Be careful Who You Grief Because it Just Might be Special Agent Spoilyourfun: The Government Invades the Virtual Universe
Over the last few weeks I have tried (rather unsuccessfully) to intervene in the griefing community and was constantly thwarted by geek barriers that barred my way into their dungeons of mischief. However, it now appears that their reign of virtual terror will soon come to an end. It seems the government will intervene for me. In an attempt to prevent terrorists from using the virtual world as a haven, the government has begun an initiative studying ways to monitor (and ultimately control) the virtual world. Up until now I have examined the affects of griefers on virtual worlds, but this week I’m turning my attention to how new control of virtual worlds will effect (and possibly grief or exterminate) griefers.
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Griefers are out to steal your virtual lunch money
I’m sorry this week’s entry is late. I had been struggling with what direction to take my exploration of griefing and this week I had started trying to explore it in terms of gender and gender divides, but ultimately that didn’t really lead me to anything significant. I chose to abandon this angle too late in the game, thus I’m now a little behind, sorry. However, I have managed to stumble upon some interesting research that deals with the psychology and motivation of griefing. Until now I feel like all the sources I have come across just relied upon the (I think oversimplified) explanation that anonymity encourages cruelty and considered griefing to be an offshoot of that. I have found two sources, Grief Player Motivations and Defining Grief Play in MMPORPGs: Player and Developer Perceptions, both written by Chek Yang Foo and Elina Koivisto that delve deeper into finding an explanation for understanding griefing.
The key to definition of griefer is that:
1. the griefer’s act is intentional;
2. it causes other players to enjoy the game less;
3. the griefer enjoys the act.
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Virtual Terrorists Attack (from the Comfort of their Mother’s Basement)!!
In a recent Wired article World of Warcraft Shines Light on Terror Tactics David Thier details how closely virtual terrorism and griefing in World of Warcraft resembles terrorist tactics in the real world. WoW has a long history of in-game terrorism.
“Early on, players found a curse in a high-level dungeon that would turn them into living bombs. They would then teleport to major cities and detonate themselves, killing nearby players. These suicide bombers gradually began to target areas where large number of players gathered, usually at auction houses or banks.”
Recently scientists have observed that WoW’s usefullness in studying how diseases spread. The game’s network acts as a ready-made virtual world that because each player makes his/her own decisions, reflects the real world more accurately than computer models or artificial intelligence. Charles Blair, deputy director of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, thinks that the game may be able to aid studies about how terrorist cells form and operate.
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Griefing: Revenge of the Nerds XX? The story of Mr. Bungle
                                             
HBO has been playing all four Revenge of the Nerds movies on repeat this week. Those nerds are really full of vengence. I’ve watched the movies, and who can blame them? But in the movies the nerds are a harmonious and supportive community.  Online griefing seems like another subplot in series, only now it’s nerds attacking nerds! (maybe it’s because thanks to the internet revolution we’ve all become nerds and the community has fallen apart)
I’d like to begin with one of the oldest and most infamous incidents of griefing on the web, Mr. Bungle’s 1993 night time attacks in LamdaMoo. Julian Dibbell recounts this story “A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society” for the Village Voice. The ΛΛΛ/ΩΜ’s would be shocked and appalled at what happened in LambdaMoo.
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“Good Grief(er)!”
For my next travel log I would like to study the occurrence of griefing. A griefer is a slang term used to describe a player in a multiplayer video game who plays the game simply to cause grief to other players through harassment.Â
Griefers differ from typical players in that they do not play the game in order to achieve objectives defined by the game world. Instead, they seek to harass other players, causing grief. In particular, they may use tools such as stalking, hurling insults, and exploiting unintended game mechanics.
Griefing occurs in games like Second Life, World of War Craft, and EVE. I didn’t know about griefers until recently, but I’m interested in exploring their particular brand of internet hijinks or what some serious Second Life residents refer to as “internet terrorism.”  Despite being humorous under certain circumstances, griefing brings up important issues about control and regulation in virtual environments. I leave you with the infamous Anshe Chung CNET interview/penis incident.Â
