"As soon as I approached, the "victim" drew his weapon."
Yeah, that's why it is a shame that most newer MMORPGs seem to have opted for the "no PKilling allowed" approach. I also thought UO offered some nice learning experiences.
Yeah, that's why it is a shame that most newer MMORPGs seem to have opted for the "no PKilling allowed" approach. I also thought UO offered some nice learning experiences.
The game doesn't stop you from committing crimes, but it does mark you as a criminal and keep a rough record of your deeds, so other players [can] change the way they treat you. The learning experience for me is: do I walk into a potential trap to try and save someone who might be a victim, or is it better to walk away safely and maybe let them get murdered. I gain nothing but a sense of moral right by helping and risk losing a lot. The learning experience for the tricky murderers is: was making that guy sad worth the stuff I got?
Everything your character is carrying is lost when you die (and consequently gained by the murderer). So you're losing time, which is essentially the real currency of MMOs. You also have to wander around as a ghost (yes) until you find a friendly player who has invested in the skills needed to understand ghosts (really) and will then take the time to resurrect you (yup). If you're in the wilderness without friends, you can literally be wandering around incorporeal, haunting rabbits or whatever, for hours.
To put the game rules in perspective, you can more or less freely kill anyone you meet. Your safety is maintained by keeping a group of friends who can warn you of impending threats and who will gather together to defend themselves (and hunt down criminals) when necessary. Certain regions of the world were essentially instant death zones, and in other areas the most powerful groups maintained somewhat arbitrary laws with a strict death penalty.
One group of murderers was continuously causing me problems as a young player. I was frustrated to keep losing my brand new armor. It turns out they murder anyone wearing armor in their neighborhood to weed out more powerful players so very new players have a safe, non-crowded place to start hunting.
Learning, well, for example not to be so trusting and to take care of myself :-) I fell in a similar trap once: I was already quite low on hit points, but some guy convinced me to still fight some monster, as he would be by my side. Of course then he robbed me. Not sure if I really learned, but the lesson is clear - if you are wounded, take care of yourself.
Even though it was just a game, I can tell you that such experiences would sting in UO :-)
I'm guessing that you don't know the reason cops hate taking domestic-violence calls?