[Anasadi]

Player killing, also known as pk and as pvp, is a feature found on many MUDs and other online RPGs. I've seen player killing in many forms - limited, unlimited, chaotic, lawful, strictly kept to battlezones, and more. On my own world, once a player joins pk, there are no safe rooms they can run to keep away from other players. I've seen worlds where there is no player killing, where player killing is a limited aspect of stricter roleplay, where non-killer players can be killed by other players in "pk continents", etc.

I have noticed that worlds that allow player killing also allow player looting, that is, if a player kills their opponent, they can take one, several or all the items of their victim. "Allow" isn't quite the right word; I do not recall seeing a world that allows player killing but no player looting. That's not wholly true, either, given the existence of battlezones, although most times battlezones do not prevent player equipment from being destroyed.

Has anyone implemented a system that divides the two?

I am not talking of systems that have "lawful", "neutral" and "chaotic" rooms which allow a certain amount of looting, but a system whereby a player not only must join pk to kill other players but must purposefully join "p-loot" to loot other players. I take it as given that joining the looting ranks makes one open to looting.

I am asking about a system where people who join pk can kill other players but cannot loot them, not unless they join "p-loot", too. So we have three types of players: those who neither kill nor loot other players, those who may kill other players, and those who may kill and loot other players. I don't suspect there is a system that allows player looting without the potential for being killed.

Why do I ask?

Frustration. On player killer worlds with a small player base, like ours, those who are established in the world tend to have a noticeable advantage over those who are new both to the world and to player killing. As some might expect, our world has had a fair share of players who find some perverse delight in killing and fully looting their victims, veterans and new players alike. Ours is not the first world to experience this.

Their victims are not as delighted being stripped naked. The killing they seem okay with - our world is, afterall, a player killer world, and players log on expecting to fight other players. It is the looting, especially the full loots, that upsets them. When it becomes too much they leave the game. But because it is a "pk" world, the more extreme player looters say, anything should go and the immortals should not interfere. Let the player base sort it out. I doubt I am raising eyebrows.

In short, if the immortals don't interfere, the new players give up and leave, and if the immortals do interfere, the player killers become angry, shout, rebel, etc.

After some time finding ways to deal with power looting, introducing features like one-item-at-a-time looting and timed delays while looting, and after finding our efforts thwarted, I struck on an idea. Player killers - at least the ones I've gotten to talk to - say they are in it for the challenge of combat with other players. So I took them at their word, and thought, well, if player combat is all they are really after, why not just remove the ability to loot altogether, unless their victim allows looting? Treat looting as we do player killing - just as players have to type "pk join" to become a player killer, have them also type "loot join" if they want to loot other players.

This gives players who want to kill, but who don't want to loot, other players a chance to join player killing without fear of having their items disappear.

I presented this idea to one player killer who was a rather well-known looter. He was absolutely livid at the idea of the inability to loot. He mentioned in previous conversations how he enjoyed player killing for the challenge, and I told him that this wouldn't go away, his victims still would remain challenging. This is when the truth of the matter appeared: it wasn't enough to merely kill his victim, he had to have some sort of trophy, some prize which he could show others or which he could use to further frustrate his victim. He made it clear, if our world were to move in that direction, he would move to other worlds, because ours would have "lost part of its charm" in allowing unlimited looting.

I am doubtful we will code my idea into our game. However, I wanted to see what others might think of it, if they have done something similar, and if they have done something similar, find out what the result of the move was. When I was a mortal, I learned the ways of player killing, and could kill with the best of them, but I generally refrained from looting much, knowing how it would affect the people I played against. So, from my point of view, losing the ability to loot doesn't amount to much, because I still can fight other players all I want, anywhere I want, and "one-up" them through sheer gameplay. I find this view is not shared by all.

Any takers?