Therein lies the rub, doesn’t it? Ask 10 people what the goal of PVP is, and you get 12 different answers.
When you play on an unmoderated server (and when I say unmoderated, I mean in the way Funcom handles their servers as a passive moderation using reports rather than actively watching them), two things will invariably happen. You’ll have a small community start up and it has an ‘attack me, and I attack you’ mentality. Sort of a live and let live sort of thing. Maybe an occasional skirmish here and there. Sometimes drama will pop up, and people will retaliate with escalation here or there, but mostly cooler heads allow people to play in relative peace.
At some point in time, a crew rolls up on a server. These are your so called ‘toxic players’. Its a group of friends who play a variety of games together and for some reason they wanted to get their conan on. The unfortunate group mentioned in the first paragraph drew the short straw and had their server chosen.
This new group builds up pretty quick, gets equipped and ready, and then utterly craps on the relative peace the server had by attacking and leveling as many bases as they can. This obviously causes a disruption, people’s feelings get hurt, and people start pointing fingers and all kinds of nasty drama comes out of it.
The question is, did anyone do anything wrong?
That’s hard to say, I mean if you’ve been on the receiving end of the above scenario, there’s obviously going to be some bias. But if you look at it from just an outsider’s view of the server and don’t let personal experiences play a role in the bias. Did they do anything wrong?
Let’s take all the exploits and reports and such out of this for a moment. Because all the reports of undermeshing, skybasing, and all that junk usually tend to happen when things get out of hand. Let’s take a step back and go to the situation of basic accusations of toxicity here.
That group that rolled up on a server, did they do anything wrong in this example? If they did, what would have been the ‘correct’ way of playing? They rolled up together, looking for PVP. You would think, the best way of doing this is to hit your opponents as hard as you can.
Why not? You’re new to the server and they’re established. That’s an uphill battle. In their minds, if they don’t do this, their opponents will do the same to them once they figure out they are a threat. So going to the front door of someone’s base in this situation and throwing down the gauntlet is potential suicide (aka getting zero’d out in short order).
The problem actually lies in the unmoderated nature of the servers in question. That fosters a level of anxiety that leads all players to do things that they probably wouldn’t do otherwise. That means pushing the rules as far as you can go and even bending or breaking them if you think you can get away with it.
Because if you don’t, your opponent will and if they get an edge, they will wipe you out. You have to send your opponents to the southern desert naked before they do it to you. This means undermeshing before they do. It means building unraidable sky bases. It means using landclaim. It means using hacks. It means trying to weaponize the report system… because lets face it… if you’re not cheating you’re not trying and everyone is breaking the rules so best to get the report out first before you get banned.
Does this make them bad players? Well that’s up to the individual to decide and judge for themselves. I would say there are mitigating circumstances that might be considered. You could say the situation puts them in the situation where they will cheat (and when I say cheat, I mean the whole gamut, exploiting, hacking, and breaking rules… and I am generalizing because not everyone does everything listed, but mostly everyone does ‘something’). Because the idea of playing on a server for a few weeks or months and all that work and effort being wiped out in a single 5 hour period is a quite stressful situation to be in.
So if you were to try and see what a ‘win’ condition is for many, its being able to deal with the anxiety in a way that seems manageable. And different people will go to different lengths to achieve that. Which is why you see different answers. Some think anything and everything is doable if they believe their opposition is doing it. Some may believe that external programs are off the table, but landclaim is… if only Funcom would ‘see reason’ and let them build how they think they should to combat the situation.
Everyone is going into the situation with anxiety and paranoia. Is Funcom at fault for this? Kinda, partially. Opening a server with the settings they have sort of built the foundation of that. But then again these players decided to play on those servers with full knowledge of the server settings right there for them to see. Sure they may have been ignorant when they made their first character and didn’t think to select the server part of Settings, or maybe they did and didn’t understand what the several dozen settings were.
But everyone in this thread knows what each and every individual setting does, and they know what these servers are now, and they still continue to choose to play there. So while they may have initially been innocent on their first time playing, they are not now, and cannot use that in an argument.
So at the end of the day one can’t say they don’t know what they are getting into, and they do know what the rules are and how the settings affect the game play. And due to this, they play and thrive in an environment where anxiety causes paranoia. Which causes people to try to bend and get away with breaking the rules in subtle or not so subtle ways to push their opponents out so they themselves don’t get pushed out.
That is the reality of PVP on these servers. And whether one agrees that is how PVP should be or not, is ultimately irrelevant. The fact is, this is how everyone is playing. Whether they like it or not.
In contrast, when you do play on a moderated server, things tend to take a slightly different tone. And I say slightly because there is actually some similarities to a Funcom Provided Unmoderated PVP Server and a Private Moderated PVP Server. And this goes to show why Funcom isn’t entirely to blame for the state of their servers.
Remember what I said towards the beginning about a community who have a live and let live approach with the occasional drama that sometimes escalates? That normally appears to be ‘Good PVP’ when that happens on those servers, mainly because of the contrast of a disrupting clan going around and wiping everyone and setting off a chain of events that turns into a dog eat dog server apocalypse. But without the contrast, those petty disputes seem a bit more serious. They’re not. But they feel like it to some. And let’s be honest, most of the problems in PVP are perception.
But when you have an environment where undermeshing, skybasing, landclaiming, and hacks, and cheats, and exploits are dealt with swiftly. And the anxiety of being wiped out is (on many of these servers anyway) abated. What is there left? Well that’s the wonderful (or horrible thing) about human nature. It will make some crap up. (Oh and before any PVE’ers get on their high horses thinking this is only a PVP issue… you all do this too… if not more. Except you like to DM an admin instead of clicking someone to their respawn point as your first recourse outside of passive agression)
So in the absence of that, they make stuff up. They take small slights personally and end up with months long feuds and drama that can engulf multiple clans. Generally make keeping a quaint and functional community an utter nightmare for the owners and admins on a server. And this stuff on paper, doesn’t make any sense.
You play on a PVP server. Yes.
You play with building damage on. Yes.
This means you can attack or be attacked. Yes.
This means you can break someone’s buildings. Yes.
This means you can have your stuff broken. Yes.
But when so and so attacks you… #$% them #^% the admins #$#$^ this server!
Granted not everyone does this. You do see raids and usually done in a way where the attackers if successful get some loot and whatever (RP servers for example have other consequences outside of losing loot in many cases). And in most cases that goes fine without a hitch. But all it takes is one person to get their rear end smarting and they start spreading rumors and discontent and it can spiral if the admins aren’t on top of it, or are unfortunately oblivious to it. There are cases where admins are involved in the drama, but servers that routinely have that as an issue don’t last very long. And even when servers have a great track record that goes on for years can suddenly crash and burn the moment it does. Which necessitates vigilance on the owner’s part.
The one saving grace about these servers is usually everyone is on the same page when it comes to the goals of how PVP is to operate. They can vary from server to server. But through the way they operate, everyone is in the same lane (either by choice or by enforcement). Meanwhile on the Funcom unmoderated ones… its everything goes until enough people get themselves banned to where it gets quiet for a moment, until the next group comes in and starts it all over.
For me that’s not a healthy way to play. That level of stress and anxiety sucks. I used to play in PVP like that in many MMORPGs and Survival games in the past. And I see some very stark similarities. You login, see what damage has happened in the last few hours since you were last on, fix it up, prepare for the BS you’re going to engage in while online, and then prep everything as best you can to mitigate the stuff while you go to sleep then work for the next day.
Its even better when your server has its own bit of communication outside of the game. Such as a MMORPGs server section of their forums, or a servers discord/teamspeak, or something similar. Your PVP doesn’t just stop in game at that point. Then you’re monitoring public opinion on your operations, and seeing if there’s certain people getting friendly or not and you having to determine where the alliances are being made or any discontent that can be exploited.
If you think the paranoia on Funcom servers is bad in Conan. You haven’t been in a 400+ man clan in Archeage where in a single teamspeak or discord voice channel you KNOW and I mean you KNOW there is at least 5-10 spies from other guilds listening in. You know they are there, but don’t know who is who. So now you have to have communication security in your own channels and chats.
But like I said before, most of the issues are based on perception. That level of problems with trust aren’t present in Conan. With 10 man clans, the idea of a spy for example isn’t on most people’s minds because for one person out of ten being a mole or whatnot is rare. Possible, I’ve heard of instances of it happening, but not probable.
The solution is as simple as everyone on these servers to just chill the hell out, realize its just a game, and not take losing stuff so seriously. But ego and human nature isn’t going to allow for that.
So instead my suggestion for people is just to own it. Stop complaining and just own the suck you are in. Your opponents are going to try to zero you out and send you back to the desert. You’re going to do the same to them. They’re going to land claim, you’re going to landclaim. They’re going to undermesh, and you’re going to undermesh. They’re going to skybase, so you’re going to skybase. They’re going to cheat, and hack and break rules, and you’re going to as well. They’re going to report you so you need to report them too. Just lose the anxiety and embrace the system as it is. And do so until you’re banned and then just move on.
It is what it is. Until you take human nature out of the equation (which are the players) or play in an environment that is a bit more rigid against ‘foul play’ then this is simply the nature of a PVP server that doesn’t have active moderation.
No one here is better or more honorable than the other. Its all ego and pride at the end of the day.
It’s clearly defined in the TOS what unnecessary building is and it’s not secondary work stations.
