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

[Corey Cauble]

Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad [olag at ifi.uio.no] wrote:

> How do you define "grief player" and "grief play"?

<snip>

> I understand the commercial defintion of "grief player" which
> simply is "players who cost us profit", but if we view virtual
> worlds from an aesthetical/ethical perspective then I have trouble
> with the term... The obvious reason is, of course, that games are
> spaces that allow us to act-out and causing drama. It is supposed
> to legal.

Amen.

Personally I think that the term is used far too loosely. Grief ==
"anything I don't like done to me" for most players. So when you PvP
in a PvP world and the loser of the fight lose something, they are
grieved, right? Wrong. It is part of the game you signed up for. If
you stand in the spawning square of newbies and kill them as they
spawn are you a "griever", damn straight. What is the difference?
One is a planned game mechanic the other is not. More time needs to
be spent during the design/testing faze to search for out of context
"grief" points and minimize impact.

If you want to limit the number of people that want to negatively
impact your player experience then build a player reputation system
that allows players to fight back against said "grievers". Tie the
reputation to the system account not just the character and send
some grief back their way ;)

Corey Cauble
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