1. Introduction

This short article is an attempt to examine the wider role that PKers play, in terms of adding to the atmosphere of UD. I'm going to do this by looking at the various motivations of PK groups and/or solo PKers. For ease of reference, I've split PKers into four basic groups.

2. Heroes

Example Groups- Zerg Hunters Unlimited, The Department of Emergency Management

These are PKers, but they're PKers who prefer to take on the role of the 'good guys' in Malton. While mainly dealing with tracking down the non-heroic PKers (e.g. bounty hunting) they also tend to barricade, heal, kill zombies and other things you'd expect from heroes.

If they’re going to be completely honest (and to be fair some of them are) I suspect strongly that many of this type of PKer enjoys the challenge of PKing as much as I do. Indeed, bounty hunting seems to be the main thing that keeps some of these players in the game. Where I suspect the difference lies is in how they prefer to relate to the other players in the game.

To truly be seen as heroes, these players need, if not the active support, at least the passive agreement of the majority of players in the game. This is why groups like the DEM spend a reasonable amount of their forum space on public relations and justifying their actions. Which they largely have, non-heroic PKing is largely seen as something worthy of punishment within the wider non-PKing UD community. Equally, groups like the Zerg Hunters are generally liked, because the community as a whole rightly frowns on cheating.

Where this can go unreasonable (and it doesn’t happen with all heroic PKing groups) is when the lines between OOC and IC are blurred. In other words, you do sometimes get heroic PKers who will move from IC anti PKer propaganda (fair play) to the demonisation of the players who play PKers. Which, in my view, says more about their not so hidden desire to force everyone to play the game according to their rules (as opposed to Kevan's) than it does about the rights and wrongs of PKing itself.

(It's worth mentioning that it is necessary to generalise more vaguely with the heroic groups than it is with the other models. Bounty Hunters working from the two most prominent PKer lists are best seen as individual PKers with a common cause rather than members of a bounty hunter group. Because of this, you get everything from RPers who openly love the thrill of the chase to people who become bounty hunters for strictly OOC reasons involved. So with any generalised comment about the heroic PKers, there are likely to be exceptions).

3. Antiheroes

Example Groups - DARIS, Philosophe Knights

In many ways, I’d actually argue these groups are very similar to the heroic PKers in terms of motivation. They have very firm reasons for their PKing, at least from their own perspective. And they largely have ways that you can avoid being killed by them. In the case of DARIS all that was needed was to “stay the fuck out of Shearbank”. With the Philosophe Knights, not only is their general aim specifically to eradicate only “ignorant survivors”, it’s also the case that if you aren’t a specific enemy of the group, they won’t attack you if you are in a “centre of learning”.

Where the difference lies is in the public support issue I mentioned previously. The main difference between the heroes and the antiheroes is simply that the policies for whom antiheroes consider legitimate targets are not widely supported by the population of Malton.

It’s also interesting to note that many of these antihero groups are heavily biased towards the role-play side of things. Far more so than your average bounty hunting group. The exceptions to that are groups like Turban Dead (who kill characters without profile descriptions) who chose to enforce a policy based more on the considerations of the metagame.

4. Villains

Example Groups - Red Rum, The Pathetic Bills

These are the players that have chosen to play straightforward evil and psychotic murderers. Their choice of targets tends to veer between the indiscriminate and the completely random. And their role in Malton is to spread fear and confusion.

These groups are often the PK groups most criticised. Generally by people who have nothing bad to say about trenchcoaters, so go figure.

Not only do these groups not care about public support, largely their members consider notoriety to be the aim. Unlike the antiheroes, their behaviour is totally unpredictable so can be hard to avoid.

Their motivation is simple. In every zombie film, the greatest monsters are always fellow humans. And the villainous PKers set out to be the greatest monsters in Malton, often with much success. Where these groups do have a specified goal it tends to be along the lines of "kill everyone in Malton".

5. Griefers

Example Groups - Assault on Stupid Survivors, PH

While many would lump Griefers and Villains together, there is a difference between the two. Villains tend to be players who roleplay their characters, and are more than likely pleasant people outside of the game. Griefers, however, usually have purely OOC motives for their PKing. Their characters exist purely to make a player, or group's game play experience suck, perhaps with the intention of forcing their target to leave the game.

Now, it might seem like griefers are always the bad guys in the game, but this is not always true. In some cases, griefing can be done as an act of psuedo-justice..."punishing" a player for being a griefer themselves. Because of this, the line between griefer and non-griefer is often crossed.

6. Complications

Occasionally you will get groups that fit into one category but see themselves as fitting into a different one, even OOC. This most often occurs with antiheroes who see themselves as heroes.

The Fascist Pig Hunters would be the obvious example of this. They would see themselves as a standard legitimate bounty hunter’s group. However, their low level of objectivity, and the lack of proof they need to put someone on their hitlist led many Malton survivors to see them as an antihero group. Ironically, actions of groups like this often lead to problems for the genuine heroic PKers, as some factions in Malton decide it’s easier to treat all “bounty hunters” the same.

You also get groups that largely operate as one category, but have a policy or two that fits into another category. Controversially, I’d see the DEM as fitting into this category. Overall, they are largely a strictly heroic group. Their PKer list requires evidence and they work along strict rules of engagement regarding warnings etc. Where the waters get muddied, is that they will also attack players who’s only PK activity involves hunting zergers. I think that policy is more of an antihero one, as it’s not widely accepted by most players that zerg hunters should be punished. Although overwhelmingly the DEM are undoubtedly heroes, on that particular issue I’d argue they operate otherwise. And as I said, PKing people for a set of principles that is a minority position is strictly an antihero act. (I've chosen to focus on the DEM simply because they're one of the most prominent bounty hunting groups. It should go without saying that they are not the only heroic group where the boundaries occasionally blur somewhat).

7. A Question of Labelling

I think it's also worth looking at how the various models tend towards feeling about the term PK itself. Both as an OOC term, and the IC term it's (somewhat to my disdain) come to be used as.

The villains have no problem being called PKers. Whether OOC or IC, it's a term they revel in, and they enjoy the opprobrium it carries.

The antiheroes are generally happy for it to be used to describe them OOC. However, when in RP they're likely to deny it. Because it suggests indiscriminate slaughter, which isn't how the antiheroes see themselves IC. So they'll claim that, instead of being PKers, actually they're "freedom fighters" or "philosophers" or "the legitimate government of Shearbank".

Where it's most interesting is with the heroes. Naturally, every heroic bounty hunter would passionately deny any kinship to the other kinds of PKer, when IC. Far more than with the other models, the lines seem to blur here. And you will sometimes see bounty hunters who get highly indignant OOC when accused of being PKers. Despite the fact this is patently the case. Ironically, this seems to happen even more widely with groups that see themselves as heroes but are not viewed that way by other people.