What is a gank?

[Chxlls]

Mandatory "this is my opinion as a PLAYER, not one of devs or staff at-large" line.

Well, hopefully this doesn't set the forums on fire, but here goes.

A gank is the reason every losing side loses, if you ask them (or check their faction Discords).

I think what truly defines a "gank" is when one side completely stomps another with demonstrably negative intent (doing it multiple times, targeting one faction with anonymous ships of different factions, shadow-logging, etc.). Outside of that, I don't think the term should exist.

I don't think any side that "starts" a fight (i.e. Bounty Hunters raiding Crete) is capable of being a victim of a gank. You started the fight on purpose and now you reap the consequences. This is why in both FdM and Aegis, players are not allowed to report 1.0 ganking violations under any circumstance. Given our average player is of a higher skill level than most, the onus is on us, usually, to fight at a significant numerical and weight disadvantage. That comes with the territory of pvping in this game. The side who started the fight will usually be the one who loses in the end, given the raidlog culture that exists around fights in 2026. If you can't handle that, go to Conn.

Here is where my bias as an above-average snub player probably comes in, but the notion of skill-ganking or ace-stacking has (in my opinion) been blown out of proportion and created a lot more negatives than positives within the community. What it has resulted in is higher-skilled players avoiding playing the game as they're forced to log a side they don't want to log or sit out of fights entirely for the sake of not swinging a fight in someone's favor too much that they get reported for it. Do I think that the solution is for everyone to log one side and shit-stomp a bunch of new or lesser-skilled players? No, but just because a fight snowballs out of control or doesn't end in a 1v1 between the two worst players standing doesn't mean that it's a gank. Oftentimes, I have gone into fights where myself and multiple people were left standing with only a few regens remaining. On paper or the player list, it looks like a "gank" because one side all died and the other didn't, but in reality, the fight was a lot closer than people gave it credit for.

I often have had to play the proverbial gym coach picking out sides for a dodgeball match, which is quite unenjoyable and, in my personal view, has detracted from the overall experience of PvP and the community at large. It's made every fight stale, and turned dynamic happenings and skirmishes into pseudo-unofficial events. The notion of hand-sorting every fight before it starts, and then having to manage it constantly in the heat of a moment is a total nuisance, and led to a lot of us simply not logging outside of Conn for fights. I would imagine that given the the community's current sentiment on anyone with knowledge of snubs, I would have to guess that our lack of presence on Discovery is likely welcomed. As long as the Battlefield 6 devs don't destroy the game too much more, that's likely where we will be sitting outside of my mandatory daily Conn visit, and whatever faction duties I need to handle.

Discovery PvP has too much nuance, and the community is too small and fragmented to have a set-in-the-sand definition of "ganking" especially given how players can basically play anonymously by using throwaway indie ships or accounts. There are (almost) always two sides to every story in a given fight, especially if it's of any sort of scale, and fights often are decided within the first casualty, given how they snowball very quickly with numerical superiority. I think people should do their best to make fights as enjoyable as possible, but if that means not participating in any fight that looks even marginally unbalanced, I don't want any part of it.

End rant. If people wanna debate with me in DMs they're welcome to do so. I don't wanna clog forums with stuff relating to this, but I figured I would weigh in on it.