Monster Player Kill

A Monster Player Kill (commonly abbreviated to MPK) is a common occurrence in many MMORPGs. The methods of MPK vary from game to game, but most involve luring a monster to attack another player or by making the monster use an attack which will hurt all players within a certain distance (Area of Effect). Unlike normal Player Killing (or PK), which is an intentional feature of some of these types of games, MPK is generally a violation of any given MMOG's terms of service and doable only through the exploitation of oversights on the part of the game's programmers. MPK overlaps considerably with training, which is the act of leading one or more monster(s) past an uninvolved player(s), which the monster may choose to attack, or at least attack when it's returning from the chase along the same route.

MPK is a said to be a common technique employed by players who want to remove competition from areas where profitable monsters spawn so that they can obtain the rewards themselves, sometimes with the intention of selling them for real-world currency.

An example from Final Fantasy XI is where several dragons have a devastating area of effect move called Spike Flail that is caused by getting hate from behind. Some players will intentionally attempt to trigger it to wipe the opposing team so their team can have the monster for themselves.

There are also some rare MMORPGs which are developed with a neutral attitude toward MPKing, or even encourage it. In Maple Story, for instance, one can earn summoning bags in certain quests, real-money Gachapon prizes, and special events. Though it could be argued that their primary purpose is to allow one to train or summon enemies where they don't normally appear for personal amusement, even a medium-level enemy summoned in certain towns could easily wreak havoc, and this fact is not overlooked by many devious players. The Black Bag and others can cause persistent trouble anywhere and continually cause MPKs until someone (or an entire armada in extreme cases) is able to subdue the situation.