Ganking - when and what is it?

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I'm bringing this up because of two posts in a completely unrelated thread:

... You were ganking my Roc as you had every right to do so and i say good fight to you all, but you had three or four guardians on my tail..

...Also, it's not really ganking either because in many fights, people ask for a target and the leader gives one, meaning the whole or majority of the fleet will focus their attacks on one ship, even fighters. Ganking is really when it's something like one whole fleet against a few ships. However, a few ships vs. a few ships or a whole fleet vs. a whole fleet isn't really ganking...

Now - don't devolve THIS thread into a discussion about what Bloodsword and Klaw117 were debating. In this one, let's talk 'ganking' (as opposed to skanking.)

Wikipedia defines 'Ganking' as: Player killing, Ganking or PKing, is non-consensual PvP resulting in a character's death.

Normally we consider ganking to be multiple ships against one ship, as Bloodsword mentions. However, if it's an actual 'fleet' involvement, as Klaw117 says, then it's NOT a ganking. One key component is whether or not it was consensual as well.

For example, in the recent Sunday event of the BHG| vs the Order, it ended up being 9 on 5 (or something like that). But we on the BHG| side KNEW that going into the battle - we KNEW we were going to get creamed. And we did so - but willingly. So was that a ganking? (And of course, the answer is no, it's not a ganking.)

As another example, there was a Keeper who tried to get through Gamma recently and got engaged by 10 or more Corsairs, all the while he was just trying to relocate from one point to another. Was that a ganking? (Again, this is an obvious answer - yeah, this was a ganking.)

If you as a player voluntarily get involved with another player in a combat - it's NOT a ganking. You may end up being the focus of a lot of attention, but you didn't get ganked.

---

Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.