originally the idea was gathering opinions on the 
side of it because that’s all I’ve really interacted with, but now i’m seeing that there’s more to it than that
bro the clan community is a crazy can of worms beyond the ingame toxicity 
i much prefer just playing the game with my friends inside my clan nowadays
I started ao again and have only run into 1 ganker, who had such shit aim all i had to do was spam reflex and hit them twice and they ran away. I think people complaining on the forums about it are way exaggerating how much of a problem it actually is
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i feel as if alot of people on this site - if not almost all pve’ers - get ganked once then make that their entire basis for their opinions on pvp
Maybe I’m just exclusively joining pver servers every single time out of pure luck? It’s not like I’m neutral rep or threatening either, I have 100k bounty and low player kills
That’s what I’m wondering, too. It’s bad, but it is not that bad. It’s not like literally every server has a person whose sole existence is to ruin your game experience. Ganking is universal in pretty much any game that ever existed- if a game has open world PVP, you are going to get jumped at some point, and thats just how it is. I’m of the belief that when a developer doesn’t invest in quality/at least, engaging endgame content, PVPers will simply thrive more. AO is a textbook example of this- no truly enjoyable endgame content = PVP becomes the endgame content.
The mistake is suddenly accepting PVPers as the main player base. I love PVP and I enjoy jumping people, but when you start to make your focus on updates PVP QoL, it only hurts the game. We don’t need stupid stuff like ranked matchmaking or dedicated PVP only islands, we need more content to keep ALL players engaged, PVE and PVP alike, so that less people gank and more people grind.
I think that Fort Castrum, Fort Talos, and the Dark Sea are examples of failed endgame content (Why Fort Talos? I’ll explain later). Fort Castrum and the Dark Sea were created for the sake of endgame content, and it succeeded for a time, but the fact of the matter is that neither of them are actually fun. Seriously, each and every one of the “endgame contents” are just boring, tedious, unfun, or all of those things combined.
For example in Fort Castrum, you either spend the majority of the time spamming AOE moves, or you get hit by twelve different attacks at once and die instantly. The boss of Fort Castrum is bland as well, with little to no actual movement and huge damage output… like a bounty NPC.
As for the Dark Sea… well, I’m sure its self explanatory. The main point is that Fort Castrum and the Dark Sea should have been Dungeons (Like in Arcane Reborn!) instead of actually being places you go to in the main game. If Fort Castrum and the Dark Sea were more like “minigames” within AO rather than glorified boss raids, there’s more opportunity for innovation and enjoyable mechanics to keep people interested.
Fort Talos could have been an introduction to the Dungeon system as it features a stealth system and has its own unique gameplay compared to the rest of AO.
So yeah, that’s it. You reap what you sow. I’ve said this once before, but I’m sure that this cycle will only continue unless Vetex makes a major change. The game updates → gains a surge of players → may or may not feature “endgame” content → it’s not enough → PVP becomes the endgame. Hopefully, Full Release will be different from the past updates.
nono youre definitely right regardless of who’s in your server
im in a 470k infamy clan and barely get ganked - and don’t get ganked on clanless slots either, both sides of the coin get nothing
i’ve been ganked more than once/had my islands taken by people who just want to meet infamy quotas and such
even if this is the minority of players, it happens often enough to where it’s enough to leave a negative impact
Not sure if you guys were referring to what I said or just giving your input, but “gankers” wasn’t the entire reason I said part of the community. It’s more of a blanket term. I don’t mind gankers all that much, they make em shit myseld in nervousness but as long as they aren’t an ass about it I’m fine.
i feel as if there’s like a sort of psychological effect concerning player stats when a ganker decides who to go for in a server
my friends in my clan get jumped WAY more often than me and when i discuss that i still haven’t had this happen to me they comment on that my player stats make me look better at the game than i am (high pks on every slot - and high hours on only my main slot)
it’s not a power trip atall it’s just people finding an easy matchup so they don’t tilt
i can’t speak for the other side of the coin - hence why i said “i feel” that it’s the case - not that i know it
on this site, it IS more pve-oriented players complaining about being ganked - and i’m apart of a minority who not only does gank, but ISNT ganked altogether
my discord user is the same as forums
added, i probably won’t be on until this evening though
Me neither yeah, Discord is blocked at my school and I don’t have acess to my phone either.
I think we’ve gotten a good enough idea of what the community thinks about competitive players now, at least as far as the forumers go.
What I want to ask, though, is what people think about what this exactly means:
Personally, when I originally made this poll my intent writing this was something along the lines of “I think competitive players are good, even if they gank casuals”
I’m still not entirely sure what other reasoning there could be, but if 18% of people think this way there must be something I’m missing.
Can someone help me understand?
Okay, so personally, while I didn’t vote for this (it was very obvious it included ganking), I still think competitive players (Who are like, cool) are good for games.
Competitive players are often the ones breaking the game down and playing it to its fullest in the gameplay section.
This is a good thing because it shows a genuine interest in the game, naturally leading to an excuse to learn more about it. It’s good in a balance stand point since they find flaws in how things work and op nonsense. They also find ways to appreciate the minute differences between most things in the game.
They also essentially give people something to look forward to. Like, show someone beating a tough boss with some self-imposed challenges and they get a little motivation to try again. Maybe they look at how cool the high level movement/combat is and get another reason to try again.
Imo, competitive people serve to show a game played at its best. What can a game do and what it can’t. A lack of that means the game is too flawed or lacking in depth.
Something about the game’s gameplay stands out enough for people to enjoy it competitively.
And finally, those willing to constantly replay the game: they aren’t casuals nor really competitive imo. They’re dedicated at least.
As for the reason why people might say ganking is good: well, there is the fact that open-world pvp gives AO a unique vibe of danger at every corner which is reinforced (or attempted to be) via sharks, weather, pirates, wanted criminals/heroes, ect. It makes AO’s world feel more dangerous and alive, even at the cost of some enjoyment.
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Well I think without risk the game just becomes blox froot grindr simulator so thats my 2 cents