It's been a tough fight. It's sudden death. You've finally gotten back to your base with the enemy
flag after a tremendous firefight. You're about to capture it and
your team is going to win. Glory and adulation will be yours for the taking… The hollers of delight already fill your
ears as you run for your flag… As your body slumps to the floor after being shot in the back by your own teammate who
is now laughing and hurling barely literate abuse at you… You, my friend, have met a griefer.
Since the dawn of online gaming, there have always been scumbags whose entire goal in the game is to make your
experience a misery. The psychology aspects are one of the subjects dealt with in the article. The professional opinion
talk's about difficult relationships with parents and authority figures, and being victims in the real world.
Basically, these people distract themselves from their pathetic little lives by making your life online a misery for a
brief time. Microsoft, for all their failings, have a policy of banning persistent griefers from Xbox Live. Well done
Microsoft. (Never imagined I'd ever say that.)
My personal feeling is griefers should be legal to hunt. If you luck out and get a judge who's a gamer, you'd get
"justifiable homicide", no question…
Engadget
TUAW