I have let this thread evolve for a while before posting
I have been here active since 2007
I have bout 10 PKs in that whole time tops and several indirect PKs/PK assists (cred is average)
I have been PKed maybe 10 times. I have stored a lot more and died to monsters the other times.
I have played >50 characters, stopped counting.
I have had the bloodlust once or twice way back when, and I admit I no longer do. I once leapt at the chance to get kill after kill when I once had a well rounded assassin, got about 5 kills with this character who I admit was rather 2-dimensional. That character worked in a criminal crew and almost every kill were ones my character was asked to do. Every PK generally had at least a solid hour of (h)emotes, thoughts, Way or in person conversation or planning behind them.. but not always visible to the victim.
I have RPed scenes where I directly warned the victim they were treading in dangerous territory and vaguely suggested they would be punished and then I killed their character later.
Every PK i documented in reports, often I wished up but not always, but every PK gets a report after and some had a report beforehand to describe the plot in advance.
I have never received a player complaint for PKing.
I probably never submitted a complaint for being PKed, though I did complain about my very first character (back in like 2004) being PKilled (I honestly had barely skimmed the docs and thought I could trust a city elf I had just met as a half elf, hah). Since then I don't remember being the victim of super shitty PK.
I have instead sent kudos to my killers at times if I thought it was done particularly well
All that said.. I agree with Bebop. As soon as the chance to get a kill is available it seems people leap at it. Before I learned my lesson, when I played my one successful assassin, there might only be hours from the time the notion of a PK even was made to its execution, even if the target was rather important or well connected, which now feels very rushed to me in hindsight.
I remember feeling kind of sad and disappointed when I learned my then boss had killed a whore she had hired within 1 or 2 RL days of hire and just dumped her body on the pile... not much of a plot there. It didn't dawn on me right away but I soon learned the joy of a little more restraint.
In general the act of PK is not fair and obviously the idea is stack the odds in your favor. It is very very hard to avoid being killed if someone with the means has set their mind to it -- the only time I seem impervious to being PKed is when I play elves. I once survived 5 PK attempts from the same attacker with the same elf and later grew bored and stored. The key was good agility, defense, and parry skills, and cures.
My point is that I have been through both sides, I have been assassins, thugs, aides and mages, and PK has dotted the experience throughout, and regardless of what shit anyone in this game may have to say about me, I still feel like the game is bloodthirsty and that people could stand to think a bit more creatively, especially with killing soft targets off such as aides. I am entitled to my opinion and it is only as valid as any other poster here. I used to be different, and though I understand the bloodlust, I no longer have it. It doesn't interest me to kill senselessly, but I don't mind if I stumble into being PKed either.
Now, for specific points
1. Poison is OP and I agree with nerfs to it. I have yet to branch brew since the changes but based on current supply and demand, I do not agree with any nerfs to it.
2. Delay management and one hit kill tactics have been the norm for ages. Stealth has been the dominant technique for ages. It used to be that powerful stealth killers were very very hard to train without metagame twinking. More and more they are easier to train; particularly certain combinations of key skills now do come in easy class packages without painful branching efforts (though arguably at a cost of lower caps, etc). People are learning the game and as staff have said the power balance shifts. It will shift eventually back to making stealth kills require more patience and then people will again complain that it is too hard to be an antagonist... pendulum effects. I don't worry over it but something that controls the poison economy primarily with the brew changes we are trying to learn is a good idea.
3. I have raged over BS like public tavern kills by fresh out of chargen PCs. I do feel squishy PCs should be viable and reducing silly gank kills which really feel more like code abuse should be a priority for staff. I generally agree with most of Delirium/Shaleah/Bebop's points.
4. I have never enjoyed seeing or hearing about a PK that I didn't feel had good reason. Sometimes I had no idea what the reason was... more often than not, the reason seemed very flimsy to me or there were serious logical flaws to it. I still don't send complaints, but I do hope that all PKers do submit reports (it isn't bad to do that, at all, so to whine about submitting a brief report is to basically disrespect an RPI environment). In other words, without the 360 view that staff get, I am not in much of a position to criticize other people's PK habits, but I have many times wondered if the rules and principles I tried to keep to are being enforced.
5. Finally there is absolutely a place for love and companionship in Zalanthas. To those in this thread who made solid points about how companionship in the face of danger makes perfect sense, thank you.
