In-game courtesy and ethics

WTH Tarq the archer?

The Mana World has been around for a long time now. If memory serves me correctly I started playing (under a different nick) around 2004 when part of Tulimshar was all there was. Spiders had just come out and looked like archants, not spiders at all.

In any game worth its salt there inevitably ends up with a few players who like to take advantage of bugs/flaws or other players. This post really isn't about them, they'll always be around, and they often really seem to enjoy tormenting players for kicks. Before diving into the main part of the post I thought I'd relate a real life story about one such person, Phil (not his real name). Phil used to love to snidely tease people, call them names, loudly proclaim any rumours about people, even physically poke at people. One day Phil chose to bug the wrong person and ended up in tears and extreme embarrassment.

Jen (not her real name) was pretty much a normal person who happened to sit in front of Phil in class. Phil would often call her names and make snide comments just loud enough so a few people around could hear, typical Phil. One day during an exam Phil started poking at Jen. I guess Jen had enough of Phil's B.S. and she turned around with a book 1 1/2 inches thick and cracked Phil right across the face. The sound of the book connecting with Phil's face was so loud that everyone in the class turned. Everyone started laughing at Phil, including the teacher of the class. Now I can here people saying why wasn't Phil sent earlier to the principal, why was he allowed to continue torturing people. Earlier age where more was tolerated. Jen? Who would fault Jen for helping herself. I think more than half the people, including the teacher of the class, probably wanted to give Jen a hero badge at that moment. You really had to see Phil cry and the look on his face to understand the joy people felt seeing a bully brought to his emotional knees. Now of course we have anti-bullying everywhere (not that it helps all the time).

Enough of an aside, I just wanted to point out that people who bully don't always get away with it.

What I really wanted to talk about and put forth is kind of an in-game courtesy and ethics post. I've been mulling about this topic on and off for a long time and partially mentioned aspects of it before, but I want to set in digital stone what I consider good in-game courtesy.

1. Warriors, if you're tanking for mages and archers don't abandon them to finish off that zombie. Catch whatever is closest to the mage or archer, the little bit of experience you'll get from the zombie isn't worth your allies dying. You may not think they're allies, but the speed of killing in groups will help your experience a whole lot more than solo killing.
2. If you ask someone to help you do a quest where it costs that person to travel to where you are doing the quest, at the very least offer to pay their way to and from that place. Payment could be in the form of something to sell, but you should at least pay their way. Don't assume because they're higher level that they just have loads of cash and don't care, just pay it, it's the right thing to do.
3. Power houses, share items if you're hunting in groups. This goes double if there's only a couple of you hunting and one of you is tanking for another. I've tanked for a lot of people in the graveyard and I've noticed a trend where people are extremely helpful lately asking if I wanted an item that dropped. Just because you can kill fast doesn't mean you're invincible. If someone is tanking for you, help them out a little too. (Not suggesting you give all your items up, but if 2 ears drop, what's the hurt in sharing 1?)
4. Player killers... oh you know I was going to get to you... kill away, but don't kill someone in the middle of battle with a couple of terranites, at least wait for them to finish and kill one on one. It's kind of like not trying to kick someone when they're already down (remember Phil).
5. More for you PKers. If you get something, like T-Ore from PKing someone and you don't really need it, give it back, you'll make the person feel less upset about being PKed (I think most people to pay the fee rather than travel the very long way to the PvP spot). If you really need the T-Ore give the player something else, a constellation prize is better than nothing.
6. Life's too short to hold grudges. Remember some players don't give a damn about ethics or courtesy, they think of it as weak. Remember that at some point in life they'll have a weak moment, no need to crush them, it happens to everyone.

Just play folks. Be good to one another and help each other.