[MUD-Dev] Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...)

[Chek Yang FOO]

Mike Rozak [mailto:Mike at mxac.com.au] wrote:

> Is there a correlation between player's age/gender and griefing?

> Is there a correlation between the player's education (HS only, 2
> yr, 4 yr, master, etc.) and griefing, once age is accounted for?

> Is there a correlation between the player's country and griefing?

> Is there a correlation between the player's time spent on line and
> griefing?

> Does how the VW is marketed affect griefing? Ie: Will a VW named
> "Fairyland" have more/fewer griefers than a VW named "Risk your
> life"?

> Does the VW's content affect griefing? Ex: If the VW is about
> combat, are there more griefers than if the VW de-emphasizes
> combat and encourages role play, socialization, puzzles, etc?

> Does showing levels encourage griefing? I recall seeing one
> MMORPG/MUD claiming that griefing wouldn't be an issue be players
> couldn't see what level their enemy was. Of course, if levels
> aren't shown, equipment gives a clue, so a game would also have to
> hide that.

> Does lack of quests encourage griefing?

OK; this particular study of mine is explorative and employs
qualitative methods at the moment. So at the moment, while some of
the grief players I've spoken to do say their age and I occasionally
get a sense of their education levels, short of using more
quantitative methods, I don't have any representative data on grief
player ages, nationality, and play time versus their play styles.

Coincidentally, I did ask some players on their perceptions of grief
player age and also whether grief players were ignorant about
existing game rules. Briefly, a few did suggest that their
tormentors seemed young. However, aside from a few instances where
players did find out about ages, when pressed, players couldn't say
for certain the ages of grief players.

What I do have is data about the kind of environments that grief
players seem to thrive in, and the impact of play mechanisms -
particularly player justice, and player judiciaries - on griefing -
e.g. whether it hinders, facilities, or even encourages griefing. I
haven't yet analysed that data to determine the current state of
these mechanisms on griefing (at this stage, I'm right now looking
at griefer motivations, and the impact of grief play on
players). But just briefly, evidence do reveal that grief players
seem to thrive both in combative environments and also "safer"
non-combative and carebear environments.

Also, boredom with game content (lack of quests?) does seem to be
one of the "push" factors; though this seems to concern the more
opportunistic players who grief as compared to the hardcore ones who
relish torment (i.e. they grief regardless of the quality of game
content). For the opportunistic type, it also seems that the
presence of rules and the level of their enforcement impact whether
boredom will push them to grief for just momentary fun.

Time permitting, I do intend to in the future look at grief play and
actual player attributes like age, gender, play experience, and
nationality.

Very IMO.

CY
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