History Main / PlayerKilling

* It exists in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' and some of these incidents is due to the perpetrators not believing that killing another player would also kill them in real life. Or in some cases, [[TheSociopath not caring]]. Though its noted that during the first year, despite there being around 1000 players choosing to become bandits in SAO, there was never a single incident of player killing. Though [[spoiler: there's an entire guild dedicated to it.]]

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' Pegasus hires Player Killers to work in Duelist Kingdom to eliminate high-powered opponents so he ends up the winner of the tournament. The protagonists run into four of them, one who pretends to be the ghost of Seto Kaiba, Panik, and the two Paradox Brothers.

* In ''[[AirRivals Ace Online]]'', Player Killing within either nation is not a major issue, as players are unable to attack fellow members of their nation without declaring a duel and having the duel accepted. However, players from the enemy nation are always fair game.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has an indirect version where a player can drag a monster towards other players not fighting it and have them be hit by the monster's wide area of effect attacks. This is highly discouraged since it's against the rules of conduct and intentionally having enemies attack other players that are not a part of the fight can get you suspended or even banned. The practice of luring enemies towards other players was done quite commonly on players that were in a gathering class since said classes have no battle capabilities and could die easily. The developers released a patch where gather classes can't be damaged by area of effect attacks.

Games that allow Player Killing may result in some players becoming [[SerialKillerKiller Player Killer]] [[BullyHunter Killers]]. These people focus on killing other player killers only, as a form of in-game police to punish [[{{Griefer}} griefers]] and otherwise discourage pointless killing. This inevitable leads to others pointing out that they are themselves player killers, and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters rather they are any better then the player killers]].

* The same in ''ThunderDome'' MUD, where the implementor's policy was 'If you want to be a big ass, you're going to meet a bigger ass.'. And players who went on unjustified killings typically got [[strike:corrected]] humiliated by more veteran players. For this to work, there has to be a core group of generally cool players with the muscle and know-how.

* Plays a big part in the "[[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080728 Years of Yarncraft]]" StoryArc from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''.
-->'''Torg:''' I kept trying to show Riff how nothing you do in this game means anything! "It's just a shiny endless hamster wheel you run on. Something fun to play here and there but nothing to lose your life to." I was ''wrong!'' I found something! Something in the game, beneath the surface, that is ''very '''real!''''' ''Giving another '''real''' human being somewhere in the real world a '''really''' bad day!''

* It exists in ''SwordArtOnline'' and some of these incidents is due to the perpetrators not believing that killing another player would also kill them in real life. Or in some cases, [[TheSociopath not caring]]. Though its noted that during the first year, despite there being around 1000 players choosing to become bandits in SAO, there was never a single incident of player killing. Though [[spoiler: there's an entire guild dedicated to it.]]

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' Pegasus hires Player Killers to work in Duelist Kingdom to eliminate high-powered opponents so he ends up the winner of the tournament. The protagonists run into four of them, one who pretends to be the ghost of Seto Kaiba, Panik, and the two Paradox Brothers.
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<<|VideogameCulture|>>

The issue of player killing is as old as {{MMORPG}}s themselves, with ''UltimaOnline'' becoming infamous for player killing right from launch. The game initially had all incentive and no recourse for player killing, leading to a very hostile world that made starting out extremely difficult. Due to the fact that other players can steal from the corpse after they killed a player, it became a case where the best way to gain wealth was not to actually go out and earn it, but instead to mug other players. All the richest players would end up being sociopathic killers. Over time, many attempts were made to alleviate this issue, but it took a fully optional system of whether or not you would be subject to player killing before players were happy.

Player killing can be done either directly or indirectly. Direct player killing is just fairly straightforward attacking of other players. Indirect player killing can take many forms. Whether it be through manipulating other monsters to attack a player, causing a monster currently being fought to perform an otherwise avertable action, abuse of the game mechanics, or simply agreeing to team up to defeat a more powerful opponent, then abandoning the poor victim to fight a monster he can't possible defeat by himself without any of your promised support, this has become significantly more common due to the fact that most {{MMORPG}}s don't allow non-consensual player versus player any more.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' is a comedic game set in a dystopia run by an insane computer. The missions are supposed to end badly due to the massive number of conflicting goals and agendas handed to the players, and each player is given [[VideoGameLives a six pack of backup clones]] as a result. A good game of ''Paranoia'' will result in everyone dying at least once before the group even makes it to the initial mission briefing For example, having a bowl of multi-colored candies at the table, and punishing anyone who takes one different than their assigned color).

** ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' is a comedic game set in a dystopia run by an insane computer. The missions are supposed to end badly due to the massive number of conflicting goals and agendas handed to the players, and each player is given [[VideoGameLives a six pack of backup clones]] as a result. A good game of ''Paranoia'' will result in everyone dying at least once before the group even makes it to the initial mission briefing.

* Somewhat meta-example, given the [[{{Machinima}} medium]]: In ''RedVsBlue'', Caboose is ridiculously guilty of this behavior by virtue of being [[TheDitz very, very stupid]]. While it's true that he only managed to kill one teammate in the original series (albeit several times), as of ''Reconstruction'' he has managed to almost empty out the base he was transferred to completely by accident.

** A similar phenomenon happens in ''DayZ'' where the only people you can kill are zombies or other players and killing another player usually means you get access to their gear. However, teaming up with another player ensures someone has your back against other trigger happy players or the horde of zombies.

* In [[http://thewretchedones.smackjeeves.com/ The Wretched Ones]], Yayne, Charlie, and Charlie's sister Kazuko are seen fighting Nazis in a multiplayer game. Not knowing that the server had friendly fire enabled, Yayne accidentally kills Charlie with her Sniper Rifle... Twice.

*** To explain how awful the Corrupted Blood Plague was for {{Blizzard}}, it took ''months'' of doing things such as quarantining an area and formatting servers, among other things. It's actually studied in Real Life as an extreme (although safe) example of medical terrorism.

** Paranoia is a comedic game set in a dystopia run by an insane computer. The missions are supposed to end badly due to the massive number of conflicting goals and agendas handed to the players and each player is given a six pack of backup clones as a result. A good game of Paranoia will result in everyone dying at least once before the group even makes it to the initial mission briefing.
** TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds by default strongly discourages this in a couple of ways. The genre calls for cooperation and do-gooding, the players can't loot each others stuff (your regular equipment/power devices have to be paid for with your build points even if given to you by or stolen from another player though they can lend you their equipment temporarily) and by default its impossible to accidentally kill your opponents (though the game has optional rules to support more lethal play styles reflecting darker comic book genres and eras).
** ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is in the middle. Challenges are built on the assumption of a balanced party that generally cooperates so opportunistic killing is discouraged but killing a teammate will generally yield the best loot to challenge ratio and the system allows players to play characters of any moral or ethical bent.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' is a cooperative game where you and three others team up and push through hordes of zombies to reach safe houses and then an escape vehicle. Friendly fire is enabled at all times (except on Easy) in order to encourage players to not blindly shoot at everything in front of them and to duck down while standing in front of other players. Griefers will usually shoot at another player until they're incapacitated and then shoot at them some more until they die. This is almost commonplace on Expert difficulty since all friendly fire damage is full, so a single shotgun blast at close range is enough to take down someone.

* DarkSouls has several entire [[FactionCalculus Covenants]] based around invading another player's world and killing them for their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Humanity]]. Whereas the Forest Hunters and Darkmoon Blades are purely reactionary (targeting trespassers and prolific player killers) and the Path of the Dragon revolves around [[DuelToTheDeath orderly one on one]], the Gravelord Servants and (especially) the Darkwraiths fill the slot quite nicely. The Servants curse an opponent's world with SuperpoweredMooks until the victim comes after them, whereas the Darkwraiths plainly and simply jump into a random world and murder to their hearts content.

* It exists in ''SwordArtOnline'' and some of these incidents is due to the perpetrators not believing that killing another player would also kill them in real life. Though its noted that during the first year, despite there being around 1000 players choosing to become bandits in SAO, there was never a single incident of player killing. Though [[spoiler: there's an entire guild dedicated to it.]] And in SWO dying in the game kills you in real life as well.

** MutantsAndMasterminds by default strongly discourages this in a couple of ways. The genre calls for cooperation and do-gooding, the players can't loot each others stuff (your regular equipment/power devices have to be paid for with your build points even if given to you by or stolen from another player though they can lend you their equipment temporarily) and by default its impossible to accidentally kill your opponents (though the game has optional rules to support more lethal play styles reflecting darker comic book genres and eras).
** DungeonsAndDragons is in the middle. Challenges are built on the assumption of a balanced party that generally cooperates so opportunistic killing is discouraged but killing a teammate will generally yield the best loot to challenge ratio and the system allows players to play characters of any moral or ethical bent.

PlayerKilling is the act of killing another player's avatar in a multiplayer game. While the term could apply to all genres, it is used primarily in cooperative focused games (mostly {{MMORPG}}s) to designate "unnecessary" kills. Games such as first person shooters don't usually have the term applied to them because the whole focus is to kill other players (if in a team setting, it's usually called "Team Killing" if you kill your teammates). The term usually comes up when it's viewed as a dishonorable action, usually referring to kills that were done for [[{{Troll}} griefing]] purposes.

Games that allow PlayerKilling may result in some players becoming [[SerialKillerKiller Player Killer]] [[BullyHunter Killers]]. These people focus on killing other player killers only, as a form of in-game police to punish [[{{Griefer}} griefers]] and otherwise discourage pointless killing. This inevitable leads to others pointing out that they are themselves player killers, and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters rather they are any better then the player killers]].

* In [[http://thewretchedones.smackjeeves.com/ The Wretched Ones]], Yayne, Charlie, and Charlie's sister Kazuko are seen fighting Nazis in a multiplayer game. Yayne accidentally kills Charlie with her sniper rifle mid battle, not knowing the server had friendly fire enabled.

* ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' mentions it also and the Coalition has dedicated guild. A RunningGag exists in the webseries and comics due to one of its members getting in a MistakenForBadass situation with TheFool among the protagonists. It eventually culminates in him getting expelled from his guild, and the resulting humiluation drives him into {{Rage Quit}}ting the game.

Games that allow PlayerKilling may result in some players becoming [[SerialKillerKiller Player Killer]] [[BullyHunter Killers]]. These people focus on killing other player killers only, as a form of in-game police to punish [[{{Griefer}} grefers]] and otherwise discourage pointless killing. This inevitable leads to others pointing out that they are themselves player killers, and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters rather they are any better then the player killers]].

* Player killing in "The World R:2" is SeriousBusiness in ''[[DotHack .hack//G.U.]]'' Player Killers are opposed by... [[SerialKillerKiller Player Killer]] [[BullyHunter Killers]].

*** To explain how awful the Corrupted Blood Plague was for {{Blizzard}}, it took ''months'' of doing things such as quarantining an area and formatting servers, among other things. It's actually studied as an extreme example of medical terrorism.