And Good Riddance

There are a couple threads on the official message board calling for a Non-PvP server. These are people who just don't want to deal with other people killing them. But that's not the real problem. What they are really against is getting killed for reasons that don't make sense in the context of the game. Non-PvP is just the easiest solution to the ugly problem of 'Grief Players.'

We all know what they are. Grief players are those who don't care what the setting, story, or rules are. They just want to get in the way of those people who do play the game how it was meant. But how do you stop them? How do you make it impossible for them to ruin someone else's game? Or at least, how do you make them leave?

No one knows. If you can come up with a 100% effective way of stopping people from acting like idiots, not only would you get hired by ANY game development company, but you'd probably get appointed President of the United States.(since it's obvious we can't elect one.)

We can make them less effective though. The reason grief-players seem to be such a pain is because death and killing is such a big part of the MMORPG experience. For EQ that's ALL there was. In other games it's the only way to advance. I think in Horizon's it should be just one of many lifestyle choices.

Horizons doesn't have to be about combat. Sure, that'll be in there, sure you can go fight in the wars if you want, but I think the developers should make combat a smaller part of the game. (And they'd better start now.) It's tricky for sure. Anyone can make a combat game. Just give the characters swords and let them fight. But how do you make a game that's not about combat. What is it about then? Exploration? Construction? Politics? Farming? Romance? Family? All of the above? The answer is the last one, "All of the above." You need to program a game system that is complex enough that it can handle many lifestyle choices and not just heroes. People WANT to play something other than the great swordsman, but most games hardly give them a chance.

And what does this have to do with grief players? If the game isn't focusing on combat, they won't always be focusing on killing. You don't see much senseless violence in Internet Hearts do you? There are other forms of grief play than just killing. However, I think opening up the possibilities of available play styles will allow more people to find something that fits them better than causing problems for others.

A lot of the problems with online games come from the people who play them. However, often they are encouraged to break the system because it doesn't allow them enough freedom in the first place. AE can't do anything about the people, but right now it has a chance to move the direction of Horizons away from the traps that other MMORPG's have fallen into.
- Marc Hawke