Griefers

In Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World, by Julian Dibbell, she discusses the term griefers. These people “take pleasure in shattering the world of play itself.” The weird thing is that griefers do not dislike playing online games, but they like making other players not enjoy playing them. Once they get one of their players to log off pissed off, their work is complete. In the 1990’s the term griefing was used to describe “antisocial behavior” in multiplayer games. Since then, griefing has advanced into an entire culture. Griefing has become an organization within its own structure. Griefers crash a sim with a penis. They target high profile events and utter obscenities. They constantly use bad language and hit people with malicious scripts causing people’s avatars to do things you don’t want it to do. Griefers put more and more objects in rooms so the computer has a harder time working, causing the computer to crash because it is unable to cope with the pressure in the room. This is hard for people to stop, similar to viruses.

I find it ridiculous that people spend their times trying to piss users off enough, until they log off. How can someone get satisfaction out of pissing someone off? Do they honestly have nothing better to do with their lives?

Curious about different griefing incidents, I found a really messed up article. This article described an incident in which griefers attacked a non-profit epilepsy foundation. People who have epilepsy have visual triggers that cause them to have seizures. On the epilepsy foundation website, griefers decided it would be a good idea to put up flashing GIFS and links with flashing patterns and lights. This caused people with epilepsy to have migraines and seizures. How could some people be so heartless and stupid as to do this? Griefers really stooped too low to do this. This is morally wrong and absolutely distgusting. People with epilepsy go on the epilepsy foundation website to meet other people with the same condition and to learn things that they can’t learn from doctors, hear experiences, and get support from others with epilepsy. Why would griefers attack such a serious website, as to make people not want to go on this website again to get help for their SERIOUS condition? That is really drawing the line. The internet is serious for health purposes. Are griefers trying to say that epilepsy is not a serious condition? Is giving people seizures and migraines really fun and games? This article really pissed me off. Attacking online game users is one thing, but attacking people who have epilepsy and nonprofit epilepsy foundations is another. Griefers have really crossed the line and there needs to be justice done.