Suicidal Newspawns

[Savanik]

Today, I encountered not one, but two suicidal newspawns. I suspect they're both from the same account, but that's a different dead horse than the one I want to beat.

Of the purposes of this discussion, I'd include the Spawn, Grab, and Run version of newspawn suicide, since that's generally a suicidal act as well (as far as I've seen) just with the added bit of maybe getting away with the loot.

I recall that the primary reason given for these suicidal newspawns is because they don't like the location they spawned in. So what I wanted to ask is - Are there other reasons people do this for? What is currently being done to these sorts of players as a penalty, and what else could possibly be done to discourage this sort of activity in general?

I've taken all of my characters with their starting locations - including the ones that started fairly ridiculously close to each other - simply dealing with it by actually having them gather food and gradually migrate apart. To me, the possibility of getting yourself killed to get a better 'starting location' is a little annoying, considering I'm playing with the golfing rule of, 'play it where it lies'. It almost feels like they're cheating, but simply deleting the character wouldn't accomplish anything, since that's what they're after in the first place, right? And banning the account wouldn't teach them anything.

Sav

[Missy]

Some people do it for a lot of different reasons.

Some do it because they don't like the location they've spawned in.

Some do it because they're new to the game and haven't yet understood how to play without getting killed or haven't yet discovered how the tools work.

Some people do it to be annoying on purpose.

Some people do it because they actually have a character that would try something like that.

Two of those are legitimate reasons. The problem is establishing and destinguishing between all of them, which ones are who.

We have ways of course of detecting these things and people are always given a fair chance to straighten out their playing style. Most do. Some never do. Others are older players who absolutely know better, but pay no heed and haven't been caught yet.

Know that not every new-spawn you encounter is/has understood the rules yet or how to even manage playing. And please don't run around calling them a noob, OOC.

The solution for having spawned a character where you absolutely can not be, or because you feel as though you'd rather not have more than so many in a single area, is as you've described.

-edit-
Things that could be done to discourage it is this topic, now.
For players to know that if they are in a sticky spot with their characters and can't find a solution, the Players Department can and will help you.

(Think that's everything.)

[Doug R.]

On a whim I spawned a character in the German area, and grew bored with it within 12 hours. I just dropped my food and am now sitting out on the road until I die of starvation. It takes longer than being killed by a mob, but I won't inconvenience anyone for my impulsiveness.