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Ganking in World of Warcraft: Why does one do it?

Posted May 04, 2007 at 09:44AM by Enrico S. Listed in: Opinions & Analysis Tags: Blizzard, Europe, Vaneras

Ganking in Blizzard's World of Warcraft is as unavoidable as breathing or running from Onyxia. Ganking has been defined as a large or more powerful group attacking a weaker one. It's also been used for players who will kill lower leveled characters or those who are currently engaged in another battle. The term originally meant Gang-kill (thus gank) where a group of players would kill a single individual. While ganking is common, a lot of players have really been complaining about it, with some going to more extreme measures to deal with it.

Now this topic has become a thread on the WoW-Europe forums and a user by the name of Vaneras has posted a list of reasons why people gank. he said that people gank because:

Some gank because they think that that is what you are supposed to do when you are playing on a PvP realm.
Some gank because they enjoy causing grief and take pleasure in trying to ruin the game experience for others.
Some gank when they see red text above a target and doesn't really look at the level of the target.
Some gank as an act of revenge.
Some gank for the sport
Some gank to provoke a response from the opposite faction in order to start some World PvP
Some gank for no particular reason or because they are bored.

It should also be noted that some gank because they simply can. There are more reasons for ganking such as a certain user who's personal quest is to eliminate those with a silly name or guild name. I have to say that I find myself occasionally ganking for the same reasons as were given. What they didn't mention though is the fact that sometimes we gank because it looks funny. Sometimes, it's just hilarious to see Dwarves and Gnomes running from an enraged Orcish Shaman wielding elemental spells. How about you, what prompts you to gank?

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by EOLHordelings (Unregistered) - 2007-05-04

» Why I gank...

I gank because I'm GANK-Tastic! And the only good hordeling is a dead one. All too often I am going about my merry Alliance way and I see Sentinel Hill is under attack! The Exodar is under attack! Astranaar is under attack! I see it over and over again and it begins to grate on my normally passive-aggressive nerves.

So, I journey to a given area under attack and find gankables gleefully bouncing about killing npcs often 10, 20 and 30 levels below them. It is then that I unsheath the Ganksta 2000 and let it rip thru their unrepentant souls. Oh and until the mighty blizzard stops me... I'll be ganking every low-end horde that dares set foot on Alliance terrain to cause trouble.

by The Almighty Narf (Unregistered) - 2007-05-04

» Do unto others...

My policy is generally to gank before I'm ganked. If I try to ignore 'em I know that they'll sneak up on my when I'm not looking... So, it's just safer to gank them first.

by Drool (Deathwing Server) (Unregistered) - 2007-05-04

» Do unto others before they do unto you

I used to leave the other faction alone, but then I started to get ganked sometimes repeatedly. When TBC came out, Alliance were leaving Horde alone for the most part. Once they hit 70 they started coming to Hellfire Penninsula and ganking 60s. When I'm in STV with an alt, I get ganked repeatadly for no reason, sometimes it seems just for the ammusement of the other player knowing that I have to start running from the graveyard which is forever away.

So, I have alliance pretty much on KoS. It all probably started because someone ganked me out of revenge for someone ganking them, and so on and so forth. The cycle continues, and it always will. I gank, because I was ganked, and it will never stop.

by Neferon (Unregistered) - 2007-05-04

» I gank...

Good reasons to gank:

-They attack others of my faction .
-They attack me.
-They're part of an enemy guild.
-They annoy me in some other way.
-They appear to be bots.
-They selected Gnome as their race.

Reasons to not gank people:

-They're trying to do an instance.
-They're AFK.
-They're doing some escort quest.
-They're funny/cool.

Mostly, i view everyone with a yellow/red name as fair, regardless of level or circumstance. I usually let them go without them even realizing i was there (rogue most of the time) unless i feel like ganking. Note that THAT is the most common reason for me, i just feel like it or not. There's plenty of times when i aid the enemy , mainly when they're trying to just complete some quests. And there's also times when i just go to a low level enemy area to gank as much as possible. (usually gets dull rather fast)

by Stellarforce (Unregistered) - 2007-05-05

» My reason

I play on a PVE server, so if someone is flagged, they must want to get ganked :)

by Ganker (Unregistered) - 2007-05-06

» Horde Rules

The Alliance are a bunch of little pansey scriptkiddies that like to gank before they log off and play Halo on X-box. I gank so that they will quit and leave the world for the Horde. All you Ally-Boys who are blaming the Horde for ganking are idiots. No one ganks as much as the Alliance.

by Freud (Unregistered) - 2007-05-08

» Gankage and Human Psychology

For a game oriented around war and killing, and for Humans with an arguably destructive tendency, ganking doesn't seem like an unusual phenomenon. You build a sand castle, but it feels good kicking the sh** out of it after.... You line up dominoes, only to push the first chip down and watch them all fall...... I think people just have a destructive tendency that goes waaaay down to the very beastial, primitive brain-minus-cerebral cortex part of human beings--and thus, it applies to WoW.

Its empowering to gank. Same reason people feel empowered when they carry guns or swords. We get to be half-gods. We can take life away, just not give it. But mimicking a half-god seems to suffice in our primitive minds. We are all half-gods in our own worlds, and if we have the oppurtunity to kill and not be rebuked by society, then why not?--hence gankage.

Thus, in Gankology 101, we see that people excercise their destructive potential in a very safe way, without tarnishing their "real" lives.

Some people gank, some abuse their wives, fewer commit genocides... Difference is that there are no Nuremberg laws for ganking in WoW, so people do it.

If people TRUL

by Amarama (Unregistered) - 2007-05-10

» Why I gank

I come from an RP-PvP realm and will gank people with rediculous names such as "Pleezme", "Silentrogue", Iaresmart", and my personal favourite "Konichiwa" (No hard times to those who are Japanese. I just don't like words for names on my realms). :)

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by <-- (Unregistered) - 2007-05-10

» Gank-a-Holic

just addicted 2 ganking gotta do its like drugs but not that deadly xD

by gankerisanub (Unregistered) - 2007-05-30

» yes

to the horde fanboy/nub [yeah, you "ganker"]:
its a game dude, you can play on the alliance side on a different server if you like, quit being a jerkoff. Anyway, my main is an alliance character and have a few horde alts and can honestly say you're full of crap saying alliance usually ganks more. Maybe you just get ganked more for being such a nub.

to the gnome gankers [yeah, you "neferon"]:
I have a level 70 gnome rogue on frostmane. Bring it, fools. Bet you can't hang.

anyway, all seriousness aside, its fun to engage in PVP combat outside of battlegrounds/arena, and very tempting to 1-hit lowbies, so that'd be why I do it.

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