I haven't played Arctic in a few years and coming back to the forums to discover that PK has been removed was... well, shocking. I figured it was only a matter of time before something like that happened, but it's still a shock none the less.
I, personally, wouldn't want to play the MUD without PK being at least an option. Sure, I love the PvE aspect and really enjoyed a lot of the zones and how much time and effort went into them, but PK just adds that extra element that PvE can never give, namely the head to head competition against another player. But I have also known for a very long time now that PK had become very toxic to the game's health overall and mostly because certain groups of players inevitably decided to act like dicks and ruin other's fun just because they could.
Now, I haven't read many of the previous posts in this thread because I'm just not going to sit here and read 13 freaking pages. But, I do have an idea or two that might allow PK to be brought back in a more healthy manner.
Like someone else touched upon I think the main focus should be in making additions to the clan system that would allow clans (and hell, possibly unclanned individuals) to declare war on each other and to allow unrestricted pk (yet within the frame work of the old pk rules) between the two sides so that people can still vent their frustrations (or simply just to have a blast) at one another if they choose. It would eliminate the main toxic element of pk, namely killing those who really don't want to get involved, while still allowing those who wish to kill each other.
Sure, it's not exactly that simple since you need to take into consideration people looting stuff that isn't there's from corpses and whatnot, but that can be handled with some simple and straight forward flags that could flip on the pk switch and allow someone to be attacked for a limited time (or hell even for as long as they possess the item and for a short time after they don't).
I know it would remove one big element to the pk aspect of the game, namely being able to attack anyone at virtually any time, and that would indeed diminish pk to some extent. But at the end of the day this game should be fun for everyone and not just those who enjoy pk.
Honestly, I have been thinking about coming back to the game for a few weeks now since I miss playing with some friends and I just miss the game overall, but without pk I think it would feel more like a pointless endeavor to build my character only to ever just slaughter more NPC's and never be able to pit myself against another player.
