Griefing - A Discussion

[Kaden]

I wouldn't call that griefing, shifo. There was no malicious intent. That's what griefing is. Doing something malicious to the detriment of another players experience in the game.

Where I can cut griefing some slack is in a PvP scenario. Leo's counter-argument of playing LoL being griefing -- while ridiculous -- illustrates such a scenario. When the game intentionally pits you against other players, it's not griefing, it's playing the game. By Leo's above logic, Counter-Strike and Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead and many, many others are nothing but griefing. That's not the case for these games.

In Team Fortress, for example, you can grief by setting up structures so your allies can't access a key part of the map. It maliciously infringes on someone else's ability to enjoy the game. Running out and setting an enemy spy on fire, however, is the purpose of the game and anyone playing it knows that. The intent isn't malicious, it's to enhances both players' (the spy and, in this case, the pyro) experience with the game.

Dueling someone on WoW is the same thing. Not malicious: they have to accept. Running up and ganking someone on a PvP server I would still not call ganking, even though it certainly is malicious. It's the TF2 example of "its on the player to understand what's implied with 'PvP' server." Being obscenely more powerful than someone you ganked, though (be it through level, personal experience/skill, or gear) and then camping their corpse and killing them every time they approach, though, is absolutely griefing.

Griefers are assholes. Just talking about this has irritated me.