomes
whiny about it), because I enjoy player vs. player combat,
regardless of whether I win or lose.  I don't attach any special
significanse to my characters, and I can't identify with people
who break down and cry when their character loses x experience
points.

>Please understand that I am not whining about the above occurances.  I am just
>curious as to the mindset that prompts such activies.

     The players in the examples you mentioned apparently belong to the 1)
category.  I've known a couple people like this in real life, all of whom
are rather pleasant in real life, but quite the opposite electronically.
People like this feel superior to players on MUDs, and are usually
the same kind of people who logon to MUDs to disrupt things (repeated
commands like "shout tHIS MUD SUCK!!"), but they fail to notice their
own hypocracy.

>In neither case did the other player stand to gain anything -- money or 
>experience -- from his actions.  In neither case was there any provocation
>for the action:  I had done nothing to annoy them, I had not stolen from them,
>I had not in any way aligned myself with an "opposing faction" in the game
>world, and had no item which they wanted and had to kill me to get.

>In short, the actions were senseless, and served only to destroy what little
>advancement I had thusfar made in the game.

Assholes. ;-)

> /----------------------------------------------------\
> |   dburgdor @unmcvm.unmc.edu or @cwis.unomaha.edu   |
> \----------------------------------------------------/

-Jhalavar (Dan Brumleve)

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