Let's discuss the reasons people 'Grief'.

I am fascinated by Greifers. At first, they annoyed me greatly and they still do, but like um... Zombies, they keep coming and coming at the servers no matter what anyone does.

In game, I am trying to do mini-interviews with the Griefers to see why they are doing it. My partner's profession is in therapy, and he has many suggestions as to what it could be based on what I have told him. He is not into games at all, but I tried to explain to him the nature of the situation.

How about we explore this subject a little as to why people 'Grief' their own team? I think this subject is a little more complex than we might all realize!

First, there are many types of griefers. Here are some that I have seen.

1: Blatant 'in the open' destruction of the griefers own castle.

2: Sneaky destruction of ones own castle. For example, one key stone in a wall at a specific time hit, to bring it all down.

3: On again, off again greifer. Someone who plays the game as it is supposed to be played, but then all of a sudden begins to grief for some reason. And back and forth.

4: 'Stealth' griefers. People who grief and then switch teams back and forth to avoid being kicked.

5: Intelligent greifers. These are the guys who carefully and sneakily place a stone right above his own teams trees " stumping " the trees to deny the team wood. They also continually dig the stone out of the ground - even when at max stone, to deny the team stone for a prolonged fight.

6: Sadistic griefers. These guys place spikes in specific locations they notice their team mates landing on after a jump over something.

7: "Chaos" griefers. People who only grief when heavy action is on screen, to hide their actions and to create doubt on the team in regards to 'who did it'

8: Skybridge griefers. People who just cannot resist taking down a skybridge - and that is the only griefing they do.

So, why do we think people grief? Are they Sadistic? Do they get a genuine thrill from it? Are these the types of people who abused animals as a kid? Are they teenagers in a broken home? Are they kids with failed parents who do not take care of them correctly? Are they young adults who have no direction in life and are drifting with no purpose?

I am my ideas based on years of dealing with 'teamkillers' in hundreds of games. I am curious as to what the community comes up with here.

Let's have fun,
-

 

Spoiler

 

Some people just want to see the world burn.

Also combine internet anonymity with immaturity, and you have yourself a person who will take it apone himself, to get a reaction. Some might have never been taught as a child to share, or be a good person. Combine this with internet anonymity as well, and you have a greifer. Lets be honest here, for some one who only wants to destroy, we can't do much about it. Ban, big woop, they are still anonymous and can make another account. This happens in ALL games with destruction or creativity. Even in normal games, people still block. They just like reactions.

 

The reason is quite simple. People grief because it is fun for some people. I personally deem those people mentally challenged though, as they are pretty much the exact same kind of people as those who destroy sand castles, burn public trash cans for no reason, team up to beat lone kids for lunch money and drunkenly stab other people in clubs because they think that someone didn't like their hairstyle.

 

Ah yes, that "internet anonymity"

People acting like asses due to the fact they use fake names online.

Do you think the instances of griefing would drop dramatically if people were not as anonymous online as they are now? Meaning: It would be just as easy for someone with no technical experience to I.D. someone online, as opposed to now where you need tech skills and other resources to take away the limited anonymous nature of being online?

I have found that kids and teenagers usually behave when they are at risk of losing something that is important personally to them. We all need to treat each other nicer online. Some will need to be forced to be nice, just like we force them to behave to societies standards offline.

 

that will never happen. ever. not even on facebook.

on topic: people grief becuase they are either total asshole's, or pissed off. best thing to do is ban them.

 

I wonder why I'm ignoring you, Vangaurde...

Anyway, it IS fascinating, until you realize it's a bunch of twelve year olds who downloaded the game for free and want to, for all intensive purposes, cause grief. That's really all there is to it.

 

From what I have expierenced, I just have two categories of griefers:

1) Griefer who are fascinated by collapse

Mostly understandable, they like it when constructions fell down like lego bricks. This happends a lot with skybridges, and a lot of new players want to try it out. I never griefed skybridges to harm team, only to make rocks rain on enemy, but I can understand it when people wanna destroy it. Having this thin loooong construction... so delicate, weak, bowing in the wind, and if you touch it, it rains down like snow flakes...

Those do mostly open griefing, like in the middle of the group and dont care that they are being called "griefers". They are mostly harmless, because easibly removable (if you got an active team)

2) Griefers which wanna be a pain in the ass

Now these are ugly.

 

They don't have hats. And if they have hats, they want more.

In fact, I don't want to understand them, even if I know that we should understand them.

 

Sad thing is, if they DO have hats, they wasted $10. I feel sorry for the premium griefers that are like, 9-14 years old, because their parents probably bought them a premium account. They're gonna get a whoopin' soooooo bad.

In general, there are a few people who could take on the entire army themselves, but without a team, you're screwed in this game. If you come in and think you can be Rambo all game every game, you're gonna die. A lot. The key to success is to work with your dudes, and if some of them are too stupid, let them throw themselves to the wolves. Work with the other experienced players and you can't lose.

 

I fell bad for the parents...

And I love to play offensive builder for Rambo. On a server, we've been a 2 men army, rampaging everyting on the way, it feel so good. When you play a good game, the feeling is so good ! Why griefers grief, if you could play well, even if you're newbie ?

What is harder to understand is experienced players, very good player, who... grief.

 

you missed one, Number 9, You kill the griefer that just, cuts your high wall bridge, and you had a cataplut fireing down at the emeny, when your own team worker comes alone and Cuts it down, and u die


i saw who did, it and i griefed the hell out of him, by breakin blocks over hes head, throwing bombs at him, and traped him in a hole and kept rebuilding stone.

all griefers die by my hands when i see one, and ive seen many and killed many, bring them on

 

Tbh sometimes its an accident. I messed up a wall, and someone was trying to fix it, but we forgot to put up backwalls so it collapsed. Needless to say, everyone started shouting "griefer!" which was pretty silly. So I told them it was an accidnet and he didn't mean it.

 

People grief because they're able to do so. KAG has a free2play part and because of this the repercussions are laughable at best (hence they just create new accounts). So yes, I'm glad that there is Premium and I'll gonna be even happier every time the price is rising. Obviously you'll gonna be at least a little more responsible and think about your actions if you shoved out your hard earned cash for the game since it can get taken away from you and you would have to pay again.

 

Well in games that need you to pay for playing you can find plenty of griefers too. People do it because they can, that's all. Premium won't fix it. The only thing that can get you away from griefers is making/joining a guild or other organised player group and play with other groups. Those people treat it seriously and want to have fun as a team most of the time.

 

So you're actually implying/believing/saying that KAG wouldn't have significantly less griefers if there wasn't a free2play part?

PS: I didn't say that it would fix the problem btw. That's impossible. Humans will be Humans.

 

Maybe a little less, but still they wouldn't dissappear from the game. You think that paying 10 dollars for a game would stop someone from being an asshole? :)