Celtic Heroes

In a game, the value of a virtual character's life is essentially meaningless. You have infinite free respawns, and your character isn't permanently hurt in any way whatsoever. Only your pride is injured. This means that the real life equivalent of in-game arena retaliation is lightly slapping someone on the face, which I think is totally justified for very minor crimes.

This is why I believe that in-game retaliation is always morally ok to do.

I don't think it's that black and white. There are real people behind the characters with real emotions, and people have spent real money on this game. Any action that oppresses a player such as KS-stalking and preventing them from playing the game is morally wrong, virtual or not, as it is not in the spirit of game-competition.

The Arena on the other hand is a different animal. It is a player's choice to go there, so to feel the need to retaliate against someone else's actions in there because they got "mugged" is ridiculous.

The way I do things is of you take amy xp from me or any of my alts I kill you in arena and ks you while you level and on bosses for a few months as a warning. Then if they continue I start killing their clans druids. Sometimes I am feeling good and just kill them for a week. All depends on mood really.

I understand that the Arena was made ultimately for group Pvp, and am not extremely upset when these situations arise. These are just my usual reactions to these situations.
If someone is excessively killing me, or my closer friends randomely or while killing a Gladiator for quest, I will usually ask them to stop. If this continues I will deal with the situation via me fighting them, or simply ask them again politely to stop and leave the situation alone. These issues are usually solved within a couple of days because most high levels on my world are nice and take innitiative.
If clan Ksing does occur then it is rude, but it was pretty fair unless a "higher level" clan is Ksing a "lower level" clan. But again these feuds are usually resolved within a few days via a nice, responsible "higher level" clan.

When do we retaliate against other players- when they least expect it more emphasis lol
Why do we do it- why not gives me something to do.
Should we do it- well its up to you really, it really comes down to this- suck it up, get angry, turn the other cheek.

I don't think it's that black and white. There are real people behind the characters with real emotions, and people have spent real money on this game. Any action that oppresses a player such as KS-stalking and preventing them from playing the game is morally wrong, virtual or not, as it is not in the spirit of game-competition.

The Arena on the other hand is a different animal. It is a player's choice to go there, so to feel the need to retaliate against someone else's actions in there because they got "mugged" is ridiculous.

This is true. I suppose it differs from person to person how seriously they weigh being killed in a game. For me, I don't give much thought to being killed and retaliating; to me, it's pretty much automatic.

The OP asked for personal opinions on the moral righteousness/wrongness of retaliation. I should have clarified in my post that the "in-game character's life is worthless" belief is my own view. Thanks for pointing this out; I'll fix it.

It is human nature and part of our natural defence mechanism that is built into our genetic code that when we feel threatened, we respond in a way that is calculated to protect us from harm. This is the science behind retailiation. There is nothing ethical or unethical about it. Ethics is about values. Retaliation has nothing to do with values. It is a reflex response to an external threat. So, do not delve too much into it. In fact, the game is built to mimic this natural defence mechanism. That is why OTM has given us the auto attack button. If someone tries to hit you in arena while you are afk, you will auto hit the person back. But as in real life, your success in retaliating depends on whether you are stronger than your attacker. If you are not, you will have to bring a stronger main or get a stronger clanny to exact retaliation for you. Better still get the whole clan behind you to exact retaliation.So, do try to do a PHD thesis on of this topic. It will give you Permanent Head Damage (PHD).

The way I do things is of you take amy xp from me or any of my alts I kill you in arena and ks you while you level and on bosses for a few months as a warning. Then if they continue I start killing their clans druids. Sometimes I am feeling good and just kill them for a week. All depends on mood really.

There are some players who are in constant mood of killing others in arena. You have to be lucky to catch them in a generous mood not to ks you.

When someone hits you and you hit him back, it is not retaliation but self defence. (OTM calls it auto attack).
When you hit someone who did not hit you, it is not retaliation but your self indulgence in good fun
When someone casts incinerate on you and you do not hit him back, it is self immolation
When you hit someone and that someone did not hit you back, it is because he has his auto attack turned off and is afk.
There is no retaliation to start with.

Edit: The beliefs stated here are my personal opinions.

what are all your thoughts on *whether* retaliation is ever morally ok to do?

Real life ethics should be separated from in-game ethics.

In a game, the value of a virtual character's life is essentially meaningless. You have infinite free respawns, and your character isn't permanently hurt in any way whatsoever. Only your pride is injured. This means that the real life equivalent of in-game arena retaliation is lightly slapping someone on the face, which I think is totally justified for very minor crimes.

This is why I believe that in-game retaliation is always morally ok to do.

Aye.

Try to kill the guy who jumped the line. If he still got the medal, then you got beat on a pvp quest. Revenge? For what? Suck it up.

This is incredibly easy for a Warrior to say. When you are the consistently targeted class for grief (Ranger), you have no personal ability to win, retaliate, win, win, or win.

This issue is very one sided when it comes to Glad camps. You are either a class which can PvP, or you are a class which cannot. The Gladiator quests are terribly in favor of Warriors, Rogues and Mages who have some semblance of aptitude in the arena.

Losing multiple idols every day defending a glad camp is not fun, but necessary to complete the ONLY exp quest in the game worth doing. "Suck it up?" Easier said than done. Retaliate? That's ineffective too. The only solution to some of these problems are to roll a cookie-cutter class or stop doing the quest.

Retaliation is ineffective on those who have such poor life experiences that they are led to grief others constantly whether in PvP or PvE. The one and only solution in my mind is to continue to level and protect yourself as best as possible on the occasion in which they present themselves as a threat. The griefers will be forever without friends, and hopefully get bored and quit.

I could whine all day long about the gold spent as a cost of doing business by playing a Ranger. I think it would be better, however, for OTM to find more ways to allow us the opportunity to avoid these situations and still enjoy the game by introducing more quests, encounters, development, ect. I think over the next year we will see just that!