After almost ten years of this ability to remove players from the server through social exile, Asheron’s Call’s community of carebears is still around and is in fact the massive majority, because the problem players that in other games could dominate and ruin their lives are simply impotent. An interesting side effect - there is now a large but mostly hidden undercurrent of vicious gossip and reputation combat, formed after years and years of ‘rooting out’ and ‘calling out’ griefers and jerks purely on somebody’s word alone. Playing AC is like living in Salem during the witch trials - one wrong move and you can find yourself hanged.

@IRGRL It’s why these things are so hard to quantify - a fun game to one person could be a strong emotional investment to someone else. Without consequences for our actions, we’re free to play any way we want and we shouldn’t be surprised if someone decides to play a ‘bad’ guy (or whatever we call it).

@Beej Lol. How come I’m not surprised to learn you were a griefer in UO?

@Petter Now I’m really excited to get more into EVE

@Tesh Oh boy, this is all starting to make my heard hurt! I suppose a lot of it depends on people view the game. Some players think it’s ‘wrong’ to, say, gank someone in open PvP yet others think it’s just part of the game. Fascinating stuff!

But that’s not how I act in real life. I like to think I’m pretty respectable.

It all comes down to what people enjoy in the game to how they play it. I wish I could find a game that was as fun to be a jerk in as UO because to me, making someone else whine on the other side of the keyboard is fun (hence my penchant for PvP in any game I play), but I didn’t do that through hiding behind internet anonmymity. I did it because it was fun.