Ganking - when and what is it?

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I'm bringing this up because of two posts in a completely unrelated thread:

... You were ganking my Roc as you had every right to do so and i say good fight to you all, but you had three or four guardians on my tail..

...Also, it's not really ganking either because in many fights, people ask for a target and the leader gives one, meaning the whole or majority of the fleet will focus their attacks on one ship, even fighters. Ganking is really when it's something like one whole fleet against a few ships. However, a few ships vs. a few ships or a whole fleet vs. a whole fleet isn't really ganking...

Now - don't devolve THIS thread into a discussion about what Bloodsword and Klaw117 were debating. In this one, let's talk 'ganking' (as opposed to skanking.)

Wikipedia defines 'Ganking' as: Player killing, Ganking or PKing, is non-consensual PvP resulting in a character's death.

Normally we consider ganking to be multiple ships against one ship, as Bloodsword mentions. However, if it's an actual 'fleet' involvement, as Klaw117 says, then it's NOT a ganking. One key component is whether or not it was consensual as well.

For example, in the recent Sunday event of the BHG| vs the Order, it ended up being 9 on 5 (or something like that). But we on the BHG| side KNEW that going into the battle - we KNEW we were going to get creamed. And we did so - but willingly. So was that a ganking? (And of course, the answer is no, it's not a ganking.)

As another example, there was a Keeper who tried to get through Gamma recently and got engaged by 10 or more Corsairs, all the while he was just trying to relocate from one point to another. Was that a ganking? (Again, this is an obvious answer - yeah, this was a ganking.)

If you as a player voluntarily get involved with another player in a combat - it's NOT a ganking. You may end up being the focus of a lot of attention, but you didn't get ganked.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Benjamin]

Yeah, the way I see it, if you are the instigator of a fight, or at least, if you don't leave when given an opportunity, you have no grounds to moan about it. If you get attacked out of the blue by a bunch of ships, you've got the option to moan about it if lots of spaceships attacking your spaceship is the sort of thing that makes you sad.

The other rule is that if you are in a fight with the BAF|, then the BAF| ganked you.

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[agentmike]

quote from urban dictionary:

1. Ganking
It is a word commonly used in online video games, usualy used in an MMORPG. Ganking is the process in which a group of charecters gang up on one or more players that do not have a chance to defend themselves, Or when one high level player does the same action to a player way below his or her own level
ROFL guys I was just Ganking these level 20 Horde players

2. Ganking
To kill,steal,beat,grab and yank.
1. The words grab and yank mushed together to make ganking.
2.To repeatedly kill a virtual game character after they get resurrected aka spawn rape in WoW.
3. Group of thugs or gangsters beat and steal your money.

3. ganking
ambush in online games

4. Ganking
In WoW, I believe Ganking as a group of Horde/Alliance killing someone, since it's the only way to kill them, in a metephoric way of speaking.

5. Ganking
Incorrectly used word in warcraft (Dota, WoW). Noobs mistakingly think infinite form of gang=ganking. Some even use the word "gank" itself even though the word gank means either to steal or to hurt one's feelings according to dictionary.com

6. ganking
An imaginary means of killing someone 'unfairly' in WoW.

Ganking, by definition of the game is quite impossible, because killing people of the enemy faction in any way, even if looked down upon is the object of the game.

If ganking wasn't the intention of the developers, it would be taken out. Plain and simple.

7. Ganking
In An MMORPG To Kill someone, and then wait around their corpse for them to come back to get it, than kill them again.

[Ark]

I don't see a lot of point in defining the term "gank." I personally believe that if you remove someone's ability to fight back, you remove their chance to have fun as a player. I apply this to hugely lopsided teams, sniping, land mines and other similar tactics...

I don't force this on other people, but I do my best not to remove the other player's ability to fight back. If they don't have fun, even being enemies, then they won't want to play. I've seen games go extinct that way.

[Benjamin]

I think the term gank came from Ultima Online? Read it somewhere, and that was definitely the first place I came across it, and the first big MMORPG. There, it was basically short for 'para gank'. Mages had a spell that paralysed people, but it only lasted like 2 seconds longer than it took to recover from casting the spell. But with some friends, the mage could just do that over and over while everyone else hit the paralysed guy. Ultima was way harsher than here. A gank in UO would be three hidden players all firing a crossbow bolt at you at once, appearing in the same instant that you die, and then disappearing instantly again. Or more likely, going to your corpse and taking all your items and everything you ever owned, and laughing at your little ghost running away.

But yeah, think it came from UO, which was a brutal MMO, although it was, at least in the beginning, in roleplay. It was basically more about the surprise/lack of ability to defend than the numbers. That's less of an issue here because combat takes five hours and all ships have ten billion hitpoints.

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[looqas]

My definition of ganking is that you delibrately gang up on a guy with intention of getting the blue message, thus robbing the joy out of it for all involved.

I think everyone knows deep inside when a ganking is in progress.

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Flying under radar.

[Colonel Z.e.r.o.]

It's called getting ****ed up in my neighborhood.

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Nathan's Log || The "Real Story" of Lenox Casper

[Asgardian]

I think "ganking" means a complete and unnecessary overuse of power to destroy another ship. "Power" can be measured in how well the person plays, as well as how much power the ship has. Eg: Three bombers may be necessary against a well-trained gunboat with solaris turrets, however only two or maybe one would be needed against an untrained anti-cap gunboat.

It comes down to whether or not you want to play fair and have a good old-fashioned space fight. Mind you, we haven't invented spacecraft, so its probably not "old-fashioned":D

Just my opinion...

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[Unseelie]

Ganking, yes, an overuse of power so that the other party feels they may as well give up.
This is how I feel in most every pirate encounter without a base inside 30k...

That said, I don't believe 'fairplay' has much of a place in an RP context, untill it comes around to someone wasting a whole, whole lot of resources to kill a lf in a BS.

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[binTowers]

Ganking - term invented by players with access to uber tech and resulting ill will to have `fair fights`. Example: Outcasts.