I get press releases from time to time. Normally, I don’t put them up, as I’m not really in the news business, but this one struck me as a particularly bad idea. Here’s the link from Roma Victor.

Ancient punishment is handed out for the all-too-modern crime of ganking (or gang-killing new players) as Roman-style justice returns to Britain for the first time in nearly 20 centuries.

Brighton, UK. Britain will witness its first crucifixion for almost two millennia later this week, when Cynewulf is nailed to a cross as punishment for ganking other players as they first appear. Cynewulf, (in real life a 27 year-old electrical engineer from Flint, Michigan, USA) has no need to worry about suffering any permanent pain to his hands or feet, however, as this barbaric sentence is due to be carried out in cyberspace; in the virtual world of Roma Victor®.
….
Crucifixion is to be used as a form of player ‘ban’ within the virtual world of Roma Victor, with the length of the ban reflecting the severity of the punishment. For cheating by exploiting a bug and advancing his or her character’s skills unfairly, for example, a player might typically receive a seven-day ban; multiple or more serious offences will result in a longer (or even permanent) ban.

There’s a reason why most games don’t publicize the names of the banned – well, there are several, but a key one is that a huge part of the griefer mentality is that they crave attention for their behavior. This system is basically giving griefers systemized recognition for their crimes.

The counter argument is that a lot of times players don’t feel like their complaints about griefers and exploiters are handled because we don’t publicize the results when we do, which makes it feel like your complaints are going into the void. For whatever it’s worth, this system would solve that.

Thoughts?