Honor is an interesting word to use in PVP settings. Many think its about sportsmanship, chivalry, and civility. In my experience it is a means to con players into a specific behavior to be exploited.
I saw this as far back as 1999 in MW3 (MechWarrior 3). It was very common in multiplayer to avoid shooting opponents in the legs. This was something that carried over from MW2. The reason being is leg destruction was instant death. While torso destruction only resulted in death if the center was cored out. It was determined by the community that legging was not an honorable way of dealing with an opponent. Due to the way people engaged in combat, going for a torso meant taking out a side torso before the center would be vulnerable unless you could reliably hit the torso.
Most newer players didn’t know how to switch their target display and used the 3D model display to show target damage. Veterans usually used the wireframe display like MW2 used for nostalgic reasons. I was a bit more utilitarian and used the HTAL (Head/Torso/Arms/Leg) display. This display showed armor remaining as vertical bars. Not fancy, but accurate. It would show how much armor someone had in a green bar that would turn red as it was damaged.
What I noticed is players would enter battle without any armor on their legs. They would strip the armor off to either add it to their torso, extending their battle endurance, added weapons for more firepower, or added heatsinks to fire their weapons more often.
At this point I started targeting their legs and instructed those in my command within the unit (kinda like clans or guilds), to do the same. People whine, people complained, and people claimed we were dishonorable. That is until their deeds were shown in screenshots of their names in target windows of armorless legs in HTAL display.
Let’s just say this practice of no legging began to fade in MW4 a few years later, and is totally absent in MWO currently. But in every game I’ve played with PVP for the last 25 years, there was always this list of rules people would try to impose on others. The majority of the time its so they can exploit you.
What I suggest for players to do is to play by their own rules, and those regulations and policies dictated by the server. But no one else’s. And don’t really expect others to play by your rules. Now adjust your playstyle accordingly.
In this thread’s example, some don’t like offline raiding. I don’t like it personally. But I will say this. If I played on a server where it is possible, then I absolutely will do it. Why? Because the one I am raiding will see kindness as weakness (a human trait) and take advantage of that mercy and do it to me.
Would I curb stomp a solo player or use overwhelming odds? Well yeah I would, if I thought for a moment the solo player might be a threat, or doesn’t go out of their way to ensure that I don’t think they are. If I think for a moment a solo player is just a scout, snitch, or will sell me and my own out to a rival clan, then they get scrubbed from the area.
It doesn’t matter if some of you say you would never do those things. Oh you would if a rival offers you enough for it, or coerces you into doing it by threatening to wipe you out. Willing or unwilling, a enemy’s pa-wn (odd this word is censored, its a chess piece ffs…) is a threat. Why would you risk your buildings and getting yourself spawn camped for a complete stranger? You don’t know if I would simply do the same as the rival to you or not. Its PVP, its not a fair or nice place.
But you know what? I expect the same standard to be done in return. Its PVP. When I play PVP I expect to be PVP’d. I expect to PVP people right back. Its nothing personal. People who gank me or try to offline me, or whatever aren’t horrible people.
Some of the most hardcore and ruthless PVPers in survival games, MMORPGs, and other game types haven’t been horrible people outside the game. I’ve known soldiers, airmen, loving parents to their children, devout ministers, people that give to charity, lead youth groups, and all those good and wholesome things. When it comes to playing video games they simply put their game faces on and play competitively. They play to win, and tearing someone down is just part of the game to them. Not a method used to simply ruin another player’s day.
For every whiner who can’t take what they give out and try to weasel themselves around, there’s many more who expect the ruthlessness they exhibit. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a functional PVP community at all. Yes its usually smaller than PVE communities in these games. Its not a playstyle for the majority. But there is a significant amount to warrant its inclusion.