“If
you kill steal, then you should get eye cancer,” is my
friend’s response when asked about his experience with the
issue. Ah kill
stealing, a favorite target for forum whiners and griefers. style="">  In
many ways href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion"> style="">Aion
is a bit of a throwback to game mechanics of yesteryear. We already
discussed
the inclusion of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/designeddowntime">downtime
and another way Aion nods to veteran games is how credit is doled out
for a
defeated monster. Aion’s experience points and loot from
killing a mob are
allocated to whoever does the greatest amount of damage to the enemy.
Most
games on the market are using a “first tag” system
whereby the first person to
get on the agro list of the enemy will get credit for the kill. All
this being
said, Aion rears its competitive head by saying, “if you want
the loot then
bring the pain!”

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 250px; height: 261px;" alt="Macho Man"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/76247">

class="MsoNormal">Don't steal this man's kill.

As a
game mechanic I waffle between appreciating its
inclusion and shaking my head in frustration. I enjoy the competition
and the
fact that ethics come into play. Sometimes it’s great people
watching time
where you can see their true character (as in their moral fiber). On
the other
hand I cringe when I see the idiots causing grief.

style="">Compare Contrast with
Insta-Tagging

There
are strong proponents for the insta-tag system used by
many games today. Insta-tag is the idea that the first one to tap a
target with
damage owns it. This system can definitely be exploited and caused much
angst
in World of Warcraft when character classes with instant cast damage
would
swoop into an area and tag all of the mobs, rendering non-ranged
classes
useless for farming materials.

I am a
caring person. I care, sometimes to a fault. When I
run by someone who is locked into combat, I enjoy lending a hand.
Insta-tagging
games have conditioned me to lend a hand and help that person knock out
the bad
guys. If I help out in Aion, not only will I poach on
someone’s experience,
I’ll be adding myself to that person’s hated list.

In a
game with insta-tagging, sometimes people come to
expect help if they overpull. Many times I’ve run by someone
who was into a
battle well over their head only to receive a tell of, “gee
thanks for letting
me die.” To which I respond, “Are you that idiot
back there that overpulled
expecting a government hand-out?” I will probably never have
that exchange in
Aion. The rule is black and white, if you help someone, then really you
are not
helping them, you are stealing from them. It also means that people
don’t
expect help, nor do they want it. In this it is quite refreshing.

style="">Let’s be honest here,
those aren’t people at that keyboard.

A
quick rundown of the forums shows that most of the kill
stealing issue relates to battling the bot problem not so much my
“good
Samaritan” scenario. Let’s face it, not that many
people would stay in one
place and farm stolen kills. I like to believe that people have higher
moral
fiber than that. 
After gold spam and the
related RMT issues, the botting problem should be very high on
NCsoft’s list of
fixes. Luckily I have not been in a situation where I can’t
get away from a bot
problem, but the 100+ threads on the official forum seem to point to a
major
player base concern.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 430px; height: 146px;" alt="Bots"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/76245">

style="">Does it build or
break the community?

I’m
very torn on the issue of community and the issue of
kill stealing. On the one hand, everyone should know the rule and act
appropriately. On the other, it does
not foster a situation where players can
help each other and not deter from the character’s gains.
Aion is about
competition so the community should also be competitive. Does this mean
we
should all be racing against the damage meter for loot? How do healers
factor
into this competition? These are the fundamental questions that will be
answered over time. How will the answers come about? The community will
develop
unwritten rules for people to follow, and those that don’t
will have the rules
explained to them. Then those that follow the rules will see one
version of the
game, and the others will be some lonely sods.

style="">Going back to WoW.

This
single game mechanic is responsible for more “go back
to WoW” comments than any other I’ve seen. Heck
it’s taken me a while to get
into the groove and not drop a DOT on an engaged mob as I run by (only
to see a
“You have gained 99xp” a minute later when
I’m a mile down the road and utter
“Oops”). 
Well we all live and learn
and
so far I’ve grown to appreciate this particular game
mechanic.

style="">Don’t wish eye cancer
on people, seriously.

While
my friend has a little more staunch attitude towards
kill stealing, please don’t wish bodily harm on others. Well
maybe if they
really deserve it, wait, no don’t ever do it. I am still
surprised that NCsoft
has chosen this route for allocating loot and experience. It is the
only game
on the market that I know of (in the mainstream) using this method. It
will be
interesting to follow this into the next round of games launching to
see if
others revert back to this or stay with the WoW model.

Have
you had issues with kill stealing (you know, beyond the
occasional Medeor running by and dropping a DOT on your mob), or has
NCsoft
implemented the right mechanic for its game?