[MUD-Dev] DGN: Random questions about griefers

[David Johansson]

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:18:11 +0930
Mike Rozak <Mike at mxac.com.au> wrote:

> 2) When you kick a griefer off, what percentage of them come back
> in a different guise? And do they keep coming back despite their
> being kicked off repeatedly?

First hand experience from community forums very close to all of
them comes back as long as the game is free (MUD) and a surprisingly
large number of people seems to come back even if they have to pay
for the service.  Most of the time they grab an account from a
friend or from EBay (or equivalent) so they don't have to pay the
initial sale price.

> 3) What are some successful (and unsuccessful) ways of uniquely
> identifying users to prevent griefers? And how well does it work?
> a) Credit card (as discussed on terra nova)

Time cards?

>  b) Processor ID, or other hash derived from the player's
>  computer. (How many griefers will hack the client to get around
>  this?)

The griefer themselves, no, but those who produce other client style
hacks or memory scanners.

>  c) Storing a hidden flag on the griefer's machine, such as
>  registry or small file. (Fairly easy to find with a diff, but how
>  many griefers will do this?)

Legal issues.

>  d) Require a non-free E-mail

61% of 513 players use a free E-Mail service and only 8% of those
players were ready to give that up.

>  f) I assume IP address is useless.

No measure is useless - Just because you know a car thief can just
smash your window, you still lock your car.  MAC addresses together
with IP can work miracles

>  g) "Quaranteen chamber" at the start of the game that takes 10-20
>  hours to play through. Only after players have passed through
>  quaranteen are they allowed to meet other players. Thus,
>  cancelling an account would mean the loss of 10-20 hours of time
>  for a griefer.

I am always highly against a forced "tutorial" in any type of game.
Annoyance factor increases in quadruple numbers when you force a
player to run through a "Quarantine chamber"

>  h) Others?

"Multiple personalities" are most of the time best detected by the
players themselves, so if the staff (immortals, wizards, GMs,
regardless what you call it) actually actively plays the game and
knows the community, it helps these issues something tremendously

It's almost like I have undercover spies! *giggles insanely*

// David Johansson
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