Griefers and Addictive Video Games

[TheUnholy]

When has bullying and bothering other people become such a bad thing that it needs to be addressed all the time. So now shots are being taken at MMOs for their "griefers" and its "addictive" gameplay (like tobacco and alcohol)? And does WoW really have strong violence and sexuality? Hell if that does then so does Super Mario Bros. Two guys running around killing turtles, getting shot at by mean bullets, all just to get a piece of the princess' ass.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN0343424320070705

Quick link for those who haven't read it.

[georox]

I was one hell of a griefer on Ultima Online. I'd lure people to places, open gates next to moongates that led inside my house as 20 of my friend mages would tear them a few new ones, we'd loot em dry, ban em from house, so on. I'd scam to. Hardcore. Looking back on things, I was a complete asshole on Ultima Online, those where the days. I'm a lot better on other MMOs, guess its just how the community works and the people I played with.

[RadarX]

Bullying has come to the forefront in recent years and I don't really see a problem with that. I *DO* see a problem with worrying about bullying in a virtual environment. It's not like you can't report people, and especially in consensual PvP servers the only thing you are violating by "griefing" people is implicit rules of sportsmanship. There are jerks in MMO's just like in real life, they might as well get used to it.

[kurisu7885]

Bullying has come to the forefront in recent years and I don't really see a problem with that. I *DO* see a problem with worrying about bullying in a virtual environment. It's not like you can't report people, and especially in consensual PvP servers the only thing you are violating by "griefing" people is implicit rules of sportsmanship. There are jerks in MMO's just like in real life, they might as well get used to it.

Yeah. It's not like the logout button is grayed the second you come under fire fro ma griefer, or the repost function is off during griefing

[georox]

Yeah. It's not like the logout button is grayed the second you come under fire fro ma griefer, or the repost function is off during griefing
I dunno, most games don't let you logout during combat =P

[TheUnholy]

My question is this...Is this something that as a gaming community we need to address? Should we shun those that are griefers? Though freedom is part of online gameplay, where do we have to draw the line?

Remember freedom can only go as far as your nose.

[Thefremen]

My question is this...Is this something that as a gaming community we need to address? Should we shun those that are griefers? Though freedom is part of online gameplay, where do we have to draw the line?

Remember freedom can only go as far as your nose.

Basically this is why people have guilds, so that you can have a certain amount of protection. If someone griefs you, you just ask the Don for a favor and bada bing the griefer gets a horse's head in his bed.

At any rate OMG I LOST AT THE INTERNET!

[kurisu7885]

Basically this is why people have guilds, so that you can have a certain amount of protection. If someone griefs you, you just ask the Don for a favor and bada bing the griefer gets a horse's head in his bed.

At any rate OMG I LOST AT THE INTERNET!

Not to mention ignore and banned lists, though at times thanks to throwaway accounts not even those work. Happens on second Life all the time, or the griefer stands at the edge of the territory and keeps it up.

[Jabrwock]

A buddy of mine is a bounty hunter on SW: Galaxies, and that's what his career is, hunting griefers (of course he needs to be hired to do so, but he advertises himself as "specializing" in them)...

[Brokenscope]

Me and a few buddies of mine are building up a small corp in EvE. Were going to be selective bounty hunters.

We noticed something, there are 3 kinds of pirates.

1: Jumps in traps you demands you drop your cargo, blows you up if you don't comply quickly, but leaves your pod alone. Might even send you some money afterwards(That happened once, heck Its what I would do.)

2: Jumps in blows you up but leaves your pod alone.

3: Jumps in blows you up, blows your pod up.

Were going to hunt and take bounties on the 3rd type of pirate and bounties on players who aren't welcome in concord space.

Right now we can take on anything short of a battlecruiser. With good planning we can kill a target and get out without them ever even knowing our name.

As for how to handle them. I like how eve does it. You can grief people but there are repercussions.

In WoW on the other hand if an alliance 70 is kicking your level 10 ass you can't do much except log off. Someone is tagging all your kills but is in your faction? You can't kill them.

Make some general ground rules that make some places safe and fun for people, but leave part of the game to be the wild west. The more freedom you give players, the more the player base can protect itself, and the more interesting the player interactions become. The fact many MMO game allow the same kind of saftey for a lone wolf that you can really only find as part of an organized society. So when they get hurt sometimes they demand that the problem be solved.

Heck griefers add to the game IMHO if the game is done right.

[Demontestament]

As for how to handle them. I like how eve does it. You can grief people but there are repercussions.

In WoW on the other hand if an alliance 70 is kicking your level 10 ass you can't do much except log off. Someone is tagging all your kills but is in your faction? You can't kill them.

Make some general ground rules that make some places safe and fun for people, but leave part of the game to be the wild west. The more freedom you give players, the more the player base can protect itself, and the more interesting the player interactions become. The fact many MMO game allow the same kind of saftey for a lone wolf that you can really only find as part of an organized society. So when they get hurt sometimes they demand that the problem be solved.

Heck griefers add to the game IMHO if the game is done right.

Well with WoW if a level 10 is in an area where they can be killed by another player chances are they are in the wrong part of the game anyway. Though WoW has instilled rules on camping a body, hell even put a kill limit on people before it becomes harrassment. If you kill the person twice you are supposed to move on, if you continue to camp them it falls under their harrassment rules and you can be banned for up to 72 hours the first time. Yeah being killed in the games sucks but that is the risk you take when you roll a character on a PVP server. There are other servers where PVP is not active unless someone flags. If ya die you die, if some 70 wants to be a douche let them, they will get bored fairly fast or some of your factions 70s will come out and rape him a few times before sending him on his way back to alliance lands.

"It will give parents their power back," she said. "Because right now these marketers are going straight after the young ones to try to get them addicted at an early age, and it's like a parent trying to fight tobacco and alcohol. It's very difficult," she said.

Once again they try to make video games sound like drugs and the companies are made to sound like evil drug dealers trying to get little jimmy to do some crack. And it isn't very difficult you dumbass, you tell the kid no. Simple as that, the thing that makes it hard is parents today are weak minded morons who ****ed without protection, they can't say no to their brat and buy them anything they want without checking it out first.

[TheUnholy]

Once again they try to make video games sound like drugs and the companies are made to sound like evil drug dealers trying to get little jimmy to do some crack. And it isn't very difficult you dumbass, you tell the kid no. Simple as that, the thing that makes it hard is parents today are weak minded morons who ****ed without protection, they can't say no to their brat and buy them anything they want without checking it out first.

It's not so much that the parents don't have the will to tell their kids. It's the parents lack of knowledge of the games being played. Even that really is not an issue with video game violence. A lot of the problem is that people like Dr. Black are speaking out about video game violence. They are linking griefing in MMOs to physical bullying in the real world. And most parents are only receiving one side of the issue. There is a lack of defense on the industry's part to combat reports like this. There is a lack of media coverage showing studies that video games are not addicting. Yet a doctor/professor can basically just say video games are bad for kids and they can be aired on 20/20. Parents are just caught in the middle of doing what's right (educating themselves and their children on violence) and doing what the media is telling them to do (fighting against violent video games).

I personally never thought of any MMO to be violent. It's not like you get to pick up a Flak Cannon and frag the hell outta someone 2 ft away.

[Brokenscope]

I personally never thought of any MMO to be violent. It's not like you get to pick up a Flak Cannon and frag the hell outta someone 2 ft away.


I would play that game if it was done right.

[MachShot]

For once I would like to see an anti-gaming coment from someone who wasn't unattentive. Every 'Thompsonite' always has comments about a game that don't even exist, like the Rule of Rose scandal. There is no extreme violence or sexuality in any MMO I've heard of. Althouh I will give her this, she is right about the addiction thing, the name "World of Warcrack" is evidence to such. But then again, children can be 'addicted' to unhealthy eating, lazyness, and bad sleeping habits, so any non-drug addiction is solely in the hands of Parents.

[georox]

I've had unhealthy eating and lazyness since before my first MMO, the TV did that.

[TheUnholy]

For once I would like to see an anti-gaming coment from someone who wasn't unattentive. Every 'Thompsonite' always has comments about a game that don't even exist, like the Rule of Rose scandal. There is no extreme violence or sexuality in any MMO I've heard of. Althouh I will give her this, she is right about the addiction thing, the name "World of Warcrack" is evidence to such. But then again, children can be 'addicted' to unhealthy eating, lazyness, and bad sleeping habits, so any non-drug addiction is solely in the hands of Parents.

Very true indeed. Most MMOs are highly addicting due to its time requirement. Anyone who plays needs to put in the time to get higher stats, higher levels whatever. "Just another 3 hrs of questing before the next level." But can that really be called addicting. Or dedication.
I call it dedication. For someone to put that much time into something they care about is purely dedication. Can we say that dedication is good always? Of course not. Someone dedicated to leveling up and not working or taking care of their family doesn't have their priorities straight and is irresponsible. And often you find stories about adults that have left their marriages and children for their MMO "spouses."
Now for those that will argue with me and say well if that's dedication then getting high is dedication too. No, because getting high, for most people, is uncontrollable after awhile. Putting forth a conscious effort to get drunk everyday is dedication. But as I said already, poor priorities and responsibility.

[Brokenscope]

Then there are games like eve.

"Hmm I've got another 27 hours before that skill levels. Time to hit the gym, but I better make sure to check around 2:30 tomorrow to start training battlecruisers..."