Early Pulling - Is it wrong?

[ElHeggunte]

Let me try to put this into a way that makes sense. I can deliberately buy a house in this game, just for fun, and that could interfere with the enjoyment of the game of another player.

Is me buying the house a violation of the ToS?

It would be against the ToS if you bought the house for the specific purpose of screwing someone else out of one. For example, let's say there's a player you didn't like named Milli Vanilli. One day you hear through the grapevine that he wants to buy the last available housing plot left on your server so you rush over and buy the plot out from under his nose so that he can't have it. You don't actually care about the plot, you just care about him not having it and that's the only reason you bought it. Buying the plot isn't against the ToS, but buying it with the sole purpose of keeping it from someone else could be considered griefing and that is against the ToS.

I would say think intention is irrelevant if the act itself is not against rules.

Intent is very relevant regardless of what the rules are. For example, there's no rule saying that I''m required to perform fight mechanics correctly, but if I'm going out of my way to do them wrong in order to wipe the raid I could be punished for it if someone reported me. The act of doing the mechanics wrong isn't against the rules, but doing it wrong for the sole purpose of fucking with my group is; I'm not in trouble for my actions, I'm in trouble for the intent behind my actions. "Early" pulling is no different. There's nothing textbook wrong with pulling a hunt whenever you want, but if you're pulling early for the sole purpose of giving other people a hard time and they can prove it you can be reported and punished for it.