For the game? Yes, they are. I cannot think of a single player type that brings more toxicity to the game than gankers.
Yes, some traders offer bad deals. Yes, some players are rude. Yes, some are trolls. But most player interactions would be a lot more positive of the option of straight up killing the other person wasn’t both on the table and encouraged by the reputation system.
gankers and conflict make AO a more dangerous and thus more lively place in my eyes.
If by gankers you mean actual random killers and not bounty hunters/assassins then yes, I don’t like them. Bounty hunting is actually only even fun if the person you’re hunting is willing and able to fight back so you’re at serious risk of losing something. If I’m being honest, free elysium access would make the whole PvP situation in this game so much less painful because EVERYONE would have access to other players to fight for fun and the random killers would be less bored because they could go actually fight people
It makes you afraid to interact with other players. How does THAT increase the liveliness of the game?
Hi it’s because I need renown
I dont know why you’d be AFRAID of interacting with people because of gankers. If you meet a ganker fight them, if you dont just chill.
fr 
Just fight them?
And what if I—or any other player for that matter—isn’t looking for a fight? Or wouldn’t stand a chance, because of level disparity, insufficient gear, or a general lack of skill at the game?
You’re not really making a good argument against why I shouldn’t be wary of other players at all times.
people who group together to jump people with a numbers advantage (outside of island claiming to an extent) are cringe
Solo bounty hunting is pretty cool though.
I think it’s fun
Me and my sister used to do it all the time but she broke her pc so now I just gank alone
This one guy with 1k kills tried me on my low level Paladin and died and I said the snarkiest gg to him it was pretty funny.
Before that we would just see if we can kill everyone in a server at a given moment
sucks to die randomly but that’s just how the cookie crumbles - i feel like trying to limit ganking too much would hinder the experience
you’ll always want to have some sort of safety plan if you get surprised (angle your boat outwards when you dock, invis potions, or just fight it out)
i suck cheeks at pvp and desperately need to work on my build (i don’t think i’ve beaten a ganker before) so typically i just run until they get bored
a feature that might be helpful is some sort of notification if someone grabs your contract, whether it be one of those sidebar notifications or a subtext pop up saying something like “word spreads of your contract taken up…” idk
Someone gets it
THIS MAN SPEAKS THE TRUTH @Gamehero14 this is what I mean, alternatively just fight back (I have terrible gear but I try to get better and still fight players with kills in the 400+ range, you just have to have a mindset change to win)
And what if one can not do so due to various reasons?
I, as example, can not viably pvp due to chronic health issues- PVE is fine bc i can tell where they are heading, everything else… not so much.
Once a gravy vice admiral and an assassin overseer joined my server, the vice admiral invited me to a party saying he wanted my help hunting the overseer (I’m a gravy captain but I suck at pvp) I accepted reluctantly and I went to meet him at limestone. after a few seconds the overseer arrived and I quickly realized that he actually had my poster intead of the vice admiral’s, but before I could do anything the vice admiral turned on friendly fire and teamed with the overseer to kill me. The trap was so overkill for someone like me (only 20 player kills) that I couldn’t do anything but laugh at my own misfortune.
I approve of gankers who hunt you when you have fricking 120,000 bounty
when I get ganked I just spam cannon spells on them
if im on light mage I use crystal snare and blast so for the rest of my fight my light magic is dealing a TON more damage (now that I think of it though it may be a bug the balance team needs to fix)
btw ty for their username 
@flammenherz
BAHAH oh goodness
They stated “that’s how the cookie crumbles”, about a game made from WoM—which didn’t have this as an issue to begin with. You’re speaking of how I have to fight gankers, and I’m talking about how the existence of ganking is bad for the game and community. We’re barely even arguing about the same thing.
Yes, it is a fact of life right now that most players will need to fight gankers. I cannot emphasize enough that this is not a good thing for Arcane Odyssey’s playerbase.
Of who, may I ask?
Least corrupt gravy high command