Caale has been intentionally going to the most populated rooms in the crossing and blowing up boxes for the purpose of harming other players in the room.

To me, this is a great example of mechanics abuse, since he knows that by trying to pick the box without disarming it, it will go off. He ID'd the box to make sure it was the type he wanted to cause the most amount of destruction possible to all persons in the room.

If it is not a mechanics abuse issue, it is certainly a PVP policy issue. By harming (and in one case, killing) a player who has not consented to PVP or provoked him in some way, I would argue that this is textbook PVP policy violation. Quoting POLICY 11, Player vs Player Conflict:

What is not acceptable is to initiate combat against unsuspecting victims.

That's exactly what he's doing. He sneaks into a room, with lockpick and box in hand, blows it up, and tucks tail.

So I guess my question is, is this acceptable behavior? Or is this policy violation?

He killed ONE player and you are posting about this?

Everyone has consent on him. Plus he's PVP Open. Handle it in game?

Policy wise, this probably falls under the "its cool but do it too much and it could fall under harassment."

You say its "intentional" but how is one to determine that? What if the GMs concluded that this was intentional and instead he decided to just pick all his boxes in populated areas anyways, using "normal" methods, and the same result? Would it be ok then? Should all box picking be GM enforced to be away from other players? Where do you draw the line?

Again, this kind of stuff can be EASILY handled in game. Why force the GMs to take action on super grey areas when you can just have Caale killed a few times, or multiple times. Or whatever, until he stops.

I'm always a fan of IN GAME intervention. Plus, its way more fun that way.

It has been happening a lot, so it probably does fall under harassment (and for that matter mechanics abuse.) I'd love to know how in the world you interpreted the policy that way, though.

I don't know how many players he's killed, but I do know that he was doing enough damage to kill everyone in the room each time he did it if there weren't a supply of powerful empaths available, and oh, he was doing it right in front of the empath guild, too. So yeah, that's why it's necessary to post about this. This post was a question as to whether or not this was worthy of bothering the GMs with report/assist.

In response to "handle it in game" I think it's pretty fair to say that someone capable of this is more than willing to engage in pvp with anyone, since they've been set to pvp open like was mentioned. My guess would be that he's been around since the AOL days and would be happy to wipe the floor with anyone who called him out on what he was doing.

So no, handling it in game is probably not an option. This is most likely someone who cannot be handled "easily" as you put it, which is why GMs need to step in. The fact of the matter is that this is a game where PVP is handled very strictly. It's black and white in the policy. While these actions are not explicitly PVP, they are clearly abusive of game mechanics to force the same effects on non-consensual players.

As far as knowing his intentions, last night he repeatedly popped out of hiding to pick a box which immediately blew up and shredded everyone in front of the war mage guild and the empath guild, arguably the most populated rooms in the crossing, repeatedly, and when questioned about it became hostile and accused players of afk-scripting or intentionally blowing boxes themselves. He said he was trying to kill the "sleepers," so it seems pretty obvious that he was intentionally trying to kill players, which, under the pvp policy, can warrant a 30-day ban.

No, popping boxes in populated areas is not against policy, but it became clear very fast with how often it was happening and his behavior prior to and before it happening that it was intentional and malicious. Personally, I don't think there should be room effect box traps at all, but that's not my decision to make. The problem lies with the fact that room effect box traps can be used as weapons in exactly this manner to break rules and abuse the mechanics and force players into pvp-like situations where their lives are at stake.

Anyway, the conversation is over, and my question was answered. I'll be sure to just use report from now on. Thanks for clearing that up, everyone.

>> My only frustration (having been in the room last night) is they run and hide in a no locate/no familiar location immediately after and remained for at least an hour or so after last nights incident. I hope that anyone who does this remains open for a time.

Stealth above 600 makes you immune to locate. They likely aren't in a no locate/no familiar room. Probably just hidden/invis.

There aren't too many of them. But we should start a list somewhere!

>> I found it interesting that this happened 2 days after the necro discussion on how intentional box popping interacts with policy.

My bad! I'll take the blame on this one. Although I definitely think Caeele could have handled the RP differently. If Squirrel is to be believed, ranting about sleepers and afk people in game is a bit silly.

Heya,

So the question was asked and answered, the rest of this is speculation on what did or didn't happen. Let's just either take it over to conflicts or end it.

Thank you.

Annwyl
Message Board Supervisor

If you've questions or comments, take it to e-mail by writing me at DR-Annwyl@play.net.

>>I had a question about this since it happened last night multiple times. From what i've read so far and heard from people it seems to be a habitual trend. I am curious if this doesn't fall under harassment(it's usually the same places), and causes a major disruption of game play. The character is passive agressively PvPing, killing people with that intention. The fact he is PVP open doesn't seem to mean anything, his victims are usually circle 1-20, they won't stand a chance against him; what are they suppose to do? die and then die again for being killed the first time? Just get bullied around?

While I personally have not been killed by this, I've seen some very frustrated new players lately and the number is rising.

The response to your question, assist in game and talk to someone in game who can address the issue.

This is for general conversation about policy. We are never going to make a ruling on policy on the forums.


Annwyl
Message Board Supervisor

If you've questions or comments, take it to e-mail by writing me at DR-Annwyl@play.net.

>>There are quite alot of characters in game, who are level headed enough, that would be happy to help you out with situations like these in a RP way. <<

Translation: a thousand plats per kill bounty.

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade

>>Ahhhh yes, I remember earning my first 1000 plat at level 10-20 just like it was yesterday.<<

You don't have 1200 alts by now???

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"Brace yourselves, Squanto is going to bleh blah fart fart bleh.." -the player of the character formerly known as Pureblade