This is really disturbing. I would bust the characters involved down to lvl 0, and only because there is ample evidence that this is what was going on. It is clearly socially bereft of anything to hold onto. There was a time in war, wherein firing would stop in order for armies to go out and collect their wounded. It is illegal in a war zone to fire on medics (Identified by their large red medical emblems. PVP is not an excuse to cast away all societal norms. Certain respect must be paid to the rules of society. Busting in on a wake and beating people up wasn’t even practiced in Northern Ireland during the most bitter times.
As someone who plays a lot of WoW, and even runs a guild of about 200 members, I try to remember that fun is fun, but the people behind the onscreen toons are real people. I have some friends that I’ve made through the game that I like quite a bit, and if one of them died it would certainly be a shock. What that alliance guild did was just wrong. They were within their rights to do it, of course, but it was still wrong. I would be within my rights to walk down a street in East Baltimore screaming “fucking niggers suck donkey dicks”, but it would still be wrong to do so. If I was Blizzard, my reaction would be simple: Serenity Now is disbanded, all characters in that guild are deleted and any allied toons that may be shown to have participated are deleted too, along with their owner’s accounts. 5.5 million people play WoW, it wouldn’t hurt Blizzard a bit. The video ends with “Yes, we are assholes”, I’d show them just how assholish life can be.
Im sorry but i think anyone who would get upset at something like this happening simply shouldn’t be playing on a pvp server in the first place. The only difference between pvp and non pvp servers is that you can be killed at any time you are out in a contested zone, that is it. Non pvp servers have battlegrounds where people can fight each other and duels so you can fight your friends, the ONLY reason for rolling a pvp server is because you seek the added excitement of knowing you are always in danger. The alliance guild did nothing wrong, by holding their event in a contested area the horde guild was pretty much forcing the rest of the server to participate in their event by not doing what they would normally do.
To me, Blizzard’s best response would be to permit some kind of special building for the purpose of such gatherings. That location can be accessed from each realm, password-protected by the people holding the event, and supervised by an in-game mod. No PVP, no trading, no dropping of items allowed in that building. Party-crashers who sneak in, or obtain the password somehow, can be singled out by the event’s organizers and booted from the building if they misbehave.
Then let players petition in advance for use of such a building.
Deleting the guild and all the characters sets a dangerous precedent, in my opinion. The next event may not be captured on video… or the video might be kept private. Any time you establish the ultimate punishment in a game, there will be those who revel in luring people into it. Next time, somebody will have a video where they’re gathered in PVP zones, standing around, and when they’re attacked, they’ll claim, “But it was a funeral! You have to delete those guys, that’s the rrruuuuuuule!”
People are amazingly petty sometimes. In video games, they’re worse.
Does the WoW ToS say that you can’t bust up a funeral? Because if it didn’t, then I can’t see why Blizzard would do that. It’s not against the rules, and is fact playing the game the way it was intended to be played.
Game, not a church, not a public space, not even a discussion forum. It’s a game and there’s no reason not to attack rival players in a space intended for that sort of behavior. If you want to memorize a person in game, then dedicate a raid (or whatever they do in WoW) in his honor.
Then there’s the fact that Blizzard doesn’t even know if this person really died. I hate to say it, but I’ve seen plenty of folks who have died or suffered tragedy only to be later outed as liars and trolls (some on this board, and IMHO we attract a good class of posters). Blizzard can’t start giving memorial services special standards over other gatherings because they can’t know if they’re real.
The difference is that these guys knew what they were doing and were proud of it. THEY publicized it, not the horde guild. “Sets a dangerous precident?” Please. Cops here in Baltimore busted a couple of guys for murder some yesrs back, their main evidence at the trial was the videotape they found of these assholes mugging for the camera before taping themselves killing someone (The TV show Homicide used the case in one of their episodes). This is the same situation.
I’m sorry, but there is a level of civility and respect I expect from everyone – regardless. Using a funeral for a friend in which you’ve been asked to back off out of respect for my grief as an excuse to score some cheap shot points is beyond the pale. See my examples above – funerals aren’t bombed in war, opposing sides are allowed to collect their wounded, wounded prisoners are cared for, not shot.
They are, as has been noted, within their rights to attack, but just because you can do something, doesn’t mean it is right to do so.
If they had just gathered it would be different, but these people ASKED in advance that they be allowed to pay their respect and grieve in peace. If the attackers had simply said on the boards prior to the event – no, you’re entering a PVP zone, we’ll attack you if we see you there. Or, hold the event there and we’ll attack you, then, yes, it would be boneheaded, but not flame-worthy or even discipline-worthy. They attacked without warning, planning to screw these folks over in their grief. In essence, they used the funeral for a friend as an excuse to score some cheap points, and thought it was funny enough to produce a video about it to show how funny and cool they were.
Disband guild and all involved in the cowardly, vulgar, and insolent behavior.
Here’s the difference:
They asked to be allowed to grieve.
Not answering this request was an agreement to leave them alone.
Attacking them was a violation of propriety, not the actual game.
Remember the childish game where you’re offered someone’s hand to shake and they keep taking it away. This is like that, only worse because it pisses on peoples sorrow. If you can’t appreciate that, it has nothing to do with PVP and everything to do with the basic decay of society.
Ok i think you need to put the keyboard down for a second now. Same situation? you are joking right? They did nothing wrong, they broke no rules, there is nothing to punish or discourage. Holding your memorial in a contested zone and posting the exact time and place on a public board is damn near a challenge for anyone to dare disturb their ceremony.
Thats not the point, the point is complaining about being killed on a pvp server, whatever the circumstances (as long as it was done within the rules) is simply laughable because thats why you are there in the first place.
Jeez…this thread is turning into the innumerable threads in the WOW community forums that basically come down to one side advocating some honor and respect for other players and the other side saying, “Cry more, noobs!”
umm no it seems more like
“honor and respect for other players”
Verses
“Look they were playing within the rules the other people should have held it in a better place”
If you think that, I suggest you come be this sort of asshat somewhere in 0.0 in EVE Online. If this had happened there, I’d wager that virtually every major alliance would put the assholes on their kill on sight lists, and life would become very, very difficult for them. There’s a time and a place.
And that would be perfectly fine, in fact i would be surprised if that didn’t happen to that guild in WoW. Theres also a time and place to hold funerals.
The deceased girl had a “bf” who was also in the clan, and they had actually met “a couple of times” in real life.
The “bf” logged into her account for the funeral, then went to the spot by the river, and pretended to be dead.
How did that go down…I wonder if he walks over, lays down, and says,“OK, I’m dead now.” Or maybe he logged in early, and beat everyone there, so they could keep the illusion intact.
I think I also read that someone wanted to record the service and send a copy to the family? I’m sure that would be a treasured memory.
Murder is illegal. Participating in PVP within the confines of a PVP zone is not illegal. Harassment may be against the terms of service; it is in other games.
Setting the punishment to an instant, unforgiving and irreversible “you are deleted along with anybody who was present” is not a good idea, for the reasons I said. If any punishment was handed out, it should be suspended accounts for most, and banishment (including banning the use of that credit card and/or email address) for the ones with particularly egregious behavior. And even so, don’t advertise the punishment. Announcing a new rule for gamer behavior will only entice the people who want to lure others into deletion and banishment.