Breakfast Topic: After you gank, do you rub it in?
by Marc Hobbs 
Jul 22nd 2011 at 8:00AM
It's happened to each of us at least once, if not dozens or hundreds of times. You're wandering the wilds of Stranglethorn (or the dark glens of Duskwood, or the rusty ridges of Hellfire Peninsula, or even the hot sands of Uldum) when suddenly, your character locks up. You hear the sound of blades or magic, and immediately a sickening realization hits you: You're being ganked.
In seconds, you're dead. Perhaps you sigh. Perhaps you swear. Perhaps you were in the other room getting a drink. Regardless, the view before you now is your corpse with an enemy player standing over it, triumphant.
But then this happens: G4nkst4r laughs at you. G4nkst4r spits on you. G4nkst4r brushes up against you and farts loudly.
Then, in all caps: "Y O U L O S E."
Taunting enemy players is a practice that's been around as long as WoW itself. Some players make the kill and leave, content that slaying their enemy is enough. Others stay -- to camp, to jeer, to make lewd gestures, to teabag. The option to make fun of your slain opponent is available to all, but not everyone does it. It's a controversial topic with fierce proponents on both sides.
Should you tease your foe after you've killed him? Are there any special conditions surrounding when you should do so (your enemy was caught by surprise, he had friends with him, he's much lower/higher-level, etc.)? Do you rub it in -- and why, or why not? Do you think taunting enemy players is a malicious act, or do you see it as justified?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Ragnuk Jul 22nd 2011 8:01AM
Teabagging FTW!
Angus Jul 22nd 2011 8:13AM
Teabagging after a reverse ganking is the best.
You'd think they'd realize trying to gank a tank is likely going to end poorly...
SR Jul 22nd 2011 8:52AM
This isn't ganking, but when my friend and I run into especially bad PUGs on RDF, he ends up going bear and teabagging the baddie who couldn't avoid the fire.
Naraxis Jul 22nd 2011 9:16AM
hehe teabagging and using malicious macros after a reverse gank is indeed one of my favorite things to do. i still remember one time when i was leveling my lowbie lock way back in the days where u still had to do freakin quests to get your minions, i was in ashenvale to get some branch or other when a level 42 druid decides he wants to eat me for breakfast. i was a poor level 28 warlock so i decided to fight as well as i could before i went down.... and i ended up killing him. it was quite possibly the most hillarious thing i had ever done in my entire life and i couldn't help but teabag and macro to my heart's content. especially because he stayed in his body for some reason. also when i am on the recieving end of a gank i merely sigh most days because i wonder why the horde wasted his time getting that 1 honor point like his life depended on it, then when they camp me and stop getting honor from killing me i have to wonder what the point is and why they're doing it.
eel5pe Jul 22nd 2011 11:41AM
Let the record show that the proper word for teabagging administered by a druid in bear from is "bearbagging". Alternately there is the rarer "catbagging", and its far more elusive cousin "wolfbagging".
Our raid uses bearbagging as punishment for a player who wipes the raid.
Lishalacey Jul 22nd 2011 12:48PM
"Teabagging" is one of those terms that I thought I understood the general meaning of until I decided to look it up on Urban Dictionary.
All I can say is, EW guys. Really?!
Sleutel Jul 22nd 2011 7:42PM
I don't gank, but like Angus I do enjoy a good, healthy taunt after handing someone's ass to them after they attempt to do it to me.
Zakarii Jul 22nd 2011 8:04AM
What can I say? To the victors go the spoils...
In honesty, I usually just kill them and move on. Sometimes I'll sacrifice myself to dot up and kill that flagged Druid in Booty Bay or something, but I don't tease.
The only exception is when people do it to me. Then I gotta bust out my macro when I kill them...
Transit Jul 22nd 2011 8:04AM
What is up with wow insider recently? First that article on how to gank people doing dailies and now this?
I know it is a slow WOW news time right now so soon after a patch, but come on.
relmatos Jul 22nd 2011 9:45AM
Depressing isn't it?
It just furthers the idea that in pvp players arent looking for a challenge but in ruining other people's play time.
AudreyR Jul 22nd 2011 10:05AM
Although not every PVPer does so, you do have to admit that it is, sadly, commonplace.
loop_not_defined Jul 22nd 2011 10:18AM
I'm not advocating ganking here, but uh...PVP on a PVP server is considered part and parcel of "play time".
Actually, I am going to advocate ganking. This isn't about two players being respectful of each other. This is about - LITERALLY - war. Some might harp on about honor*, but the fact of the matter is that war is *always* about getting the upper-hand over your enemy. Seriously, we haven't lined up in formation and marched into battle in how many hundreds of years, now? And even then, people were practicing surprise advances and tactics, or crushing with overwhelming numbers. Nobody has *ever* said "Okay, we'll fight your best forty versus our best forty and surrender to the victor".
*I think quite a few people have massive misconceptions of what "honor" means when it comes to PVP. Half of the suggestions I've seen often have nothing to do with honor, and far more to do with "fair play". They're two different things.
AudreyR Jul 22nd 2011 10:42AM
Yes, ganking/camping is part of a PVP server. It is why I left for a PVE server. I prefer having control over my limited play time.
Besides, I realized I was showing signs of becoming what I despised due to the frustration.
Yes, I left friends behind so I wouldn't compromise my personal values.
loop_not_defined Jul 22nd 2011 11:15AM
I also transferred off of PVP, right before the launch of WotLK. I initially did it to play with the person that I later married, but I found that I much preferred a PVE server with my now-limited play schedule. Even being a hardcore PVP-server player for almost 10 years (starting on EQ Rallos Zek), it isn't a decision I've regretted.
I just get riled up when somebody complains about the faction they're *at war with* making an opportunity kill. And it's only because it inconvenienced them. I see this complaint a lot and I'm worried it's gotten to the point where people think it's acceptable. PVP servers simply aren't for everybody.
loop_not_defined Jul 22nd 2011 11:32AM
"It just furthers the idea that in pvp players arent looking for a challenge..."
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about. PVP servers *aren't* about challenging one-on-one encounters, as Relmatos is suggesting (and getting upvoted for...). It's the fact that being out in the world exposes you to real danger, not scripted AI danger. *That* is the challenge.
StClair Jul 22nd 2011 12:48PM
But the risk is of being ambushed when you're already in a fight or have your guard down, not (anything close to) a fair fight. That's what some people have a problem with. Some even consider it a form of cowardice.
Thomas Higgins Jul 22nd 2011 12:56PM
I hate PVP, since, a/ I am crap at it, b/ I am scared of it, and finally, c/ I finally finished all the pvp achievements for" What a long strange trip". Specifically those involving Warsong Gulch. (please nurse, don't make me go back there. please)
I did make an exception recently when I saw some puir wee lowbie being continually mauled by some coward twenty or thirty levels higher than him when all he was trying to do is capture the fortifications in Hellfire Peninsula. I said coward rather than ganker because when I turned up, he pissed off like the yellow-bellied bastard that he was and did not come back in the thirty minutes I hung around on watch.
PVP does not mean you have to completely avoid any trace of decency. Its not like real war for frick's sake.
loop_not_defined Jul 22nd 2011 1:05PM
"...not (anything close to) a fair fight."
"Its not like real war for frick's sake."
These are just additional examples of what I'm talking about. If you don't like being at war with the other faction, then you should probably just stick to Battlegrounds and Arena. Those are actually designed to provide a fair experience.
StClair Jul 22nd 2011 1:19PM
@loop_not_defined
*facepalm*
You're right. War isn't fair. But this isn't war. It's a GAME. Games are, generally, expected to be fair.
War is getting your house bombed by someone you never even see, let alone have a chance to fight. War is having your son taken away to be a soldier and your wife and daughter(s) ****** by the enemy (or maybe even your own troops, if they're bored). War is seeing a bloody stump where your arm or your buddy's face was a minute ago. War is being ordered over the top into a charge against an enemy you have no hope of defeating, just so the next wave will have a better chance. War is choking to death on gas. War is losing toes after marching for miles through snow in boots that are falling apart. War is trying to hold your own guts in so they won't spill all over your lap, and dying anyway weeks later, in hospital, of a raging infection. War is being lined up in front of a ditch and shot in the head.
That's not what I'm paying $15 a month to experience. Are you?
Thomas Higgins Jul 22nd 2011 1:22PM
I should have been clearer. This was on the Sha'tar, a RP server. Not a PVP one. And it was cowardice. Before I came along this lowbie had been continually killed for over an hour by a level 85 player, who got nothing other than sick satisfaction from pounding him into the dirt because he flat out out-geared and out levelled him. A coward who due to his subsequent actions I have no reason to doubt pissed himself when I decided to join up with the lowbie and ran away because he was a coward.
For the toon I was playing was level 84 and woefully under geared.