Will Grief for Laughs

[Valiance]

Nice dawnforged defender, lol.

Oh, and I don't TK unless the guy really deserves it.

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 my friend are truly a hero.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I just dread to see how they pick up women, pulling their hair?

haha, when I try to pick up women, all I do is approach them with a mate and start making fun of them, not being harsh, just untill they kinda think you're a dick.

Works quite often actually.

Really? What kind of women are you trying to pick up, strippers or junkies.

Or stripper junkies?

 

[John-Joe]

Really? What kind of women are you trying to pick up, strippers or junkies.

Or stripper junkies?

Dead stripper junkies

 

[GonzoGamer]

Really? What kind of women are you trying to pick up, strippers or junkies.

Or stripper junkies?

Dead stripper junkies

lol
Well, my hats off to you sir.
I can't sleep with anyone who smells like puked up cheetos.
Easy to get away from in the morning though.

 

[7ru7h]

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."

having griefed a fair bit in my younger days, i can say you've got it wrong.

i remember playing matrix online in the beta, and at a point joining a clan of what is today known as griefers. we belonged to the faction with the lowest populace on the (pvp) server, which meant most everyone was against us. we teamed up in gank squads and went around spreading mayhem by killing low levels in low level areas until their friends came by, by which time we would employ tactics to kill them as well. not only was griefing in this case a tactic; a lure to draw higher levels to where we were.

to be able to do this, we'd use a VoIP program for the majority of our sessions, because of the amount of communication used. during this time, and the time off, i realized something: these people, they were everyday people from almost all layers of society. we had a guy that was writing a ph.d., back then a friend and me were still in high school, we had a couple of guys in college and a few stoners. we weren't attention starved, we weren't odd in any way - we just enjoyed taking the fun out of how others played.

I can see why you'd want to think I'm wrong but it's the sad truth.
I suppose you're going to say that you and the other griefers don't have overinflated egos either huh? theking? The internet and online games aren't for your entertainment alone, everyone should be allowed to have fun.

The truth is that no matter what social strata or education level, you can still be attention starved and there are plenty of well off/educated people who still rob and rape. I'm not saying that all (or even any) of the people you played with would've been rapists if they didn't have gamers to harass online, just that they need attention and they don't care what kind of attention they get.

While I agree that people who take games too seriously need to be brought down a peg, people who take themselves too seriously do too.

I just dread to see how they pick up women, pulling their hair?

Because it's just so hard to hate griefers if they are like me, so why don't I say that they are screwed up mentally, and that's the reason they greif. Yeah... now I can hate that guy, and not feel bad about it. /sarcasm

 

[WickedArtist]

Maybe I've grown too old for this, which is a disturbing thought as really I'm still young, but then again I never could stand griefing throughout my entire gaming experience.

I never expected any quality from the internet, even though there are times I will find it, and online gaming is no exception. I'm surprised anyone believes otherwise considering the nature of the internet, which has already been mentioned. While they are hardly the only thing wrong with the internet, I can't understand griefers and find them and their idea of fun despicable; regardless of how serious gaming should or should not be, or whatever other stupid and feeble straw man they erect in their defense. While I could go into a whole philosophical campaign, part of me knows better and remembers this simple advice: "Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience."

So I suppose what I'm trying to say is: griefers will be out there, the nature of the internet demands that they will be, and trying to correct this or moan about it has all the point of hitting a brick wall with a sponge. Just like there are griefers (and all kinds of idiots) out there, there will also be people like me who will create places where the griefer cannot place foot. If you're that bothered by griefers, seek those places out. They might be buried under the ocean of shit that comes out of the internet, but they're out there.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

To start my rant off, I will clarify my personal stance on griefing: it is fun as hell, I do it both in game and IRL (to friends and coworkers), and usually when I grief it is because people deserve it. People that I tend to grief are those like anton. Why? Because to them, GAMEZ IZ SERIOUS BUSINESS!!1!!

Wrong. There are other reasons to dislike griefing than its effects on stats. There are those of us who want to play the game listed on the box... and if you want to play some other game, go ahead but do it elsewhere.

If I'm pushing my preferences on you, well, that's because they're the preferences advertised for the game in question. You wanna do something crazy with the game, fine, but do it on your server, not mine. And don't come crying to me if I kick you off; if you think I'm taking the game too seriously and should find another server if I don't like it, especially. I have a low tolerance for hypocrites.

Schadenfreude is one of the human race's most prevalent features:

Even more prevalent is bowel movements, but I don't see very many people taking a crap in public and proudly parading it around as an accomplishment. Well, above the age of two anyway. Trumpeting the inevitablity of schadenfreude is roughly as juvenile.

-- Steve

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Greifing is not, and never will be accepted, so those trying to defend it should just give up. For all the high minded idea's on either side, in the end both greifers and those opposed to it are simply acting out age old instinctive behaviors. Greifers are attempting to assert their dominance over the pack, the pack is offended at the breach of decorum and the status quo mentality. It's human nature, but in the end neither side is completely living up to their potential as sentient adults. The greifed need to calm down, because their outrage only feeds the greifer. The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

I just dread to see how they pick up women, pulling their hair?

haha, when I try to pick up women, all I do is approach them with a mate and start making fun of them, not being harsh, just untill they kinda think you're a dick.

Works quite often actually.

Really? What kind of women are you trying to pick up, strippers or junkies.

Or stripper junkies?

It's actually been proven time and time again that women overwhelmingly are more attracted to what we would universally label as 'assholes'. By mocking the woman, he places himself in a position of power - telling her in subtle language, he is her equal if not superior, and he is not intimidated by her position of femininity. The alpha male is still instinctively sought after, and in a society like ours it's more a measure of mentality and confidence then physical prowess. I am not saying women are shrinking violets who swoon at every alpha asshole who comes their way - some may be repulsed by what they equate as sophomoric and childish antics, lowering the male's value in their eye's because they see their confidence as a farce - but simply that these are our instinctive drives and that cognitive thought and attention is necessary to counteract them.

We're still monkeys flinging poo at each other and fighting over female's. Deal with it.

 

[Amnestic]

The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

That assumes they want to use pro-social behaviours though which I feel is a foolish assumption because generally a griefer won't give a shit about being pro-social because, as has been said, this is the internet, a little virtual bubble where consequences for their actions are slight or non-existant. They may have plenty of pro-social behaviour knowledge for use during their time offline (and thus not need to learn anything of the sort) but simply choose not to use them during their time online.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

The best times I ever had on WoW were due to 'griefing', actually got pretty famous on my server. That really makes me glad I quit...


Fun was had though, time to go fish through my screenshots folder.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

That assumes they want to use pro-social behaviours though which I feel is a foolish assumption because generally a griefer won't give a shit about being pro-social because, as has been said, this is the internet, a little virtual bubble where consequences for their actions are slight or non-existant. They may have plenty of pro-social behaviour knowledge for use during their time offline (and thus not need to learn anything of the sort) but simply choose not to use them during their time online.

The space between 'Want' and 'Should' is where being a MAHN! or an adult in general comes in. Children do what they want, adults do what they should.

...[/youtube]

There's nothing wrong with having a little fun, greifing in moderated amounts is probably as healthy as drinking. But it's important to remember our ability to empathize is what makes society possible. As 'loolemo!' as most of us think the concept of cyber bullying is, it's important to remember that 90% of all human beings have sensitive ego's, and the problem DOES exist.

 

[Doug]

Greifing is not, and never will be accepted, so those trying to defend it should just give up. For all the high minded idea's on either side, in the end both greifers and those opposed to it are simply acting out age old instinctive behaviors. Greifers are attempting to assert their dominance over the pack, the pack is offended at the breach of decorum and the status quo mentality. It's human nature, but in the end neither side is completely living up to their potential as sentient adults. The greifed need to calm down, because their outrage only feeds the greifer. The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

True. Though I would point out the hypocracy in the griefers; they go on about how its only for a laugh, and how everyone needs to 'lighten up'. But the serious griefers on MMOs will expend many, many hours preparing their griefs, and ultimately probably end up spending more time griefing than the griefed spend playing.

Also, I would argue (politely) that the griefed where minding their own business (well, most of the time this is the case) before the griefers turned up, and realistically, griefing is just bullying in a new way.

 

[Amnestic]

Greifing is not, and never will be accepted, so those trying to defend it should just give up. For all the high minded idea's on either side, in the end both greifers and those opposed to it are simply acting out age old instinctive behaviors. Greifers are attempting to assert their dominance over the pack, the pack is offended at the breach of decorum and the status quo mentality. It's human nature, but in the end neither side is completely living up to their potential as sentient adults. The greifed need to calm down, because their outrage only feeds the greifer. The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

True. Though I would point out the hypocracy in the griefers; they go on about how its only for a laugh, and how everyone needs to 'lighten up'. But the serious griefers on MMOs will expend many, many hours preparing their griefs, and ultimately probably end up spending more time griefing than the griefed spend playing.

Are you telling me you never take extensive preparation for your fun? That you (impersonal plural) don't spend hours chatting up a girl to take her home for half an hour's squishy, drunken fun before never seeing her again?

Taking their 'fun' seriously doesn't show hypocrisy. Taking their fun suddenly being interrupted (by a banning, or themselves being griefed) shows hypocrisy. It's important to understand the difference.

 

[Doug]

The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

That assumes they want to use pro-social behaviours though which I feel is a foolish assumption because generally a griefer won't give a shit about being pro-social because, as has been said, this is the internet, a little virtual bubble where consequences for their actions are slight or non-existant. They may have plenty of pro-social behaviour knowledge for use during their time offline (and thus not need to learn anything of the sort) but simply choose not to use them during their time online.

The space between 'Want' and 'Should' is where being a MAHN! or an adult in general comes in. Children do what they want, adults do what they should.

...[/youtube]

There's nothing wrong with having a little fun, greifing in moderated amounts is probably as healthy as drinking. But it's important to remember our ability to empathize is what makes society possible. As 'loolemo!' as most of us think the concept of cyber bullying is, it's important to remember that 90% of all human beings have sensitive ego's, and the problem DOES exist.

Wise words. Sadly though, I think the griefers are the ones who either a) where hurt by other people at some stage, and have a chip on there shoulder that they think everyone else should pay for, or b) simply are sadistic and enjoy causing hurt feelings to other people. Though they might pretend to be adult in mind, once people can't see what they are doing (i.e. the anonymity of the internet), they revert to there true nature.

And because of the 90% who don't want that anonymity to be used against them anymore, I believe that there will come a time, maybe in a few years, maybe further away still, when anonymity is removed from the internet; not an easy task, but sooner or later the internet protocals will have to be redesigned, and whilst their redesigning them, they'll add in features to ensure people lack true anonymity. Or so I predict. Its like the Wild West - great for the 10-5% of people who where cowboys, a hell for everyone else; hence, the money will be put into taming the west.

 

[Doug]

Greifing is not, and never will be accepted, so those trying to defend it should just give up. For all the high minded idea's on either side, in the end both greifers and those opposed to it are simply acting out age old instinctive behaviors. Greifers are attempting to assert their dominance over the pack, the pack is offended at the breach of decorum and the status quo mentality. It's human nature, but in the end neither side is completely living up to their potential as sentient adults. The greifed need to calm down, because their outrage only feeds the greifer. The greifer, needs to chill the fuck out and learn some more pro-social behaviors.

True. Though I would point out the hypocracy in the griefers; they go on about how its only for a laugh, and how everyone needs to 'lighten up'. But the serious griefers on MMOs will expend many, many hours preparing their griefs, and ultimately probably end up spending more time griefing than the griefed spend playing.

Are you telling me you never take extensive preparation for your fun? That you (impersonal plural) don't spend hours chatting up a girl to take her home for half an hour's squishy, drunken fun before never seeing her again?

Taking their 'fun' seriously doesn't show hypocrisy. Taking their fun suddenly being interrupted (by a banning, or themselves being griefed) shows hypocrisy. It's important to understand the difference.

I'm saying the hypocracy is in picking your targets because they are 'taking it too seriously' when griefers clearly take it very seriously themselves.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

[strawman]You know who else spends hours planning their fun? Serial Killers.[/strawman]

JOKING PEOPLE!COULDN'T RESIST!

The planning is half the fun in alot of things. Execution is just the payoff for the planning. I can see how someone would enjoy planning and then executing a lulsworthy greif strike (see the infamous Scatman Funeral Raid) like we may enjoy planning then executing a flank attack in Empire: Total War.

But again, excessive greifing should be watched for, and you should never prank so much as to completly derail a server or an activity or seriously injure or inconvenience someone.

PS: The fact someone quoted a post of my linking a DVDA AMV of NOW YOUR A MAN! and said 'Wise Words' makes me wish I had planned that.

 

[Doug]

[strawman]You know who else spends hours planning their fun? Serial Killers.[/strawman]

JOKING PEOPLE!COULDN'T RESIST!

Hehe, the successful ones probably spend more time planning than even that!

The planning is half the fun in alot of things. Execution is just the payoff for the planning. I can see how someone would enjoy planning and then executing a lulsworthy greif strike (see the infamous Scatman Funeral Raid) like we may enjoy planning then executing a flank attack in Empire: Total War.

But again, excessive greifing should be watched for, and you should never prank so much as to completly derail a server or an activity or seriously injure or inconvenience someone.

PS: The fact someone quoted a post of my linking a DVDA AMV of NOW YOUR A MAN! and said 'Wise Words' makes me wish I had planned that.

True, I suppose; and I will admit mild griefing can have a roll in games. But the problem is griefers don't seem satisfied with 'just' mild griefing and end up pulling game threatening moves, and/or acts that amount to cyberbullying.

 

[Amnestic]

*Quote snip*

I'm saying the hypocracy is in picking your targets because they are 'taking it too seriously' when griefers clearly take it very seriously themselves.

We used to make jokes about my friend Bob at school simply because of the way he overreacted to them. These could be entirely innoccuous or even nonsensical jokes. For instance:

Guy: Why is Bob's mum like a bicycle? 'cos she's got flat tires!

This makes no sense. The guy who said it knew it made no sense, we knew it made no sense but we did it because we knew Bob would get angry and because he needed to chill the fuck out and stop taking such things so seriously.

Picking targets which you know will overreact is common practise. It was all in good fun and we never did it with malicious intent.

Griefers probably are hypocrites - I know that (though not specifically to do with griefing) I myself am guilty of hypocrisy on more than one occasion, but good sir, let me introduce you to Humanity. Perhaps you've met before? Everyone's a hypocrite in one way or another. I grief. I enjoy it. I try not to take it 'too far' but frankly some of the NERD RAGE I got back when I played WoW was hysterical and I doubt I'll ever stop casually griefing people.

But again, excessive greifing should be watched for, and you should never prank so much as to completly derail a server or an activity or seriously injure or inconvenience someone.

Ah, but now we're trying to quantify griefing. Good luck with that. Is killing yourself on Doom Lord Kazzak 'excessive' griefing when you do so to wipe another guild's boss attempt or are we talking about a guy - like I mentioned earlier - who would kill his entire CoD4 team on Hardcore Search and Destroy and lose them every single match without fail?

cyberbullying.

Could someone define 'cyberbullying' for me? 'Cos from what I've seen of it so far, it seems pretty tame. Some of the stuff the channers pull off with mass bombarding mobile phone numbers can get extreme but that kind of thing is almost never mentioned when cyberbullying is brought up.

/I got bullied at school.
//I got better.
///Didn't get turned into a newt though

 

[Meado]

Here's a FANTASTIC tip on avoiding griefers.

Don't play on a bloody Open PvP server.

You're a carebear. Yes, you want to seem tough and hardcore, playing on the open pvp server, but you do not belong there and if you get griefed constantly it's your own fault, because that's the entire point of open pvp.

So carebears: you brought it on yourself. Thank you for the delicious tears.

This, as far as MMOs go. You take the risk when you make your choice.

But when it comes to anything else, griefers are just douchebags. Your fun comes at the cost of someone elses, which just isnt on.
"OMG butt mi funz comes from there sufferin lol I need to enjoy mi gaem 2"
Not an excuse. The majority of griefers don't just effect one person, it effects several, perhaps the whole team or even the whole game. Let's say there are 10 players in the room when one of them starts griefing. That's 9 people suffering for one person. Does that sound fair to you?
"OMG they cud just quit"
Okay, you're griefing a game, so everyone quits. With no one left to grief, you get bored, so you quit too (if the host didn't end the game already). You then move on to another game and repeat the process. A whole game has been disrupted just so you could get five minutes of fun.

 

[Doug]

*Quote snip*

I'm saying the hypocracy is in picking your targets because they are 'taking it too seriously' when griefers clearly take it very seriously themselves.

We used to make jokes about my friend Bob at school simply because of the way he overreacted to them. These could be entirely innoccuous or even nonsensical jokes. For instance:

Guy: Why is Bob's mum like a bicycle? 'cos she's got flat tires!

This makes no sense. The guy who said it knew it made no sense, we knew it made no sense but we did it because we knew Bob would get angry and because he needed to chill the fuck out and stop taking such things so seriously.

Picking targets which you know will overreact is common practise. It was all in good fun and we never did it with malicious intent.

Did you never tell him it wasn't malicious? Because I know I was like him in the secondary school (approx: pre US highschool). And in my case, it was people making Hitler remarks because I happened to live in Germany at one point. And yeah, I thought it was malicious, and I know for certain one inbreed hick bastard was being malicious because he made my live hell whenever art class came around and I had to sit next to him. One person's 'good fun' is hell to the person its targeted at. So fuck you if you think I'm symaphetic with you over that. Not that I think you care about anyone but yourself, of course, and will just chalk this down to 'nerd rage'.