[MUD-Dev] Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World

[Vincent Archer]

According to Rayzam:

>   If griefing occurs in a non-pk, non-combat style game like the
>   Sims Online, is it just a part of the human condition? Is it
>   possible to truly remove it? Some games attempt to by limiting
>   combat actions on other players, but apparently grief play can
>   exist without overt combat.

Griefing can exist in a non-combat game.

Take the example of A Tale in the Desert.

One of the game's 49 objectives is the Test of the
Bedouin. Basically, it's simple: there are about 200 altars
dispersed around the game map.  Players may seek them out, and
perform a ceremony at the altar (known as "anointing") Each altar
keeps track of the last 3 people to visit it, and credits each with
the time since the altar was visited. Each day, these times on all
altars are summed up, and the four people with the highest amount of
total time get 1 point. Get 7 points, and you win.

There are two kind of altars.

The "popular" altars, located close to population centers, known to
many people. These altars are visited by many people every day, and
the amount of time you may get credited on these altars will be
highly random (and usually small).

So, the Test encourages the explorers, who seek out less known
altars, who are visited by less than 3 people per day on average,
and that can be "held" for a full day (and beyond, avoiding the need
to revisit altars). Or the socials, as a group may explore and share
their list of altars, and organise the competition so that, despite
the fact that people know a list, they don't try to grab the altars,
bumping another guild member off the altar's memory.

Enter the griefing.

Somebody recently left the game. As a "parting gift", that person
placed a list of over half the altars on a public forum, for
everyone to see. He did that knowing that the Bedouin guild
described above (who welcomes anybody who wants to pass the test)
would be hurt the most. By that single act, he pushed the test away
from the explorer/ social into a random lottery, where the person
who can spend the most time on-line, trying to re-anoint altars,
gets more chances than the others.

In short, making it very very hard to hold on these altars (think
about the poor, hapless european-time player, who faces usually many
people in US time bumping him off list very fast, vs the west coast
player, facing maybe a couple of asia/australian players that might
not get him off the altar's memory until the european players start
seeking out altars the next day).

But, unlike classic griefing, where, once a griefer is expelled, he
merely leaves some bad memories, but no lasting damage except to the
social fabric from time to time, this griefing goes beyond that. The
legacy of the griefer will remain in the game forever, or until the
game map changes next year.

Griefers in combat games might be a bit less dangerous in practice
:)

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)
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