[MUD-Dev2] [MUD-Dev] [REPOST] Griefing

[Nicholas Koranda]

********************************************************************
*  REPOST
*
* Original Poster:  Brian "Ayavaron" Ross
* ayavaron at gmail.com
*
* 11/20/05 11:11AM
*
********************************************************************

I just finished reading an issue of Escapist Magazine
(http://www.theescapistmagazine.com/) that dealt with the topic of
griefers.  The topic was thoroughly analyzed and explored throughout the
article, but it leaves one with the question, "What do you do about it?"

The magazine suggested in one article that players who grief could be
red-flagged, making them targets for vigilantes. However, I think we can
do better than that. I remember the first time I played Elder Scrolls
III, I went into a shop and tried stealing stuff. I was declared a bad
guy and suddenly everyone wanted to kill me. This leads me to the idea
that a similar system could be adopted in MMORPGs where you have a
griefer rating and people can mark you as a griefer. Once the rating
becomes high enough, you might be declared WANTED and perhaps even, a
bounty could be placed on your head. People could gain a lot from
hunting you down for being a griefer. As your griefer rating increased,
your bounty could possibly increase too. The justice system wouldn't
have to break game and could even possibly become a large part of the
game.

The most obvious problem I can see with this system though is that
griefers might exploit this system and start randomly calling other
people griefers with no real reason. To combat this, perhaps, a griefer
would have to select from a list which type of griefing was done to
them. Then the game could check and see if it was impossible for that to
happen. (i.e. A player says a griefer has camped him. The game could
check to see if there was ever a PVP encounter with them at all and who
won to decide if that is valid.) Naturally, such a system would not be
perfect but it could weed out some of the wrongful griefing claims.

Another problem that might not be such a big deal is that a group of
players could exploit it for actual benefit. One player in a group might
start griefing the other players with the intention of putting a bounty
on his head. Then another player in the group could kill him and share
the benefits with the other player. I don't really think this matters
much, but it is something some people would want to consider.