The moment that inspired this question:

A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.

The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.

One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”

I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.

… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.

I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.

  • CileTheSane
    2·
    1 year ago

    Ah WoW open World PvP Shenanigans.

    In Burning Crusade Halaa was an open world PvP area in Nagrand that the 2 factions could try to control by having more players occupying it, giving them access to vendors. My Faction was less populated on my server so it was harder to get access.
    One day shortly after server reset I went over to see if I could take control before players started logging back in. I almost had it when another player showed up to contest and we started chasing each other around. I was winning but they managed to break combat and get on the their flying mount, I followed them into the air but there’s nothing you can do without dismounting and falling to your death. However, I was a Warlock, which means 2 things:

    1. I had access to a couple Damage Over Time spells with no casting time.
    2. I had previously given myself a Soulstone buff that lets be resurrect on the spot if I die.

    So, I load them up with my DoTs, dismounting and falling as I do so. My DoTs kill them, I hit the ground and die, then stand back up and finish claiming the town.

    I used this technique more than once on opposing players who thought they were safe in the air.