tekHedd – the blog

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about PvP, because all my friends play WoW on a PvP server.

No wait, that sounds really pathetic. All my friends? Let’s just say that most of my friends who play WoW play on a PvP server. OK? And I’m discovering something: high level characters can kill low level characters. Easily.

So, this is very realistic, and good, and as it should be. But it’s not fun if you want to solo. Dying is not fun. Two solutions have been proposed to deal with the pain of death:

• Play on a PvE server
• Just ignore it

Both of these have disadvantages.

Play on a PvE server

The disadvantage of playing on a PvE server is that people will use the word “carebear” any time you mention it. This is sort of like saying you’re dating a black girl and having people who claim to be your friends say “why are you dating a nigger?” I know you don’t think it’s an insult, but you’re using it as one, so it is.

I suppose I could start an underground PvE rap movement and start using the word “carebear” among my own peeps. “Wassup, my carebear!” “You’re rollin’ with some seriously strapped PvP flagged carebears, homie.” I’m not sure it will catch on. There are other disadvantages to hangin’ with the carebears, but as far as I can tell in WoW that’s the only one.

Just ignore it

It is true that in WoW there is really no significant penalty for death. And, yes, everybody got ganked when they were lowbs, except of course for people who power level. (If you power level you won’t get ganked, because you’ll have an escort, and you will in fact probably be off watching Seinfeld reruns or downloading porn while some guy in another country escorts your lowb around. I’m talking about actually playing the game, here.)

To many, being ganked repeatedly is a “rite of pasage”. Sure, you get ganked now, but later you will get to gank others. Now, does this make any sense? It reminds me of hazing in college fraternities. You see, it’s OK to be hazed now, because you’ll get to haze others later. So, the great thing about being in a fraternity is you get to strip young boys, pour Jaegermeister over their heads, and spank their naked butts with a paddle, or something. Hmm. In any case, if you don’t want to run around griefing, being griefed is less like a rite of passage and more like an annoyance.

And to me, WoW griefing is infinitely pointless. The griefer gets nothing, the griefee suffers no equipment wear or experience loss. The only point is that the griefee has a (typically) tedious corpse run.

Why not just whack squirrels and bunnies in town? (Actually, that’s kind of fun…)

And I keep reading posts by people who claim to like PvP, but who want to eliminate all penalties including the corpse run. At which point, PvP is completely, utterly pointless. Why kill somebody if they’re not even going to die? If you’re a 70 and they’re a 25, it’s not to prove that you can, that’s for sure. No death, no grief. Hmm.

Yes, the nice thing about PvE servers is you get to decide when you’re actually involved in the conflict. Hey, war in real life would be more fun if it were like this, too. The PvP zones are like real war, where the better equipped player easily kills the poorly equipped player, and you’re always involved, you don’t have a choice. PvE zones are more fun for the inexperienced or broke player, because he can choose when he wants to fight. Wow, if war in real life were like that, well, that would be very strange. But it would be a lot more fun for the soldiers who don’t really want to die. Trust me on this.

So my theory is that war IRL would be more fun if it was consensual. :)

Or more importantly, is a bicycle a pedestrian when in the crosswalk?

As almost nobody knows or cares about, I commute on a bicycle. When I ride my bike, just about every day I have to dodge a car, pedestrian, other biker, or random obstacle from outer space. Alien probings and zombie attacks are quite rare, but now that summer is here hardly a day goes by when I don’t have to dodge a bicycle doing something idiotic.

The most common thing bikers do to annoy me is run red lights. And stop signs. And just generally ignore all the laws. There are two problems with this. First, of course, it’s illegal: bikes are supposed to be the same as cars. More importantly, it makes cars resent bikers. It’s dangerous enough out here without people actually aiming for me on purpose!

The most annoying biker is the one that rides in the bike lane…going the wrong direction. This biker never has a helmet, rarely has a headlight, and sometimes expects me to swerve into traffic to go around him. I put my head down and play chicken in this case.

But the one that confuses me most is the biker who rides on the sidewalk. Now, in some parts of town, this is legal. However, when this biker enters the crosswalk, (s)he expects to get the right of way. Half the time this is a nice cruiser bike, with a very nice person wearing a helmet on it. But then they act like they have the right of way, and ride right out in front of you. What makes this most annoying, though, is that I can’t decide whether they do.

So, the question of the day is: If you ride your bike carefully out into the middle of the street in a crosswalk, do you have the right of way?

So, more and more I’m starting to see how griefing could be fun, in a completely selfish and hateful way. Just go watch for weak enemies, and see how miserable you can make them. I mean, fun as long as you’re winning. And the true griefer quits as soon as he’s not winning, yes?

It’s not about skill, it’s about taking out your frustrations on someone weaker.

What the heck. My friends are on this stupid PvP server. It’ll give me something to work towards.