Will Grief for Laughs

[Anton P. Nym]

If a griefer gets team killed, we laugh and brush it off. We're enjoying ourselves, we are playing a game. If a serious gamer gets team killed, even on accident, I've seen many a time where he will hunt down that person to the ends of the earth to return the favor. This is much more sadistic and interruptive than someone who tries to have fun and play a game.

And yet there is no message more drenched in heart-felt outrage and angst as that of a recently-banned griefer to a server admin. Those always brought out the schadenfreude in me, to see the tables turned so completely and seeing it so thoroughly expose the double-standard griefers hold.

Truly, the "why so serious?" defense doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. (BTW, justifying bad behaviour by pointing to others' bad behaviour doesn't make that behaviour good. Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

-- Steve

 

[Amnestic]

Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

-- Steve

And then we come to an impasse as the griefer may get their enjoyment from griefing and they too paid to play the game. What then?

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

And then we come to an impasse as the griefer may get their enjoyment from griefing and they too paid to play the game. What then?

The same thing that happens when some howler monkey parks his/her keister in a seat in the theatre; the one disrupting the enjoyment of the rest gets booted. It's not in the management's best interests to value the howler's money above that of the rest of the audience. Just think of it as getting voted off the island for excessive dickishness.

-- Steve

 

[Amnestic]

Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

And then we come to an impasse as the griefer may get their enjoyment from griefing and they too paid to play the game. What then?

The same thing that happens when some howler monkey parks his/her keister in a seat in the theatre; the one disrupting the enjoyment of the rest gets booted. It's not in the management's best interests to value the howler's money above that of the rest of the audience. Just think of it as getting voted off the island for excessive dickishness.

-- Steve

Ah, but then what if you have a group of five (or more) griefers versus one guy getting griefed? It's not unusual for griefers to run in packs, especially in MMOs. To go back to EVE, you might go up against squads of five various size ships camping outside gates watching for people silly enough to travel through low-sec space alone while vulnerable to such things.

What then?

In fact, I used to run in groups of 2-3 when I was pissing about in the Barrens or in enemy capital cities while playing WoW. I only griefed alone when I stumbled upon someone or when my griefing friends weren't online/were busy.

 

[Xvito]

These [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPoKaoJu0m4] are some of the finest "griefers" that I've ever seen.

Also, griefing is awesome!

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

I don't play much online, and when I does it is either Champions Online or Team Fortress 2.
Four times my team got griefed in TF2, and I had a blast each of the times. Why? Because each of those times I was playing on a team where everyone took everything so seriously. I am not the best at these games, so they actually told me to "get better fast 'cause we're losing!" on one of the servers. Not long after that some guy started placing turrets on retarded locations. Later he ran around giving heavies healing, then ran away as soon as the enemies started attacking.
It was so fun!

Anyway, griefing is totally ok if the players take things to seriously. 'cause then they jusy suck the fun out of it for those who just want to have fun. Oh, and it is ok when people starts to ***** about camping. It's a viable tactic! Spawncamping on the other hand...

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

And then we come to an impasse as the griefer may get their enjoyment from griefing and they too paid to play the game. What then?

The same thing that happens when some howler monkey parks his/her keister in a seat in the theatre; the one disrupting the enjoyment of the rest gets booted. It's not in the management's best interests to value the howler's money above that of the rest of the audience. Just think of it as getting voted off the island for excessive dickishness.

Ah, but then what if you have a group of five (or more) griefers versus one guy getting griefed? It's not unusual for griefers to run in packs, especially in MMOs. To go back to EVE, you might go up against squads of five various size ships camping outside gates watching for people silly enough to travel through low-sec space alone while vulnerable to such things.

What then?

Ban 'em. Once your game gets a reputation as a griefer haven, you're going to lose subscribers who don't want the hassle... and in most cases they'll vastly outnumber those who do, or who join because it's griefer-friendly. I guess EVE is something of an exception, as the entire game concept seems to favour acts that would be considered griefing in other games... and I suppose that's fine if that's the point of the game. (Me, I stay well the heck away from CCP games because of this attitude and I suspect that many other potential players do too.)

Flag-hiding in CTF games (for example) isn't anything like expected or acceptable conduct, though. I've said before that if some dickwad refused to throw a pitch in a game of softball he/she'd be ejected pretty quickly, and I don't see any reason to settle for a lower standard of conduct in a video game.

-- Steve

 

[Swaki]

an article whit the mention of a mmorpg not made by john funk?
BLASPHEMY! reported!

ot:
its just trolling, team killing and corpse camping never got to me, find a new game or log off for 22 min and watch an episode of your favorite show, and log back on.

 

[Amnestic]

an article whit the mention of a mmorpg not made by john funk?
BLASPHEMY! reported!

ot:
its just trolling, team killing and corpse camping never got to me, find a new game or log off for 22 min and watch an episode of your favorite show, and log back on.

Or switch characters.

Or have friends.

Or play a different game type.

/Because there's always another way.

 

[Lord George]

I like creative griefing such as about 6 guys on our team during a TF2 match electing to run around as engies taunting at everyone. I found it quite hilarious and didn't mind too much as it just gave me more of a challenge.

Its when someone just teamkills, or just blocks some vital area that it becomes stupid and annoying. I'm not having much fun and the griefer is not either (oh they might say there doing it for the lulz but in reality this type of grifer is just angry because something in there real lifes suck) in that case I'll just quit the server.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It's funny, griefers like to explain away their actions with psychology majors and other such things that seem to amount to them basically saying "I'm smart, suffer for my pleasure".
Really, it's the same type of mentality that inspires school shootings and suicide bombings.
"I'm smart... I'm bored... HIGHER CAUSE!"

I never see them analyse themselves, I wonder why...

This is also Encyclopedia Dramatica's primary defense whenever they offend people. According to them, you shouldn't take anything seriously on the Internet, so they shouldn't be held accountable for anything they do on the Internet. Makes sense, right?

Of course, it's "just the internet", it's not like it's the biggest advancement in communications ever made to date and that it's an amazingly complex piece of tech with limitless potential for the human species to use.

Fuck it, let's ruin someone else's down time whilst contributing nothing of value to the world.

I think the reason they don't analyze themselves is because it will force them to dredge up uncomfortable moments of their past.

Most people that I know who have that kind of forceful schadenfreude are people who are abused or have abandonment issues: usually from one parent leaving the other with the kid. It happens most often when the abandoning parent is young and just realizing that they missed out on a part of their life, just realizing they're gay, or has committed some sort of crime and is taken away. SO maybe these attention starved gamers shouldn't be called "Griefers," just "Grievers."

While I feel more tolerable when the "griefer" is funny (however rare that is), I figure that messing with peoples game is better than holding up liquor stores, date raping, and other more offensive ways of getting attention. Of course feeling sorry for them doesn't stop me from ruining their plan with a well hidden mine or by dropping them off in an inconvenient place with a drop ship (warhawk).

 

[John-Joe]

The only reason I played WoW was to grief people.

Everytime I saw someone make a spelling mistake I'd annoy them untill ignore.

Everytime I saw a horde questing (on my rogue) I'd find the most annoying times to kill them (the end of an escort quest and so on).

Everytime a keke farmer wrote me, trying to sell gold, I would tell him that I wanted gold, and then start making no sense, untill the keke farmers ignored me.(I even made one call me a fucking idiot)

Everytime I found keke Farmers from the opposing faction Farming around somewhere, I'd kill them in ways, so the controller would have to manually run them back to the corpses.

Everytime we boosted our mates, we would get someone to tag along, for added exp, we would make this tag along die untill he left the group and reported us.

We even started griefing people in real life, like driving INSANELY slow on the roads 5 in the morning(where people couldn't pass, we were honked at and flipped of when people passed us). And we would sit in the car when the lights turned green, untill the cars behind us started honking in frustration.

I guess I'm an asshole.

EDIT: Check this out too : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-rl3RPC_Mw That is really the best griefing I have ever seen.

 

[Amnestic]

It's funny, griefers like to explain away their actions with psychology majors and other such things that seem to amount to them basically saying "I'm smart, suffer for my pleasure".
Really, it's the same type of mentality that inspires school shootings and suicide bombings.
"I'm smart... I'm bored... HIGHER CAUSE!"

I never see them analyse themselves, I wonder why...

This is also Encyclopedia Dramatica's primary defense whenever they offend people. According to them, you shouldn't take anything seriously on the Internet, so they shouldn't be held accountable for anything they do on the Internet. Makes sense, right?

Of course, it's "just the internet", it's not like it's the biggest advancement in communications ever made to date and that it's an amazingly complex piece of tech with limitless potential for the human species to use.

Fuck it, let's ruin someone else's down time whilst contributing nothing of value to the world.

I think the reason they don't analyze themselves is because it will force them to dredge up uncomfortable moments of their past.

Most people that I know who have that kind of forceful schadenfreude are people who are abused or have abandonment issues: usually from one parent leaving the other with the kid. It happens most often when the abandoning parent is young and just realizing that they missed out on a part of their life, just realizing they're gay, or has committed some sort of crime and is taken away. SO maybe these attention starved gamers shouldn't be called "Griefers," just "Grievers."

While I feel more tolerable when the "griefer" is funny (however rare that is), I figure that messing with peoples game is better than holding up liquor stores, date raping, and other more offensive ways of getting attention. Of course feeling sorry for them doesn't stop me from ruining their plan with a well hidden mine or by dropping them off in an inconvenient place with a drop ship (warhawk).

It's funny, griefers like to explain away their actions with psychology majors and other such things that seem to amount to them basically saying "I'm smart, suffer for my pleasure".

Funny stuff guys. Funny stuff.

 

[Worgen]

The only reason I played WoW was to grief people.

Everytime I saw someone make a spelling mistake I'd annoy them untill ignore.

Everytime I saw a horde questing (on my rogue) I'd find the most annoying times to kill them (the end of an escort quest and so on).

Everytime a keke farmer wrote me, trying to sell gold, I would tell him that I wanted gold, and then start making no sense, untill the keke farmers ignored me.(I even made one call me a fucking idiot)

Everytime I found keke Farmers from the opposing faction Farming around somewhere, I'd kill them in ways, so the controller would have to manually run them back to the corpses.

Everytime we boosted our mates, we would get someone to tag along, for added exp, we would make this tag along die untill he left the group and reported us.

We even started griefing people in real life, like driving INSANELY slow on the roads 5 in the morning(where people couldn't pass, we were honked at and flipped of when people passed us). And we would sit in the car when the lights turned green, untill the cars behind us started honking in frustration.

I guess I'm an asshole.

EDIT: Check this out too : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-rl3RPC_Mw That is really the best griefing I have ever seen.

you must live in a state with strict gun control laws

 

[Eri]

We even started griefing people in real life, like driving INSANELY slow on the roads 5 in the morning(where people couldn't pass, we were honked at and flipped of when people passed us). And we would sit in the car when the lights turned green, untill the cars behind us started honking in frustration.

Enjoy being arrested for obstructing traffic.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

And yet there is no message more drenched in heart-felt outrage and angst as that of a recently-banned griefer to a server admin. Those always brought out the schadenfreude in me, to see the tables turned so completely and seeing it so thoroughly expose the double-standard griefers hold.

Truly, the "why so serious?" defense doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. (BTW, justifying bad behaviour by pointing to others' bad behaviour doesn't make that behaviour good. Stop interfering with others' attempts to enjoy the game, dammit; they paid to play too.)

-- Steve

I know justifying bad behaviour by pointing out that of others doesn't justify mine. I'm just making sure we all realize every style of gaming comes with its character flaws.

I am not one of those griefers who whinge about a small ban. I never do anything to justify a permenant ban, and if I am banned, I know I was asking for it. I will serve my sentence, without trying to appeal. You are lumping me in with those who try and make people spazz out and cry.

The "why so serious" defense holds up with my style of play, because I won't do things to ruin most people's experiences. I have fun, and if someone gets pissed off at my antics they are in the minority. I don't mic spam, I don't generally team kill, I find creative ways to do things.

-- Bryan

 

[John-Joe]

We even started griefing people in real life, like driving INSANELY slow on the roads 5 in the morning(where people couldn't pass, we were honked at and flipped of when people passed us). And we would sit in the car when the lights turned green, untill the cars behind us started honking in frustration.

Enjoy being arrested for obstructing traffic.

Welcome to Denmark where nobody gives a crap, and it was 5 in the morning, no people but the ones we were annoying were there.

 

[Doug]

Greifers get pleasure (laughs) out of the pain (anger, annoyance) of others. The real life term for this is sadists, and people don't think that's funny.

Agreed; fuck griefers