Re: to HC pks
The most basic reason why "legit" PK'ing is, IMO, at best a marginally acceptable pastime, is that in 99% of the occasions where I have seen it done, the scenario is always like the following:
(1.) Group of (say) Level 14 to 20 characters are happily playing co-operative Hardcore Diablo, they're all in the same party, and they're trying (say) to do the Maggot Lair or Claw Viper Temple quests in Act 2.
(2.) Level 18-25 Paladin (really a Charge / Might build, but he lies about it and says, "oh noes, I'm just leveling doodz, gonna make a Zealot") joins game, types "pp" and gets invited to join the party.
(3.) He joins, for the sole reason of finding out where the other party members are.
(4.) Immediately he leaves the party and hits the "Hostile" button.
(5.) Everybody, at least the sane ones who know all about the "legit" PK tricks [like, say, having the supposedly Level 18 character having been rushed through Hell so he gets all the quests and has resists and hit points way over what a normal Level 18 character would have, having been Enchanted for 3000 points of Fire damage by an Enchantress (or a cheat like "Chantbot") who quickly enters, Enchants him and then leaves the game, not to mention being exquisitely decked out in specially bought dueling gear, e.g. Clegs or Bloodfist gloves, 6-socketed ethereal pikes, etc.] immediately throws a Town Portal and shows up at the stash chest near Fara. All players of the previous, co-op party type various things back and forth about what a loser the PK'er is.
(6.) Members of the original co-op party start sending uncomplimentary messages, such as "LEAVE YOU IDIOT", "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE" and "WTF???" to the putative PK'er. He replies with erudite commentary such as "STFU", "DUEL ME N00BZ", and "U HOMO PUSSYS AFRAID HEHE?".
(7.) This goes on, sometimes for as much as an hour, until (a) the original party squelches the PK'er and then create a private, password-protected game where they can try to pick up where they were when the PK'er dropped in, (b) the PK'er himself gets bored and heads off to ruin another game or (c) (very rarely) one of the party ventures somewhere outside the "safe" town area, immediately gets one- or two-shotted by the ultra-twinked PK'er, then all the rest of the original party, cursing and swearing at the PK'er, abandon the session and go who knows where.
The point is, none of the above even remotely resembles what a rational game designer would have imagined, when he or she decided to allow "non-consensual hostility". The theory of the "Hostile" button is that you will get an exciting, "last man standing" kind of duel in the wilderness, with everyone hunting everyone else; in practice, all that it accomplishes, in 99% of the cases that I have seen, is some jerk showing up and hitting the "Hostile" button, just so he can get a childish thrill in spoiling a co-operative Diablo quest for 5 or 6 other players.
This is immensely selfish, self-indulgent behavior, but judging from the responses I see on this Forum, evidently a lot of you think that it's just Jim-Dandy. I suppose that it may have some place in Softcore Diablo but in Hardcore, especially when you consider that without the basic Hostility option, TPPK would also be impossible, I think you would have a hard time convincing a neutral observer that the many negatives of this "feature" outweigh its very few "positives".
At least that's how I see it... but then, I'm not Blizzard, I'm just a guy that likes slaying evil monsters in my fantasy life, not strangers who I have no rational reason to want to murder.
Cheers
Mr. Bill
While I would agree with Baranor that Blizzard -- for some reason that's 99.9% incomprehensible not only to myself but my guess would be, a great many other Diablo II players -- did definitely and deliberately build a "non-consensual dueling" feature into the game (so, in that sense, you have to assume that the original D2 designers intentionally wanted "legit" PK'ing to be a possible game outcome), personally I think that all but a small number of the "legit" PK'ers are really only a slight bit better than the "illegit" TPPKers, whatever "right" to this practice they fancy themselves to have been granted by the game designers.
The most basic reason why "legit" PK'ing is, IMO, at best a marginally acceptable pastime, is that in 99% of the occasions where I have seen it done, the scenario is always like the following:
(1.) Group of (say) Level 14 to 20 characters are happily playing co-operative Hardcore Diablo, they're all in the same party, and they're trying (say) to do the Maggot Lair or Claw Viper Temple quests in Act 2.
(2.) Level 18-25 Paladin (really a Charge / Might build, but he lies about it and says, "oh noes, I'm just leveling doodz, gonna make a Zealot") joins game, types "pp" and gets invited to join the party.
(3.) He joins, for the sole reason of finding out where the other party members are.
(4.) Immediately he leaves the party and hits the "Hostile" button.
(5.) Everybody, at least the sane ones who know all about the "legit" PK tricks [like, say, having the supposedly Level 18 character having been rushed through Hell so he gets all the quests and has resists and hit points way over what a normal Level 18 character would have, having been Enchanted for 3000 points of Fire damage by an Enchantress (or a cheat like "Chantbot") who quickly enters, Enchants him and then leaves the game, not to mention being exquisitely decked out in specially bought dueling gear, e.g. Clegs or Bloodfist gloves, 6-socketed ethereal pikes, etc.] immediately throws a Town Portal and shows up at the stash chest near Fara. All players of the previous, co-op party type various things back and forth about what a loser the PK'er is.
(6.) Members of the original co-op party start sending uncomplimentary messages, such as "LEAVE YOU IDIOT", "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE" and "WTF???" to the putative PK'er. He replies with erudite commentary such as "STFU", "DUEL ME N00BZ", and "U HOMO PUSSYS AFRAID HEHE?".
(7.) This goes on, sometimes for as much as an hour, until (a) the original party squelches the PK'er and then create a private, password-protected game where they can try to pick up where they were when the PK'er dropped in, (b) the PK'er himself gets bored and heads off to ruin another game or (c) (very rarely) one of the party ventures somewhere outside the "safe" town area, immediately gets one- or two-shotted by the ultra-twinked PK'er, then all the rest of the original party, cursing and swearing at the PK'er, abandon the session and go who knows where.
The point is, none of the above even remotely resembles what a rational game designer would have imagined, when he or she decided to allow "non-consensual hostility". The theory of the "Hostile" button is that you will get an exciting, "last man standing" kind of duel in the wilderness, with everyone hunting everyone else; in practice, all that it accomplishes, in 99% of the cases that I have seen, is some jerk showing up and hitting the "Hostile" button, just so he can get a childish thrill in spoiling a co-operative Diablo quest for 5 or 6 other players.
This is immensely selfish, self-indulgent behavior, but judging from the responses I see on this Forum, evidently a lot of you think that it's just Jim-Dandy. I suppose that it may have some place in Softcore Diablo but in Hardcore, especially when you consider that without the basic Hostility option, TPPK would also be impossible, I think you would have a hard time convincing a neutral observer that the many negatives of this "feature" outweigh its very few "positives".
At least that's how I see it... but then, I'm not Blizzard, I'm just a guy that likes slaying evil monsters in my fantasy life, not strangers who I have no rational reason to want to murder.
Cheers
Mr. Bill
ropeller: 
