From May 24 through June 4, 2001, I took down and suspended my entire Diablo 2 page in protest of two things: the way that Player vs Player hostility is implemented in Diablo 2 (and unchanged in the Expansion), and Blizzard's express encouragement of their customers to use this feature to challenge or attack other players' characters without consent of those players. I intended to make this protest permanent unless I got a positive response from Blizzard. Many fans of this site wrote me through email to express their opinions on this matter. Ninety percent of these messages asked me to reconsider closing the site, regardless of Blizzard's response. I found some of these pleas and the arguments contained therein to be persuasive, so I have reconsidered. I have reopened my site, and I will address this matter here, on my Protest page, henceforth.
For as long this issue remains of concern to me -- and unless Blizzard responds favorably to my protest -- I will maintain this page as a reminder to them of my views on this matter, as a warning to new players to be alert, as an explanation of the details of the issue, and as a place to give voice to the vast number of players in the Diablo community who believe that involuntary hostility is an inequitable and disreputable game feature that directly and repeatedly detracts from their enjoyment of the game.
What I have asked for is not the closing down of the Player vs Player aspect of the game. There are fans of voluntary combat between characters -- duelists. I have no complaints with them. There are some who want the ability to back up threats they may make against those who do things to annoy them within the game universe, to be able to chase people away -- I believe this should remain an option in the game. There are those who welcome a PvP challenge at any time, who think it "spices up" their gaming experience -- I have no complaint against them. I also have no complaint against Player Killers who track/hunt such willing opponents. My only objection is to those who expressly use the Hostility feature to harass and intrude upon unwilling Player vs Monster players. That this game lacks a primary option in Multiplayer for PvM players is unreasonable, considering that Blizzard themselves have declared that Diablo 2 was designed mainly to be a PvM game. If that were true, then why does any PvP player have the ability to override the PvM game, to disrupt it, to destroy it even? Why is there no option for shutting down the PvP element entirely, and allowing players so minded to concentrate on PvM without the hassles, distractions and rude impositions of PK players?
Many have suggested a "switch" at game creation, whereby hostility would be enabled or disabled by the game creator. Others have suggested a similar "switch" for characters, where a character would be either hostile-able or peaceful-only on creation, with a complete separation between these categories, the way Hardcore is segregated from standard characters. Others have suggested that creators/hosts of games be enabled to kick/ban players and accounts from their games. Each of these has pros and cons, and opens new problems, new potential for abuse. On the other side of the aisle, some argue that tampering with the PK system at all would only flood games with "grief" players using other methods (like trapping waypoints) to attack people without the warning we now get from the Hostile feature. That may well be a problem, but at least it is harder to pull that off than it is to disrupt games by hostiling without permission. The entire Hardcore element in Hell Difficulty for a whole Realm can be virtually shut down by a single PK moving from game to game, hostiling everyone, as most players are attached to their hardcore characters and not willing to risk them, even to defend their rights.
Finally, nobody at all, anywhere in any dissent against my opinion, has offered a meaningful justification for why Blizzard Entertainment would expressly encourage its customers to treat one another rudely, to intrude on the games of others as a form of amusement. That much, at least, is indefensible and ought to stop. For Blizzard to design their game any way they please is one thing. For them to intentionally promote incivility and disrespect for others is quite another. "Offline PKing" is a developing problem in Asia, where players have already begun to carry their grudges, hatreds and aggressions from the virtual world to real life. How long will it be before this happens in Europe or America? Does this have the potential to explode into real world violence with irreversible consequences? Some people say "it's only a game" and therefore not important, but there are human beings playing these games, and some of the language, attitudes and behavior involved are extremely vulgar. While Blizzard is not directly responsible for the actions of their customers, they do have a responsbility, which I feel they are shirking, to promote healthy or at least harmless gameplay, to offer all their customers fair and respectful treatment -- a responsibility to avoid fostering and encouraging hatreds, yes, but even more so, a responsibility to actively discourage such hatreds, to make it clear they are in the business of entertainment, not racism or bullying, and that entertainment DOES have limits. People should keep in mind the case of the Jenny Jones television show, where a situational emotional ambush was arranged without foreknowledge or informed consent, and this led directly to a murder of one guest by another. That life is gone, and would not be but for that show's callous treatment of REAL people. Blizzard is not quite there, but they are on the same road, and it would not surprise me if some day they, or another company like them, have to deal with criminal charges of negligence or accessory because some enraged player acted out a game in real life, over something inappropriate encouraged by the game maker. SOME attention ought to be paid to that possibility, and it prevented NOW, before the fact. Games should not be taken too seriously, but some people take them too seriously anyway.
Besides, why does this PvM game require involuntary hostility as an option on all games? What, exactly, is the design element there that would be lost if players had the choice of opting out of PvP gaming without have to run and hide in private games? Two of my fellow players of Diablo II, from the Lurker Lounge, put it best:
Imagine if, in Doom III, ID Software provided a key that allowed anyone to instantly turn a deathmatch game into a co-op game, without anyone else's consent. Perhaps Blizzard should add a "co-op" button to D2, that instantly puts someone in your party, and transports them into combat with you. If they can force me into their game, I should be able to force them into mine. - LiquidDamage
The reason Blizzard is culpable here (in the ethical, not legal, sense) is that they specifically identify attacking other players against their will as a feature of the game. There is no reason not to allow public games with and without hostility. The only people who benefit from only having hostile eligible games (instead of both types) are those who like to attack unwilling foes. That's harassment, not game play. Its no different than knocking over the pieces of some guy's chess game in the park and then saying "well, you could have played at home". - Vormaerin
Blizzard favors exactly that sort of behavior. I urge them to reconsider. It is time for them to act like the industry leader they have become, time for them to rearrange their priorities, to design their games in a way that promotes above all else civility and mutual respect, not harassment and competitive bullying.
Having said that, I remain firm in my resolve to protest, unless or until they either change this element of the game or offer me a persuasive reason why they should not. However, in addition to Blizzard and myself, there are three other groups of people party to this protest: fans of my site, the Diablo community at large, and the PK element of the community who expressly target unwilling PvM players to harass them. If it were just Blizzard and me, I could withhold my dollars from their product and seek as much press/media exposure for that protest as I could garner, to give it more impact. Might be small potatoes to them, but dollars are dollars, and every one counts. They could weather that storm, whether mild or severe, and then I would be gone and business would go on as usual. However, how would this response affect the other three groups? My fans would lose access to my site and its resources, diminishing their fun for no lasting good effect. The community would be "punished" (according to vast numbers of folks who replied to my protest, using that exact word in almost every case), and the only ones who would benefit (assuming Blizzard opted to ignore my protest) would be the PKs, who would have one less voice opposing their selfish attitudes and activities, and one less source of influence pulling people away from that side of the game into the world of variants, self-challenge, cooperative play and team activity.
Unfortunately, then, there are no perfect responses. I can't have it all. I can oppose Blizzard directly, as I planned, but that has many negative side effects. Or I can continue to support them in general, with my site, with my purchase of their games, with my participation in the player community, and with feedback in various forms -- to praise them for the positive things they do, for the fun aspects of their games, for the ways in which they respond to other feedback/requests from their customers -- while maintaining this persistent protest, where I might continue to be a reminder on this issue, a thorn in their side so to speak, who does not vanish. I have been convinced by a large chorus of my fans, many of whom are wiser and calmer than myself, that the latter response is, on the whole, the better one. So it shall be.
I want to thank everyone who expressed and continues to express support for me and for my protest. I particularly want to thank Bolty, host of the Lurker Lounge. Thanks also to Spiderdrake, LiquidDamage, Jester, Occhidiangela, Vormaerin, Zarathustra, Flux and the folks at Diabloii.net, and every single one of my fans who wrote to me with polite messages, whether they agreed with me or not. Thank you. Collectively, you are the ones responsible for my change of heart. I wish you the best.
Lastly, I apologize to Blizzard Entertainment and its employees for my use of profanity and the directly hostile tone of my initial response on this matter. The emotions I displayed there were honest, and I still feel that way, but this does not justify the open expression of my anger in that form. Two wrongs do not make a right. I will not ever kiss someone's ass for the sake of expediency, nor do I like being treated like a second-class customer -- and perhaps it was useful to illustrate to them just how strongly much of their PvM customer base objects to the PK element the way it is currently implemented -- but I did cross a few lines, I was wrong on some points, and I could have handled the matter more effectively with a polite response. I'm open to reconsidering my views, actions, and responsibilities, acknowledging mistakes, changing my policies. Blizzard? What about you?
- Sirian
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