Twenty Five, Fourteen. The warrior grins wickedly as his daggers strikes his foe. Zero, Zero. The warrior looks at his opponent in disbelief. He is better equipped, but ten levels inferior. Yet his opponent screams out to him "Potions noob". The Warrior is stunned. Here he is in the heat of battle fighting an adversary with more power and with assistance of protection from the gods through his prayer, and he is insulting the brazen warrior for using potions.

Players everywhere are trying to get a distinct advantage in Player Versus Player in RuneScape. From Castle Wars to the fierce Fight Pits to the untamed Wilderness; everyone wants to win, and no one wants to lose. Yet everywhere I fight, I hear insults between players for actions they do during the course of the game. Most of these insults seem to spawn from equipment or stats differences. Players are angered by the fact people use food in fight pits, and tonight I encountered a player who called a player a “noob” because his opponent used the dragon battle axe special. Often I see people flame others for praying. If a player did not want to be flamed, he would not use food, specials, prayer, potions or even his best equipment. But then he would be called a noob for losing.

Where is the respect in PvP? Why does jealousy consume people? Why do people no longer want a good long hard fight? But they just want a quick "knock out/ KO" they can belittle the person over. And lastly, why is prayer in combat so looked down upon
Personally, I don’t see the harm in people using food and potions in the PvP mini-games. We all have a fishing skill, and most of us have GP in some amount to buy ourselves these items. Yet these seem to be the cause of so much grief. Are they flaming because they are jealous? Or because food and potions are some wretched evil that is dishonorable to use. Jealousy has to be the correct answer, who can truly believe potions were created for the wilderness and NPCS only. They were made to give you an advantage in fighting and to heal while fighting, and a mini-game is no different. A level 80 should not be angry at a higher level for using equipment he has earned because of his level. On the likewise, a higher level should not be angry he thought his 99’s alone would let him destroy other players, and a lower level came with his best and was able to better him in combat .These games should be a respectful test of might, where people take pride in winning, and let the sore taste of losing drive them to better themselves so they can win next time.

Yet the most hurled insult I hear is "Prayer noob". Prayer has been around since the Games launch, and in RuneScape classic, most of the best three hits came with someone using one of the boost prayers. In RuneScape 2 you can tell when someone uses a protection prayer, in RuneScape classic, you did not have this option for PvP. In most cases, there are rewards for raising your prayer, and most people who fight in the wild have a prayer level, yet they get angry when someone uses a protection prayer.
There seems to be a large hoard of players who say using prayer in the wilderness is wrong and dishonorable, and those who say a fairly logical argument “I earned the skill, I can use the benefits”. There is a even larger number players trapped in the middle of trying to look good for the masses by not praying, and trying to use there skill they wasted millions on raising, to prevent there untimely death in combat.
Who is right?

I took the time to interview players from various clans, and with there permission placed there comments on prayer in the wilderness unaltered and unedited here.

The first person I had a chance to interview was Annasweat a leader of “The”.

Das: My first question to you is - Your view on Prayer in combat situations. When is it good, and when is it "not good" if it is not good at all?
Annasweat: Combat situations, sometimes I'd like to see it sometimes I think there’s no need for it. I personally don't pray 1 on 1, if someone beat me fair and square they should get my armor. In multi-combat being attacked by other opponents and when your clans reputation is on the line then sure use it all you want the longer you last for the clan the better.

Das: You say fair and square, a lot of players tend to feel using potions is fair and square, and prayer like potions is a part of PvP that should be accepted by all,
Annasweat: Haha, there’s little difference that’s true - I think the fact that you can see prayer at the top of your head is what some players seem to not like. I really, can see both sides of the issue - most people regulating this prayer vs. no prayer thing generally are people who want your rune.

Das says: That being stated, do you feel if the prayer icons were removed, fewer flames would occur and the wilderness would be a more respectable place?
Annasweat: Wilderness will never be a more respectable place, you'll always get flamed. IF it’s not prayer then it's going to be something else, what armor you wear, what magic attacks you use.

Das says: What do you feel causes this flaming and disrespect? Jealousy… Or something else?
Annasweat: Flaming, is caused by everything the root of the problem is someone losing something or not losing something (armor or whatever).

Das says: Anything else you want to comment on about the state of PvP ?
Annasweat: Not really, just it’s been slowly degrading and the people who generally make the rules are the ones who usually end up breaking them as well.

Das says: Do you feel the degrading could ever be stopped?
Annasweat says: Not unless Jagex made the game harder to get good.

Next up I interviewed Jens14, A member of Damage Incorporated:

Das -: so what do you feel about prayer in the wilderness?
Jens: well, prayer is a part of the game and honestly I don’t really blame people for using it, it’s just that it sometimes really can show as “nooby” behavior. For example when you start praying before you even have begun to attack someone it can show as "nooby" to others.

Das: Like if you used a prayer boost like superhuman strength, and your name turned red because of it, would people complain about those too?
Jens: well, people will always complain but since such prayers already exist and basically are used by everybody I don’t think there will be much flaming about it even though everybody could see your using it. Protect prayers are overpowered in my opinion though. They block too much damage from the combat type your protecting from; basically make it impossible to do good damage with that combat type.

Das: what if the protect prayers did not have the symbols over the head? Would it then be "ok" to do?
Jens: I think that would make the situation even worse because when you cant see when someone is using protect prayers, you cant deal with it while poking well like switching to another combat type, I think there would be even more flaming etc if that was the case.

So I feel (and I hope many of you now do), that there is nothing wrong with praying, or sipping on a super set to win a fierce battle in the depths of the wilderness. However to appease all players, perhaps Jagex should make those darned protection prayers work on NPC’s only.

What do you think?