Monday, January 26, 2009

Mining Mayhem, or "Stop the Presses: Husband Happy About PVP?!?!"

So the evening after I was harassed by server bullies and husband and I lamented being stuck on a PVP server for the 100th time, I walked past him and he said, "I just had my first moment where I'm glad we're on a PVP server."

And I said "Wha?"

He was mining in old-world Azeroth on his 80 death knight, riding toward a thorium node, when he sees a level 56 night elf get to the node before him*. He stops at the node, surprised when the night elf raises his mining pick anyway. Husband one-shots him.

When you see a high level running toward you and don't run, you're kind of asking for it.

Later, he saw a level 73 paladin in Northrend going for the same saronite node. But this player stopped, turned, and left the node alone.

Smart paladin.



* This information is wrong and has been corrected in the comments. Husband got to the node, started mining, and the lowbie came up and started trying to mine after husband had started.

11 comments:

  1. That *is* a smart paladin.

    I had a similar moment when I was using my Blastwave spell to knock a pair of Draenei shammies into Omen on Shattered Halls.

    Good fun, that.

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  2. I don't know . . . if you outlevel someone by so much that you're ?? to him, . . . well if he's a jerk and cuts you off from farming maybe you kill him anyway. Jerks are fair game. But if he legitimately got there first . . . I'd feel like a bully. I mean, he's just out there farming, too, right? And you kill him because why? Because you want the same stuff he does? C'mon . . . he wasn't asking to be killed. He wasn't asking for anything. Just doing his gaming thing. Gathering resources for income or professions or whatever.

    And I'm speaking as someone who likes a good PvP fight. One shotting a lowbie does not make a good fight. It just means you came across someone from whom you are strong enough to take things and they can't do anything about it.

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  3. But that begs the question -- if the lowbie doesn't show enough survival instinct to step away when you're standing right there, obviously after the same node, doesn't that create a new obligation to teach him self-preservation?

    (I wrote this one up because husband told it in a hilarious way, and then I forgot how he told it. :*( I scheduled it and forgot to decide if it was worth posting or not. XD Silly me.)

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  4. Self preservation from a level 80 Death Knight? If you're 10+ level lowers than the Death Knight and he wants to kill you, you will die. Personally, I would have continued farming the area based on that premise. If the Death Knight wants to kill me, he can kill me and there is nothing I can do to stop it so why even try? I either let him intimidate me into farming elsewhere or he kills me and I go farm elsewhere. The end result is the same. Except for a possible side trip to the graveyard, lol.

    Or maybe he doesn't want to kill me and I can continue farming in peace.

    Either way, he is not my mentor. Killing me does not teach me anything. It merely reinforces what I already know: there are people strong enough to push me around. I also know there are people who have that power, but choose not to excercise it.

    I guess I'm sounding preachy without even knowing the circumstances. That's not my intent. Maybe I've just seen my nine year old in tears too many times because all he wants to do is gather some copper so he can level up his jewelcrafting or cross Moonglade to check out Nighthaven, but high level jerks keep taking his game time away from him simply because they can.

    Maybe that night elf really was a doorknob trying to swipe resources out from under the nose of someone he should maybe give a little deference to. Honestly, I have no qualms with PvP. I think we should try to be fair . . . but if someone 20 levels lower than you wants to pick a fight . . . it's his funeral, right? lol.

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  5. If the Death Knight wants to kill me, he can kill me and there is nothing I can do to stop it so why even try?

    True, if the high level wants to kill you, there's little you can do. But I've found that most people are smart enough to back away and make friendly emotes if they even see a high level. My husband is not an unreasonable person -- he would have let the guy leave in peace and gone the opposite direction to continue gathering -- but the guy didn't leave. He stood there and raised his mining pick, which many would consider an act of . . . not aggression, per se, but competition. And if you're competing for anything on a PVP server, particularly one as vicious as Zuluhed, I would definitely expect a fight to ensue -- whether or not the fight was balanced is obvious (it wasn't), but the lower level did, in a way, instigate it. In my opinion. (I find it a good rule of thumb to always assume a ?? to be hostile.)

    I remember hitting 70 and running through Duskwood for something and I saw a level 30, killed him, and moved on. It wasn't that I thought "ha ha he sucks" as much as I was giddy at the fact that I could. I'd been a victim for so long, it was nice to flex my power. The main thing for me, though, is that I didn't camp after killing him. I find camping anyone but horrible jerks who deserve it morally reprehensible. But killing . . . sometimes you do it, most of the time others do it to you. I'd transfer to normal in a second if it wasn't for my guild, because I don't like the system, I think the people who camp are bullies -- world PVP used to be the only way to acquire honor, but now it's just a way to make other people miserable.

    If you want to discuss the ethics of world PVP in various situations . . . my basic stance is that a high level can kill but not camp/grief/harass, especially if there's some sort of competition involved. And part of my stance is that I think world PVP should be removed. I think PVP servers should cease to exist. People who enjoy it can stay flagged, but it should be a choice. Too many people are stuck on PVP servers because their friends won't go anywhere else, and it sucks.

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  6. This is husband. Wife got the story slightly wrong -- random lowbie approached the node and started in as I was mining! The audacity! Bad move, imo.

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  7. lol . . . even I, who am at least willing to hope the enemy faction will fight fair . . . even I would not ask that they share their wealth. I wouldn't even ask that of my own faction. Bad move indeed.

    I guess I can understand viewing the race for a resource node a competition and, well, the lowbie will lose that competition. Right. Depending on the type of resource, that's more competetive than I tend to be. I mean, if it was a silver node? I'd kill someone for silver. lol. But whatever. Degrees. I can understand competition.

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  8. Gank but not camp...

    Hmmm. I guess every now and then I'm a bully/jerk on Shattered Halls.

    >.> I'd blame the events that happen during the day before I log on, but...

    Yeah, no excuse.

    Granted, since I play a mage, I usually only get one or two kills.

    And then like, 12 Shammies, 7 Warriors, 3 Shadow Priests, 27 Feral Druids, and about 11.5 million Rogues slaughter me.

    Fire spec is bad for PvP.

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  9. Given your comment about running across Duskwood . . . check out the Flintlocke v Horde that was published the very next day.

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  10. A few months back, my brother posted this link, saying the guy put me into his comic. >.<

    It's kind of true.

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