Hello HWS Community.
While still relatively new to HWS, I had a brief moment in the spotlight with my chat being referenced in a post. While I felt beyond justified in what I was doing and kept it limited, I want to make sure I’m also positively contributing to HWS and not seen as a person who only involves themselves when things are somehow “dramatic”.
With that in mind, I wanted to share a specific thing about the player’s behavior that took me from mildly annoyed with them to “That’s not cool.” Its behavior that I feel isn’t covered by any of the conversations so far and not covered by the community guidelines but may be a good candidate for inclusion in guidelines going forward. This post is not about a single player, I won’t reference them or discuss the specifics beyond light context so people understand where I’m coming from. To me this is big picture - going forward - let’s all agree that this is good no matter what the exact scenario is.
The behavior I am referencing is essentially intentionally advising new players into having a mindset or to get them to form habits that are likely to harm them and benefit the offending player. I want to be careful in my description of this because of course new players should be able to be killed and their loot taken if they are obviously in PVP space just doing whatever. This behavior I’m referring to starts in chat. Because its chat behavior primarily, I feel it fits in section 3 Behavior and Chat.
What I saw was chat along the lines of “Any PvE players, you can go to PVP space, nobody is there to kill you”; “If you’re new don’t worry about PvP space, you can mine like crazy”. I am paraphrasing the exact text, but that was the idea. It was that kind of message repeated for an extended period of the day that really upset me. At first, I thought the player was taunting the bigger factions for not doing a good enough job of finding him while he was in PvP space so I kind of blew it off as just hot air. As the chat progressed though, I realized that the player was trying to get new players to do something they wouldn’t normally do, in order to kill them and take their resources. (There was subtext that lead me to that conclusion but I don’t want to divert the conversation to one over semantics or the specific scenario. Just take it for granted even if its just for the sake of this post that it was targeted at new players, not the big factions).
To me, it was worded in such a way over such a period of time that I believe that if newer players had been paying attention they would have followed this advice.
The problem I have with this behavior is that fundamentally, we all want newer players to have a good time on the server and to slowly build the confidence and skill to participate in PvP space. A strong player base of “upcoming” players and factions will help keep the server strong, items moving on the market, and top factions able to recruit fresh players. If the advice of the player had been listened to and taken to heart by new players, they may have become frustrated with the server and decide that they can’t get good advice or that it is too difficult and quit. They could also risk something they weren’t prepared to lose and leave out of frustration. TO BE CLEAR: I’m not proposing that it be against the rules to kill new players and take their stuff; I’m proposing that a standard of conduct we should all agree to be held to is to not instigate in chat conversation that intentionally tries to get players to do things that takes advantage of their inexperience.
In this mindset, I’d like to propose an addition to rule 3.3 which would read something like:
3.3.6: Giving advice HWS values community given advice in game. If another player asks for advice in game, any answers should be a player’s genuine advice. Offering unsolicited advice in game should also be a player’s best genuine advice. Any advice given that could intentionally harm another player’s game play experience including attempting to get another player to break HWS rules or puts another player in a situation where they would experience an unexpected loss is not allowed. Special consideration should be given when advising new players who are not aware of all HWS features.
I think this fits nicely with 9.2.1 as of course there is always an element of risk in going to a PvP area. As players progress, at a certain point they are ready to try PvP-space things. The advice in this case should carry some kind of disclaimer like “You’re ready to try to gain resources a lot faster by doing things in PvP space, give it a shot. Of course you can get killed there so be careful.”
It simply pissed me off when someone was trying to bring down the game experience for new players. I’m pretty new myself and I really don’t like the idea that they’re being taken advantage of. I want to see the server grow and for people to genuinely like coming here. More players = more to do = more fun.
I would also like to thank my faction mates for their considerable patience and gifts during my early days on the server which made me feel welcomed. I’d also like to compliment anyone who after killing a new player offers them assistance afterwards. Even a rival faction member just bought items from me on the market to help me out (that they probably didn’t need and definitely paid too much for). I have seen enough good-will between players on the NA server that I intend to keep playing. These behaviors help us all in the long run and I intend to give back.
Side note, I have had a blast recently in some of the big NA fights. Really appreciate everyone, regardless of whose side they were on saying things like “good fight” afterwards. Fun to see good play happening and it motivates me to always be ready for the next one.
Finally - If you are new and if you see this post. Don’t be discouraged - This was mostly about a few limited examples on a server of really fun people. I really enjoy my experience on the HWS servers and I see a lot of good help/advice being given all the time. If you ask for help, it’ll probably be there.