Griefer

A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways. A griefer derives pleasure primarily or exclusively from the act of annoying other users, and as such is a particular nuisance in online gaming communities, since griefers often cannot be deterred by penalties related to in-game goals.

In the culture of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) in Taiwan, such as Lineage, griefers are known as "white-eyed"—a metaphor meaning that their eyes have no pupils and so they look without seeing. Behaviors other than griefing which can cause players to be stigmatized as "white-eyed" include cursing, cheating, stealing, and unreasonable killing.

History

The term was applied to online, multiplayer computer games by the year 2000 or earlier, as illustrated by postings to the rec.games.computer.ultima.online USENET group. The player is said to cause "grief" in the sense of "giving someone grief".

The term "griefing" dates to the late 1990s, when it was used to describe the willfully antisocial behaviors seen in early massively multiplayer online games like Ultima Online and first-person shooters such as Counter-Strike. But even before it had a name, griefer-like behavior was familiar in the virtual worlds of text-based Multi-User Domains (MUDs), where joyriding invaders visited "virtual rape" and similar offenses on the local populace. Julian Dibbell's 1993 article A Rape in Cyberspace analyzed the griefing events in a particular MUD, LambdaMOO, and the staff's response.

Methods

Methods of griefing differ from game to game. What might be considered griefing in one area of a game may even be an intended function or mechanic in another area. Common methods may include but are not limited to:

• Intentional friendly fire or deliberately performing actions detrimental to other team members' game performance, including wasting or destroying key game elements, colluding with the opposition and giving false information.
• Actions undertaken to waste other players' time. For example, when losing in a turn-based game, a player may play as slowly as possible. In other games, they may hide from an enemy when there is no tactical benefit in doing so.
• Impersonation of server administrators or other players through similar screen names.
• Any method of reversing another player's progress, such as destroying or modifying other players' creations in sandbox games like Minecraft and Terraria.
• Faking extreme incompetence with the intent of hurting teammates or failing an in-game objective.
• Written or verbal insults, including false accusations of cheating or griefing. Often directed at the server administrator.
• Purposeful violation of server rules or guidelines.
• Kill stealing, denying another player the pleasure or gain of killing a target that should have been theirs.
• Spamming a voice or text chat channel to inconvenience, harass or annoy other players.
• Uploading offensive or explicit images to profile pictures or to game skins.
• Camping at a corpse or spawn area to repeatedly kill players as they resurrect, preventing them from being able to play.
• Acting out-of-character in a role-play setting to disrupt the serious gameplay of others.
• Luring many monsters or one big one to chase the griefer, before moving to where other players are "kiting" (attacking monsters from a safe distance). The line of monsters in pursuit looks like a train, and hence this is sometimes called "training".
• Blocking another player's way so they cannot move to or from a particular area, or access an in-game resource (such as a non-player character).
• Deliberately blocking shots from a player's own team or blocking a player's view by standing in front of them so they cannot damage the enemy.
• Intentionally attempting to crash a server, in order to cause interference among players.
• Intentionally using glitches or exploits to halt the progress of a Co-op or Multiplayer game (such as destroying or blocking off access to items without which other players cannot finish the game).
• "Training' or "Aggroing", i.e. baiting large groups of enemies or very strong enemies into attacking players who are not prepared to battle those enemies.
• Abusing an in-game "Spectator Mode" to freely fly around the map and give information to allies, such as item spawns, enemy positions, and other information that the ally wouldn't have been able to know on his own. Some games block spectators from chatting with teammates, but this can be circumvented using an external chat program.
• Intentionally lagging a server through various means, such as spawning large amounts of resource-demanding objects.
• Trapping teammates in inescapable locations by use of physics props, special abilities, or in the case of Team Fortress 2, using teleporters to teleport teammates into inescapable locations.
• Constantly pausing the game or lowering game speed down to the slowest one, in the hopes that the winning player will simply give up in frustration and quit, instead of finishing the game and defeating them.

The term is sometimes applied more generally to mean a person who uses the internet to cause distress to others as a prank, or to intentionally inflict harm, as when it was used to describe an incident in March 2008, when malicious users posted seizure-inducing animations on epilepsy forums.

Industry response

Many subscription-based games actively oppose griefers, since their behavior can drive away business. It is common for developers to release server-side upgrades and patches to annul griefing methods. Many online games employ gamemasters that reprimand offenders. Some use a crowdsourcing approach, where players can report griefing. Malicious players are then red-flagged, and are then dealt with at a gamemaster's discretion. As many as 25% of customer support calls to companies operating online games deal specifically with griefing.

Blizzard Entertainment has enacted software components and rules for its forums to combat griefing. To prevent non-consensual attacks between players, some games such as Ultima Online have created separate servers for those who wish to be able to attack anyone at anytime, and for those who do not.

When EverQuest was released, Sony included a PvP-switch where people could fight each other only if they had enabled that option. This was done in order to prevent the player-killing that was driving people away from Ultima Online, which at that time had no protection on any of its servers.

Second Life bans players for harassment (defined as being rude or threatening, making unwelcome sexual advances, or performing activities likely to annoy or alarm somebody) and assault (shooting, pushing, or shoving in a safe area, or creating scripted objects that target another user and hinder their enjoyment of Second Life) in its community standards. Sanctions include warnings, suspension from Second Life, or being banned altogether.

Space sims like Eve Online and Elite: Dangerous have incorporated activities typically considered griefing as part of the gameplay mechanism. Corporate spying, theft, scams, gate-camping, and PVP on non-PVP players are all part of their gaming experience.

See also

• Cyberbullying
• Kill stealing
• Troll (Internet)

External links

• Globe and Mail: Frontier justice: Can virtual worlds be civilized?
• "Ready, set, game: Learn how to keep video gaming safe and fun."
• Documented incident of griefing during a virtual interview, see also Anshe Chung
• Research Paper on griefing. To view this PDF paper, the host website requires a subscription to the digital library.
• "Feature: The Griefer Within", GamePro.
• Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers,, WIRED MAGAZINE: ISSUE 16.02
• Griefer Madness: Terrorizing Virtual Worlds
• Can you grief it? - feature article at VideoGamer.com.