Talk:Ganking

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[edit] who guild ganks the most

there must be a clan/guild on an older MMORPG that has the most guild ganks ever —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.211.48.51 (talk) 23:16, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Motivation for Ganking

I don't play WOW or any other MMORPG and never will, considering them wastes of time and pathetically lame.

However, I can certainly see the motivation behind ganking. I personally laugh at the pain of fools online, those who take the game so seriously, I would love nothing more than ganking them over and over. I could care less about the rules of the game or whether you benefit at all, for me that would be the only enjoyable part of MMOs. I saw the funeral ambush wow video on youtube, and truly wish I could have participated. Causing so much pain and anger in losers would be truly a great experience. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.179.73.188 (talk) 22:10, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

This comment is incredibly ironic. —Qit el-Remel (talk) 02:51, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removing prod

I removed the prod that contested the article on the grounds of it being WP:NEO. The reasoning is as follows - with Google returning 244,000 hits on "ganking", this is a very strong neologism. The term is widely used in media concerning MMORPGs and can be found in any number of published articles. In fact, I am positive articles concentrating solely on the dynamics of ganking exist in published media, even if currently there are no references. Yes, the article is currently a stub, but it can and will be enhanced. Maurog 06:45, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gank/Ganked vs Ganking?

Gank/Ganked is a slang term for stealing. Why is ganking specific to MMORPGs? It would seem to predate the concept.

How the definition of gank suddenly became to just simply kill is a mystery. In Quake3 players used the terms "ganging" and "gangbanging" which simply meant that a group of players cooperated in taking down a single enemy. The term Gank was later used as an abbreviation of "Gang Kill" which simply replaced the previous two terms.
So in experience, gank to begin with, meant "gang kill". When a player said "I got ganked" it simply meant "I got gang killed" and therefor it would be impossible to get ganked by a single player.
Not publishing this due to lack of sources. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.182.27.95 (talk) 23:27, August 28, 2007 (UTC)
Hmm, I remember it from before Q3 (and have used it as "gang killing"), more specifically from UO. While not really a source, Urban Dictionary has a bit on it: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gank
Not to mention it actually makes sense; in terms of MMORPGs.
Gank may be slang for to steal but I've always known it as gang killing from "old-skool" UO or more recently as just "owning" in WoW (killing someone who has no chance of survival, corpse camping, etc). 203.122.241.109 (talk) 08:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
That slang term for stealing, maybe the term thus is ambivalent and should have a disambiguation page? Haslo (talk) 10:53, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

This should probably be merged with "griefing" and possibly "corpse camping." Qit el-Remel (talk) 04:19, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

While I expect it probably causes some grief to the target, a lot of the time, and in the more "modern" (ala WoW) usage of it, it's mostly for self satisfaction. Also, it isn't always corpse camping. I have frequently gone on my rogue to a lowbie area and just "ganked" all I see, no matter who they were with no intent other than boredom killing and self satisfaction. In that case, the corpse camping was usually a side effect if and only if they happened to respawn in my sights. 203.122.241.109 (talk) 08:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for proving my point: It should be merged with "griefing," since that's exactly what you've admitted to. —Qit el-Remel (talk) 02:53, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

As a matter of fact, "ganking" these days is used rather sinonymous with "griefing" - the point is though that it does have a vastly different etymology and indeed originally stands for "gang killing" - several players against one. I think the etymology is an important part of what defines the term "ganking", as the sole reason why it's used as "I was killed and didn't stand a chance" must be that some people misunderstood the term when it was applied to situations of the kind "I was killed by a group and didn't stand a chance due to that" and subsequently the perceived meaning changed. The ethical discussion in the second half of the article is indeed better-suited for "griefing", however.

Players of other MMORPGs like HG:L or AoC, particularly those who saw MMOs before WoW (which's useage of the term was clearly the primary inspiration for the article's content), often contend the, in their eyes, wrong useage of the term "ganking" - it didn't use to mean what it's used for now.

So my suggestion would be: Add etymology to the article, move the ethical discussion of griefing over to the articule about griefing, and point out the discussions the "modern" (or rather, WoW) useage of the term sprouts in discussions and forums outside, well, WoW. Haslo (talk) 10:50, 7 June 2008 (UTC)