I'm either a genius or an idiot

[MisterDyslexo]

Nice concept, but he has to be doing something worse than just troll, you know what I mean?
I mean seriously, trolling? Its annoying, but he didn't really hurt anyone.

what about a griefer in an mmo who actually kills the people his character kills? it's not what I had intended for this story, but the thought just poped into my head a minute ago.

There's was a movie sorta like that a few years ago. You die in the game you die for real. It was a bad D-horror movie, but the concept was there. I'm thinking maybe something more along the lines of not necessarily just outright kills, but to torment, to stalk, torture, and then, after all that, maybe hurt or kill them. But its just too bland (in my opinion) to just have the villain just outright kill people.

 

[Hank Wants Pie]

I'm a writer, and as I was sitting here I was imediately struck by an idea. to write a western style comedy about a moderator (like the town sheriff archetype) facing off against an illusive as well as disruptive troll (the "billy the kid" bad guy). I know I'll need to do a lot of research like reading westerns, how mods go about their jobs, ways a troll might return after being banned, and things of that nature.
but is this a good idea in the first place? I think it could be good done right and I've actually gotten a short story about online gamers published. but if this idea fails then it fails hard. I'm on the fence as to weather I should begin or not.

captcha: STORIES ndism
it seems like there's a meaning to that captcha.

I would suggest the theme being NYCish and the "troll" figure being a "went nuts", delusive psicologist that knew some network smarts (IP scrambling and whatnot) who would drive people, that he chose and thought to be weak, into suicide by demoralizing them in various ways and means (frankly, it happens, and if the plot got pulled off correctly it would give you some credibility points) and that boasted on some blog, forum or social network for his fill of psycotic "lolz". The "mod" figure being a moderator in some popular IT forum who gets one of his friends "trolled" into suicide, he then seeks revenge, finds his way into getting a job in one of the forums or social networks that the troll usually strikes, and gets acsess to some info that would get him to track the troll down. In the end he gets his revenge without one of those annoying, somewhat predictable, twists.

Cheesy? Perhaps. Each one with his own thoughts.

 

[Hank Wants Pie]

I think it could work, but it depends on how, exactly - for instance, you could do a pretty interesting mixup between forum-post style chapters and "alternate reality" type scenes as though these things are really happening with real people in a real place. Honestly, though, I think it might work better as a sci-fi or mythology spoof themed work; as an example, the moderator in the AR scenes having sort of demi-god like powers that he can use to change the world around him and the people to an extent, while the troll has illicitly-obtained abilities from evil artifacts. Or something.

However, I do think that it could work quite well, depending on your approach and your overall writing quality. I'd actually be quite interested in reading it, no matter what genre you go with.

Instead of evil artifacts I would suggest HAX

 

[Aprilgold]

I thought that it was a novel on a online western themed game.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I'm a writer, and as I was sitting here I was imediately struck by an idea. to write a western style comedy about a moderator (like the town sheriff archetype) facing off against an illusive as well as disruptive troll (the "billy the kid" bad guy). I know I'll need to do a lot of research like reading westerns, how mods go about their jobs, ways a troll might return after being banned, and things of that nature.
but is this a good idea in the first place? I think it could be good done right and I've actually gotten a short story about online gamers published. but if this idea fails then it fails hard. I'm on the fence as to weather I should begin or not.

captcha: STORIES ndism
it seems like there's a meaning to that captcha.

I've seen worse idea have embarrassing amounts of money thrown at them, but i'd say lose the western bit for a sci-fi thing, and keep the rest, could be good.

 

[Dethenger]

ditch the western theme, and do it more like a detective novel. that'd probably work better.

This.
It's a bit more subtle. If the detective has an intensely serious inner monologue going on, it makes the absurdity of the actual situation really shine; it makes it apparent without really drawing attention or being obnoxious. Assuming, of course, you're going for something funny, which really, an idea like that is best suited for humour of some sort.

 

[madmatt]

I assume as a comedy? Yahtzee did something similar with Mogworld. You might have trouble selling it as well to a computer illiterate publisher

 

[Michael Hirst]

If you want to make a detective type story about a moderator and forum life go take a look at The Nameless Mod for Deus Ex, it's strange but very interesting and borders on what you want to write.

 

[darthotaku]

ditch the western theme, and do it more like a detective novel. that'd probably work better.

This.
It's a bit more subtle. If the detective has an intensely serious inner monologue going on, it makes the absurdity of the actual situation really shine; it makes it apparent without really drawing attention or being obnoxious. Assuming, of course, you're going for something funny, which really, an idea like that is best suited for humour of some sort.

great idea. and I really don't see any way this could work without it being a comedy. I was thinking maybe switching between first and third person. first shows what is really happening, and third is what the guy actually pictures happening.

"This guy has derailed his last thread. The mouse echoes with finality as I click 'Ban' and remove him from the server

The Hero of the order of Mod valiantly waved the Banhammer over his head as he shouted at the vile troll, 'Thou art vanquished fiend! Return to 4chan and burn with thoust demon kin!'"

or something like that.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

You can make anything work if you try hard enough/are good enough.

That said, while it's a creative idea, I don't see it working for more than a brief story.

 

[New Frontiersman]

I see no reason not to try, after all you could make it really interesting.

edit: getting rid of the western thing. nobody likes it.

Don't drop the western theme just yet, after all you could make something really interesting out of it. At least try to write it and see how it goes.

 

[Robert Ewing]

my captcha is more obscure than any one of yours.