Just to state the obviously missed aspect of something. We have a great series of movies based upon pirates in the past 15 yrs. Maybe a lot of you can or need to go watch these again. Part 3 showed a brotherhood of pirates vs genocide. While yes the pvp aspect of this game is hilariously fun, but there is a fine line between pvp which should be competitive and griefing which is what the misunderstood version of pvp we have in this game is. Its one thing to engage players, its another to consistently prevent another player from enjoying the game the also purchased. Ive seen a few instances where discord groups as large at 16 players coordinate an entire server and blockade any other players attempt at fun. Sure, id love to engage a group guarding an outpost. If i win great, if i lose, my bad, but to 100% prevent a player from then continuing on to enjoy the game, well that's just a mistake Rare made by not putting in some diminishing returns to prevent griefing.
Some form of penalty to griefers would solve this problem in an instant. Hreck, you could create a bounty system with npc's that police this behavior. If you grief someone more than 2 times, a large group of soldiers could come out and wipe you out, or place you into a prison on an island far from the area you griefed said other players for a period. Something simple, something that doesn't deter actual competitive pvp.
GTA had a solutioon that semi worked. If you were a person who's idea of fun is to ruin everyone else,s you got put into a server with no one but those like you. A similar system would work here as well. Its not that we don't want pvp, we dont want to be harassed, we all pay some form for this game. (aside from game pass trial users) but that system is in place to lead those people to actually buy the game. If the trial ends and people have a sour taste to the pvp aka grefing, they won't pay to support the game and it will die very quickly.
Either way, Rare its up to you to deal with griefing and quickly, this game doesn't have all that much in game content as is, the pvp is the draw, but if its not actual pvp and just a bunch of basement dwellers stroking egos, its not going to have a snowballs chance in hell of lasting a few months.
