Help stop online bullying in games

This letter is concerning a form of online bullying and perhaps even theft.

The bullying referred occurs in online games and is commonly referred to as PKing. PKing is different from regular PvP. PKing stands for Player killing and PvP stands for player versus player. In regular PvP all parties involved in the fight are their of there own free will and should be aware of the consequences. PKing is where one or more parties simply attack someone without that person's consent. Most commonly they will attack someone that they know that they can beat. PvP would be like sitting at home offline playing a game of Madden football against a friend. Pking would be more like going into someone's home without their permission and kicking them off their own game then either taking it or playing it there. PKing is really, really messed up.

Before I continue, I should state that I have never nor do I desire to take part in PKing. As a matter of fact, I have only ever taken part in any PvP in an online game because the game required it to obtain certain items. I wasn't particularly happy about being forced to do it then.

That said, all PKing really does is allow players to hide behind their computers to screw over other players. This can not be a good example of behavior for the millions of children that play online games.

Before anyone says it is only a game, let me go further into what PKing allows people to do to other people. In almost every game that allows PKing the person that wins the battle gets to take the possessions that the other player's character has on them. Or at least some of those possessions. Those possessions take time to acquire. By that I mean that you generally have to spend your "real life" time playing the game to get to the point that you can get those in-game possessions.

Most of the online video games offer a subscription to get more access to parts of the game. These subscriptions are time based. Example would be say $19.95 for a 3 month subscription. So in turn if the victim of the PKing spent 3 months getting to where they could obtain the items then the PKer basically just stole $19.95 from their victim and also the 3 months that it took playing the game.

The people that make the games know this. They put it into the games on purpose to cause conflict between players and to get that extra subscription to replace the one that was wasted by the PKer taking someone else's items. It is a scam.

That is not their only scam either. A huge percentage of online games out now advertise that they are "free to play". Very, very few of them are actually free. It is false advertising just to get people to try the games. Once you actually get into the game you find out that you can not play most of the game without paying for membership or for in-games 'perks'.

A couple of examples would be Runescape and Nodiatis.

Runescape first. They advertise that you can play "totally free". When in reality you can only access a small portion of the game map and play only 15 of the 25 game categories as a free player. That wouldn't really be a problem if they didn't advertise it as totally free. So much for free and more if you subscribe with no more in-game items for 'real money'. Runescape also has a Pking system where it is only allowed in a certain part of the game 'world'. That may not be so bad, but they also tend to make you go into that part of the game to do certain things.

Nodiatis on the other hand, also advertises as a free to play game has a different set-up. Once you get into the game you find out that you can't do much of anything without first paying. The game offers a standard account which doesn't improve much on the free option. Then it goes into a premium account, which is a step up from the standard account and much more expensive. Then it also offers other in-game perks if you pay even more for them. Nodiatis has a Pking system that is called open. Open meaning that anyone can attack anyone else anywhere in the game other than in the towns. You can't do much in the towns and have to leave them if you want to play the game.


These issues need some serious consideration. It would be a good thing to pass legislation banning games that allow PKing and issuing some serious fines for the false advertising. If these games are in countries that will not co-operate with cleaning them up them just block the IP addresses of the games from the countries that will co-operate.

If you are wondering why so many kids are out of control these days, I sugest that allowing them to exhibit so much bad behavior online is not helping. The Internet is a public place and the behaviors of those on it need to have the same expectations as if they were in person. I realize that it would be somewhat of an impossible task to police the entire Internet, but starting with things like gaming, forums, message boards and anywhere else that there are large gatherings of people would be a good thing.

Another good piece of legislation would stop people from using computers that are paid for with tax dollars to play online games. That includes schools, public libraries, military computers, etc.



Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that there is some action taken on this issue.

James M. Vierling Jr.

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