Why griefing?

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I'm curious as to the psychology behind it. If you're a griefer in an PvP MMO, what motivates you towards griefing?

Schadenfreude

Its fun watching people rage about shit stupid videogames. Much like reading this forums.

I'm not a griefer but it's probably the only attractive thing that I see in MMOs.

I'd assume the lack of ability to act like a dick in real life is the leading cause.

Because the griefer was griefed in the first place. It's a neverending cycle, somebody will be an asshole to someone and that someone will return the favor to another random stranger.

Young man + computer + no fear of punishment = very young man

What do you understand by griefing?

Unnecessary carebear killings with minimal rewards. I.e. disproportionate amount of grief caused.

While I wouldn't chose to be a pirate myself in a game like EVE, I understand it as a rewarding career choice. However killing new players who happen to be lower level than you, just because they're easy targets doesn't make much sense to me. What's the joy in ruining someone's character?

There are three cases in this situation.

1. They are trying to stir up some world pvp, killing lowbies makes them log on their mains/call for help.

2. Schadenfreude, "carebears" are an easy target and get what should be expected in a pvp game/on a pvp server, causing frustration is a major part of pvp.

3. Kids.

A certain percentage of people are just dicks. IRL they're mostly kept in check by fear of the law and fear of ostracism, but online they can live out their true nature.

Don't play MMOs because I happen to have a functioning brain of some sorts, but the psychology behind people who waste their time trying to 'beat' people far weaker than themselves is no different across game genres. Smurfing, team stacking, etc. It's just a way to fellate one's own ego without the risk of testing it vs. a worthy opponent.

I've played a lot of shitty korean/chinese free MMOs with a couple of friends for the sole purpose of pissing people off and it was great fun. Think of it this way - it's a lot more interesting killing "monsters" that whine in broken English in general chat after you kill them a few times, call for help, organize hunts after your ass and camp town exits for hours waiting for you to come out. It's fun taking sneaky routes out of town to do the daily shit quests while avoiding the hate patrols. It's fun sparking entire guild wars by pretending to be alts from some other guild and watch the douchebags go at eachother's throats. It's fun abusing the usually broken in-game economy (typical for Korean cash shop shit games) to farm an obscene amount of money and making ourselves pretty much immortal through overpowered gear and enchants.

By being asshole griefers in-game we are actually creating an interesting (immersive ) playground for ourselves - a game where "monsters" actually hunt you and want to kill you and behave like real human beings as opposed to a few lines of code. It's a kind of challenge single player games can't and will probably never provide + as Machine said, yeah, it's fun watching people rage about shit stupid videogames. Bonus points if players drop gear when you kill them, makes it even more fun.

Last game where we did this was some Korean wannabe WoW called Forsaken World. It had a funny gameplay mechanic where hitting other players caused them to drop orbs which increased some rage bar when you picked them up. The higher the bar, the more damage you do vs other players. When it filled completely you could pretty much oneshot people 10 levels higher than you.

Suicidal
So chaotic evil is about having fun. I never thought of it that way.

"Hello, Mr. Griefer. I'm sure you'll like this game."

I wouldn't call myself a griefer, more like your classic troll. I don't want to cause anguish in other players, I just want to mildly irritate them.

One of the best MMOs to troll in was Lineage 2. I only played the free month then cancelled my account, and this was back when it first launched. My friend and I went to the starting village and started killing new players. PVP was automatically on for some reason and there weren't any WoW-style high level guards around to stop us. Much laughter was had.

Im certainly not a griefer but I must admit one of the funnier things Ive done in an mmo was in DDO, blinding people in pvp areas. It turns the whole screen black and the only way to remove it is dying or using dispell spells, which most people dont have. The look of them running around aimlessly and raging was priceless. I especially liked doing this to skyways sorceror.

Not all griefing is created equal.

Most griefing is caused by the fact that it is fun to kill people and take their stuff and it is fun to steal people's stuff and it is fun trick people and take their stuff. These are some of the most enjoyable parts of the online format. These aspects of the game are suppressed by many modern MMOs, but the best griefing games provided mechanics for this sort of play, for example murder/notoriety systems, a stealing skill or the ability to place traps on chests.

Only a small percentage of griefing is truly weird and cruel behavior. The reasons for that have already been covered.

That is why I never play PVP anything, and even turn off all chat. I play games to get away from people's douchebaggery, not to be subjected to it.

Because their gameplay usually is so shitty that griefing 12 year olds that take such piece of shit too seriously is the only fun thing to do. Still a pointless endeavor because you need grindan to do it anyway.

I like quality griefing.

I started and helped develop a PvP oriented clan in Lineage 2. We had tons of fun being the scourge of the shard, hated and feared by everyone, taking shit from no one.

Grinding is boring, doing quests is boring, but fucking over other people because you can? Its fun. Clan politics, diplomacy and alliances? Its fun.

It takes some from the real world, from the excitement. After all if there is nothing to lose there is no fun to be gained isnt there...

If you're gonna play a massive multiplayer game, why not interact with those other people through the games mechanics?

Killing innocents, or protecting them, or whatever sounds much more engaging than just thinking what's the optimum thing to do to get your PCs numbers go up.

And that's why modern mmos blow, there are no consequences or ways to influence anything.