Aurielle wrote: »

Grizzbeorn wrote: »

A player has to purposely choose to queue in order to get into IC, which is classified as an open PvP zone.
Yes, there are PvE elements in the zone, but that is irrelevant -- it is still open PvP at the same time, making anyone in the zone fair game while they are there. Again, which is by choice. You know it's a PvP zone before you willfully go through the process to get into the zone.

(the point of which being that there is no "fair" or "unfair" while there. everyone is subject to the same conditions once they choose to enter the zone, regardless of reason for being there.)

If you are engaged by another player, willingly or not, and you lose that encounter, you are defeated, which is a general term to describe losing in an encounter with another player.
Dislike of the term, because you dislike the nature of the encounter, does not change the meaning of the word.
Whether you were "ganked," "killed," "assassinated," etc... all of those are defeats.

Exactly.

People were using MMA fights and supermarkets as real world analogies, but the better real world analogy here is something like a game of basketball. If one team decides that they're going to forfeit the game as soon as the opposing team scores a single basket, without making any effort on their part to prevent it from happening... the opposing team still defeats them. Defeat is defeat. In any game with opposing teams, there are always winners and there are always losers.

You can think about going into a PvPvE zone wearing full divines PVE gear with paper resistances and no intention to fight as the equivalent of announcing you are "forfeiting" the game. You are still a member of your team (i.e. your alliance) and there's a little icon with your team's color over your head, so like it or not, you are still technically a participant in the AvAvA conflict in Imperial City.

The game does not provide a pacifist faction for PVEers to join, so you will continue to be "defeated" by gankers, brawlers, zergs, small groups, ball groups, 1vXers etc. when you actively choose to venture into a PvPvE zone -- unless you take some small steps to prepare yourself for the environment. Gankers typically go after squishy targets, so I would suggest increasing your resistances (physical, spell, and crit) and health pool if you want to be a less attractive target for gankers.