Ganging up on our enemies / "Ganking"

A few times now, there have been remarks about "ganking", in society chat as well as in other threads in here. I thought it would be nice to have a thread where we can state our opinions on the matter and discuss them:


For myself, I understand and accept that certain people have some sense of honor, they try to pick fair fights and let people who "parlay" get away most times. I'm sure many of us including myself got away by parlaying or dealing with an enemy, I am a roleplayer plus playing a pirate here and I don't see anything wrong with taking advantage of an enemy being too honorable and letting himself talk out of a fight.
On the other hand, I don't go whining to anybody if I get sunk, its part of the game no matter if was 6 against me or only one opponent.

And to be just a little "realistic", very few ship captains during those times wanted a "fair fight", no matter if pirates or any nation. The point in every conflict in history has always been to outnumber the enemy, to minimize your own losses and all that. "Ganking" has always been the most favoured means to defeat somebody, and in any place with open PVP it will be like that as well.

What do you others think about the whole subject ? Sharing my opinions or thinking completely different ?

I take a stance of ganking according to the design of my character. Jimar is a killer for all intents really and apart from maybe letting a white colored ship that approached from the east on a Sunday go... he'll pretty much 'gank' anything.

My other pirate character on this server however, is the opposite. He will avoid direct combat unless properly challenged. He would not attack a lowly sloop unless the sloop directly insulted or threatened him in some manner.

I myself never get offended by being ganked. Especially when it is the basis behind a game (like this one). The only 'honor' I truly demand is meta-game ganking and harassment (i.e. I was a WoW player once.... corpse camping is mean... it's now not just killing it's keeping someone from playing the game entirely because you think it's funny). Luckily, this game is designed so there is really little bullying. I have no 'corpse' to run to and will probably 'spawn' half way across the world in my second string ship so that's not an issue really.

I am not a bully and don't want to ruin a guys day just to get a giggle.... but I am playing a pirate in a pirates game. I will sometimes gank.... I will sometimes plug em with holes and let them go.... I will sometimes ignore their presence entirely (in the same manner I ignore lvl 5 NPCs.... why bother?).

Mostly in it for the RP sake... not the PvP sake.

Most excellent post here master Mendez and i must say i agree with much you have said! I also understand the fact that to achieve victory one has to minimize their losses and fight with superiour numbers!

Still i must say that the fights i seek are the ones that fit myself the most and those are the one on one battles! Not many to be had but hopefully i will get my change at some point, there is however an upcoming duel between me and a man i have known for some time now so that prospect fills me with anticipation as we speak!

As to the crying when being ganked, i shall not do that eventhough i will state my oppinion when under attack from 5 or 6 to 1 for i simply hate that! I will not fight like that for i see no fun in it, to me thats grieving someone and i am not about that...

I too Undertand the Order of Ganking! I do hate the overthe top Gank's though (4-6 Lvl 50 taking out lvl 20 ) This example I do have an issue with! But realize there is no way to stop it, but it does irk me.... No crying! I respect a more challenging aspect though and one I more or less live by! If ye gank a player whom ye outnumber atleast make sure the level is not more than 10 below yurs! I think It is more respectfull to all if it is done with class....I agree with everything said here so far! Ganking is part of the game it's just the way it is! Just don't feed on the noobies! I like it when 3 to 4 Lvl 30-40 player's gank on er two lvl 50 player's! At least they have a chance to do something! Anyway I guess i just like the risk to be a little more even! hehe

Maybe I'm misusing the word gank... When I say the word gank I'm meaning an impossible fight versus impossible odds by abuse of the mechanics of a video game. With that definition in mind I'm very anti-ganking no matter which end of it I'm on. I understand and accept the fact that it is built into the game and there will always be those who choose to do it. I enjoy a good pvp fight even at very long odds and lets face it video games are about fun and really nothing else. When I'm 'ganked' it isn't fun. My personal nature causes me to brood over it. I truly hope my comments about it haven't been seen as crying or whining because that was far from the intent or feeling that I have. I wanted no sympathy, pity or action on anyone's part. I feel angst over it. If you'd like to know my *feelings* on it a micro rant follows, if not skip to the next paragraph. I get pretty frustrated when 6 hours of my precious in game time are erased by what are the equivalent of playground bullies. It makes me rather unagreeable when considering being nice to strangers. And it makes the game seem like a waste of time which is part of a love-hate relationship I have with games anyway. All of us have or will experience 'ganking', it is a part of the game and an experience in common so to speak. But this is the last I'll say about that.

As to 'realism', yes overwhelming force is an age old tactic and I use it in every strategy type game I play. There have also been many times when the tactic has not worked in reality. Some unaccounted variable in the infinite possibilities of reality causes the overwhelming force to be defeated. That's reality. Games don't have reality. Games have a very limited scope and it means that by applying a game mechanic one can be truly unbeatable in many circumstances, or versus players of x level, or whatever. You'll never find anything unbeatable in reality. Again this is all just pointless philosophizing on the matter. Some players will be happiest only when they have no chance of losing a fight just as I will be happiest when I have a fight where the outcome is yet to be determined and anyone could be victorious.

I do suggest you read the post i made today about an unfortunate event master Crowe!

And no i do not see what you wrote as crying not at all!!!

Cap'n Mendez,
While your post is certainly well written, and I concur with your view on this issue, I must cite an observation. As stated, while in a pvp area everyone is subject to 'ganking', reciting the incident shouldn't always be taken as a complaint, so much as a 'heads up' to all who read about it.
Here I must make reference to something written. To refer to anyone's tale of being ganked as 'whining' is almost offensive, wouldn't you think? On the other hand, when someone states the facts of an incident, one might take heed and take notice of the players (or societies) mentioned.
Again, your post is very well written. I enjoyed the read.

Being ganked or losing to unfair odds is never any fun and to be honest master Crowe i feel the same! Whenever i have been sunk i feel very bad as well and it takes me a while to ajust or accept it, perhaps i am too attached to the ship or otherwise but as a society we will never see that as whining 'o that i am sure!

Sure the possibility of ganking is in the game but to me we all are what make this grand game so it saddens me to see so many resorting to unfair practises! Still if anything happens there are always those 'o us that can lend an ear and listen for that is merely talking about feelings and not whining at all...