143: Griefer

[whindmarch]

Griefer

"He squeezed off a couple chaser missiles, and they bee-lined for the jetwash at the back of the closest manned fighter. They drew so close to each other their contrails mingled. The enemy pilot yanked his chicken switch, lurching into the air on his ejection seat. His plane flew apart, white smoke chasing metal fragments towards the ground. I caught the yellow dome of a parachute as we set our planes to return home.

"Griefer slid his kit aside on its articulated arm and straddled his seat for a moment. 'I probably should've taken that pilot out. That would've been harsh, huh?'"



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[General Ma Chao]

This strikes me as a revenge fantasy on annoying snot nosed little spoilsports, even though it obviously is an April Fool's article. I admit I felt some schadenfreude when the narrator broke his hands and jaw. It also shows how much a fun game can be ruined by the immaturity of its audience.

 

[Caolinn]

april fool's article? it's fiction, part fo the fiction issue. and it's pretty entertaining. i know a couple griefers that i wouldn't mind taking the hammer to...

 

[CanadianWolverine]

Thankfully we just use "ban hammers" so far.

Damn fine read, the absurdity of it all struck me as both funny and tragic, much like I find a griefer in online games.

Though one thing puzzles me, why was it such an unacceptable move to bust up the other controllers at the end? Are they police men or was it a battlefield? The "old" pilot didn't seem to have a problem downing manned airships, but doing in the UAV pilots and crew was bad form somehow? I would think in a battle field, jamming / scrambling / infecting the enemy UAV pilot signal would be a priority, even to the point of reducing the UAV pilot to ash.

 

[propertyofcobra]

Haha. Such a great read. Griefing asshole meets real life, doesn't understand it.
Then griefing asshole meets hammer.

God, haven't we all wanted to take a hammer to some jackoff like that? Revenge fantasy? God yes, definitely. But everyone needs to let off a bit of steam once in a while.
I loved it.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Though one thing puzzles me, why was it such an unacceptable move to bust up the other controllers at the end? Are they police men or was it a battlefield? The "old" pilot didn't seem to have a problem downing manned airships, but doing in the UAV pilots and crew was bad form somehow? I would think in a battle field, jamming / scrambling / infecting the enemy UAV pilot signal would be a priority, even to the point of reducing the UAV pilot to ash.

My read would be along the lines of: you take out the machine, not the man. Same reason it wasn't okay to shoot the pilot once he ejected. Taking down the plane, where the guy dies, that's collateral damage; it wasn't your primary objective.

 

[General Ma Chao]

It made more sense once I googled what UAV is : Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The easiest example are the Predator drones being used by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Judging by the tone of the narrator, Griefer potentially provoked an international incident. The areas and enemies being talked about are ones that have been clandestinely fought against for decades. We're talking "black ops" here. A dead pilot or two would be hard to explain, but going kamikaze on an airstrip is many times harder. On top of that, you don't know if Griefer actually killed the enemy UAV pilots. He could have killed innocent civilians. It would be like the U2 incident or the Bay of Pigs incident from the Cold War. And it would all be provoked by one narcissistic kid. Can you imagine that?

 

[Geoffrey42]

We're talking "black ops" here.

Hard to reconcile that notion with their statistics being posted by CNN, and video footage/replays of their dogfights being aired worldwide.

 

[Melaisis]

I found it a comic, unique read which is appropriate(ish!) to the gaming community whilst remaining immensely easy to read due to the high quality in which it was written.

Er, basically.

 

[General Ma Chao]

We're talking "black ops" here.

Hard to reconcile that notion with their statistics being posted by CNN, and video footage/replays of their dogfights being aired worldwide.

More along the lines of "we all know we're there, but we don't know exactly what they're doing"
Everyone knew the US and USSR were nipping at each other extensively during the Cold War. Just no one was sure how.

 

[Hendar23]

I don't think the political minutia is the point.

Great story. The shocking lack of sportsmanship shown by most gamers online can really depress me sometimes.

 

[Quietwulf]

Brilliant read. I love the way the story conveys the continuing disconnect between the pixels on the screen and the real people behind them.

Life isn't a game and when you begin to treat it like one, you head down some very dark paths indeed.

 

[Geoffrey42]

More along the lines of "we all know we're there, but we don't know exactly what they're doing"
Everyone knew the US and USSR were nipping at each other extensively during the Cold War. Just no one was sure how.

Are you debating this point just to bait me? In the case of Griefer, it seems to me that it is along the lines of "we all know exactly where they are, exactly what they're doing, how many times they're doing it, and who they're doing it to, and we watch it for entertainment."

I don't think the political minutia is the point.

I was going to nitpick for the humor, until I realized that you actually had correct subject-verb agreement with your non-standard usage of the singular "minutia". Foiled!

COMPLETE SIDE NOTE:
In thinking a little bit more about what Griefer did, it occurred to me... Remember, the enemy's gate is down.

 

[General Ma Chao]

More along the lines of "we all know we're there, but we don't know exactly what they're doing"
Everyone knew the US and USSR were nipping at each other extensively during the Cold War. Just no one was sure how.

Are you debating this point just to bait me? In the case of Griefer, it seems to me that it is along the lines of "we all know exactly where they are, exactly what they're doing, how many times they're doing it, and who they're doing it to, and we watch it for entertainment."

I don't think the political minutia is the point.

I was going to nitpick for the humor, until I realized that you actually had correct subject-verb agreement with your non-standard usage of the singular "minutia". Foiled!

COMPLETE SIDE NOTE:
In thinking a little bit more about what Griefer did, it occurred to me... Remember, the enemy's gate is down.

I maybe over-thinking the political parts of it. The problem is that it really throws off your sense of logic. I mean, would any modern Air Force give command of a sophisticated weapon system to a kid? Maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing.

Geoffrey42: I am not intending to bait. My apologies.

 

[Geoffrey42]

I am not intending to bait. My apologies. I may just be over-thinking the enemy part of it.

No need to apologize, nor anything wrong with overthinking. We are, after all, debating the political environment of a 4-page short story. By "bait", I wasn't intending negative connotations. Sometimes, I argue just for the sake of arguing. I was trying to figure out if you were arguing for the sake of arguing (and thus maybe just playing Devil's Advocate), or if you were invested in the viewpoint you were putting forward.

 

[Gnomeking]

I actually finally decided to make an account just so I can reply to this fiction.

I like it. It reminds me a lot of, say, an Ender's Game. Only, you know, if Andrew Wiggin had been a more, shall we say, realistic 6 year old by today's standards. In fact, this story is essentially Ender's Game. Recall (for those who have read it) the scene at the conclusion of the main story in which our good friend Ender uses a super weapon against the bugger's homeworld, under the impression that it's just a simulation he's playing, even knowing that doing so is against the "rules of the game". (This being the final element of a long series of escalating violent actions by the protagonist. Including, but not limited to, when he killed a fellow student in self-defense in the shower. And when he broke that other boy's legs.)

But, then again, I liked Ender's game the first time I read it, and I guess I still do. Thank you, Orson Scott Card Redux.

 

[Geoffrey42]

I mean, would any modern Air Force give command of a sophisticated weapon system to a kid? Maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing.

Two things comes to mind for me here:
1. [a href=http://imdb.com/title/tt0105629/]Toys[/a]
2. [a href=http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=war-gamers%26method=full%26objectid=18410297%26siteid=62484-name_page.html]British Army seeks videogame enthusiasts to fly Apache[/a]

I agree though, that I find it hard to believe a modern military would do this. But, in an age where increasingly the combatants are not put in harm's way as much as their equipment is, I can see this being more viable in the future. Also, while we're big on protecting children 'round these parts, I imagine the psychological conditioning the military puts individuals through would be easier with kids. You don't have to go through that whole "Break them down, build them back up" routine. Just start from the bottom and build them up!

 

[KaynSlamdyke]

Two things comes to mind for me here:
1. [a href=http://imdb.com/title/tt0105629/]Toys[/a]

Glad someone pointed this out. The idea back when I first saw it horrified me, but this article is one of the better pieces of fiction I've read for a while, so much so it pretty much had me going until the hammer segment.

Heh. Banhammer'd IRL...

Also, [a href=http://imdb.com/title/tt0087597/]The Last Starfighter[/a] and that Best Friends Forever episode of South Park brought up the idea of training people up for conflicts through video games. Admitedly, not as seriously, but hey - next time you guys pwn some n00bs from the MiB guild, don't be suprised when they come knocking at your door for a recruitment offer you can't refuse.

This article goes on my favorites

 

[Lightbulb]

Reminds me mostly of the setting of Forever_Peace:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Peace

Interesting allegory ...

 

[Unholykrumpet]

This is one of my favorite fiction articles ever...great read, loved how in depth the combat was. Almost felt like it was real.