Completely fed up... Griefers!

What we need is for some of our wonderful talented scripters to come up with Griefer countermeasures - perhaps like a sticky zone of silence that can be apllied against abusive griefers. Or perhaps a snap-back that simply returns pushes, ammo and bombs to their originator. Make the snapback sticky as well so they end up blowing themselves, ala Acme product user Wiley Coyote!

Or simple neutralizers. A sticky script that when applied to a griefer neutralizes their scripts until they log out. Most Griefers are using freely acquired product anyway to do this, most are not script-savvy (yes some are tho) and if they log back in, they can be hit again if they continue the behaviors.

Initially make it so that only Premiums and landholders have access to the countermeasures. If they are effective, the griefing ebbs because its more trouble than its worth. You could even set up protected zones where non premiums can be protected by request.

I mean come on - with all of talent evident talent we have in this world (and being relatively new - I've only scratched the surface) we can do so much more than just complain about them!

While the features you advocate are certainly laudable, they are probably not realizable from the level that resident scripters can access the SL environment. You'd need to get lower level to do a lot of that stuff.

Doesn't matter anymore.

Just the other day, I was pushed about 300m high by a griefer, when I was wearing my sit shield. (Mine plays a standing animation so I look like I am still just a "normal" avatar.) I was NOT unsit nor was I on land that the griefer owned.

I was asking around the group who was there when I got pushed and one said that there is a bug which allows push to act on sitting objects.

*sigh*

Same thing happened to me Fenrir. I was sitting down when one griefer shot me with her pushgun and bounced me a couple hundred meters into the air. I didn't think anyone could unsit me like that, but the incident made me question my own sanity.

Fortunately ban still sorta works, so they got ejected and banned within the next 20 seconds.

Yes, the unverified allows some new players who might not have otherwise been able to join to join. I know.. a couple of my friends decided to give it a try, and no sooner than they were fully in the world, than they were griefed by some stupid git who thought it would be funny to use his/her alt to do so.

That's what I think the Lindens are wanting the new players to see, yeppers. This was before I could even send a TP to them, because I has to explain to them via another chat prog how to use the ingame IM system. Remind me why I bothered again? Oh, right, because I wanted to share my misery obviously.

I'd say so. Anyways, how are they gonna AR you?

'Excuse me Mr. Linden, I was hanging out on this guy's land, refusing to leave, and molesting him repeatedly, when allasudden he blewed me acwoss the wandscape! GWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF!"

The Lindens suggest, however, that you get a security system that provides ample warning and time to leave the land to do the shooting for you.

Yesterday a griefer showed up at my rental home and proceeded to shoot me with multiple rounds from an assault rifle, then undressed, produced a BDSM restraint device and demanded anal intercourse from me. I retreated into my house, and he followed, shot me some more and then TP'ed a buddy right into my living room. I contacted live help, and after 15-20 minutes, someone finally did come out to the house. I filed an abuse report, but am told that it was resolved confidentially.

That same night I was dancing in a lounge and was harassed by two strangers for allegedly bumping into one of them. I and my dancing partner were ordered off of the dance balls we were using by one of these men, and then the other orbited both of us and held us there for 10-15 minutes. I reported this to live help as it was happening, and then filed an abuse report. I now see that I will be kept in the dark regarding the outcome of this incident as well.

It seems to me that unless victims of griefing are informed of the outcome of their complaints, the incentive to even report these incidents is diminished. Why invite retaliation if the administrators insist on acting, or not acting, in secrete?

I don't want to play in a sim where I have to arm myself against these morons. We have enough of that in RL. I thought this was supposed to be fun.

One would hope that the administrators are taking some action on these complaints, but I doubt it given the small number of penalties listed on the police blotter.

This is a very unsatisfying system of sl justice, to say the least. In RL only actions taken against minors are confidential. Here, we are not even informed if the perpetrator was a minor.

I do know that they do work the ARs and take action on them. They just have to keep a certain level of confidentiality, especially considering the plethora of privacy laws in the USA in regards to customer-supplier confidentiality.

But if you dig, you'll find out. If I really wanna know what happened on an AR< I find out who the griefer was friends with. Griefers usually bitch to their friends, who then happily tell anyone who asks how "unfair" LL is.

Isnt it true that the chat log option is broke and no chat log actually gets sent with any AR?

Hmm....I can make that work for me when I get griefed.....

What I mean is everything looks like it sent and went through, but the chat log does not appear when LL receives the AR. I am not saying you get an error message when filing one.

This is indeed true. Torley has mentioned it several times in the forums.

By saying "make it work for me" I mean shifty, underhanded things that give me extra ways to screw with the mind of a griefer. Not making the log system work.

I'm 42 RL and also enjoy fantasy MMORPGs (Everquest, WoW).

I've become much more familar with the griefer mindset through WoW.

The lack of any form of accountability - ability to create multiple alts/accounts at no cost is a griefers dream and actual players' nightmare.

I've read the suggested solutions and propose another - limited access for free accounts.

Let them join and let them play around in a designated area, but don't give them full access.

I was interested enough in SL from a few hours of playing (didn't do much, just teleported around checking things out and getting familiar with the mechanics) that I upgraded my account the next day and increased my funds for purchases.

People that are actually going to become "members" can make the decision based on their experience in the limited areas and it will become much less enjoyable for the griefers because they won't be getting the level of reaction they desire and obtain from dedicated, long-term players with significant investment in SL.

Allowing rapid free account character creation and then giving the created characters unlimited access is completely ignorant if not outright stupid. The person(s) that made the decision to allow it is/are either completely ignorant of the base nature of the internet today or have an agenda that (in their mind) supercedes the quality of the game experience for paying members.

I very much hope they modify the current policy in some way. Whatever short-term gains they make in advertising revenue or any other area will be greatly off-set by the long-term negative impact of excessive griefing.

I did. I went to WoW.

What I want to know is how are we ever going to curb griefing while the penalities when LL does take action are so incredibly lenient. I was just browsing the police blotter. At the bottom are two listings for someone logging into other people's accounts and stealing L$. They got a 7 day suspension! WTF?! Theft doesn't qualify for a permaban? What the hell does it take?

Well, Chip, nobody is ever permanbanned now anyhow. The only thing that happens is a name picked out of a hat can't be used again.

coco

They are still able to use IP blocks and other means to keep users out permanently.

Well, we can start to make a chart:

PWC (Posting while Cocoanut): 3 days
Post topless pictures from the teen grid: 3 days
Steal L$ from someone else's account: 7 days

I wonder what going onto someone else's account and posting topless pictures from the teen grid would get you. 10 days? And if Cocoanut did it, I am sure they would up it to 14 days.

I hate to be the person who says this... Although getting griefed is upsetting, 9 outta 10 times once someone is pushed/shot/shoved/kicked/moved in any form- They keep coming back. They threaten, they curse, basically they want the perpetrator to feel their discomfort... Its apparently the lesson the never learned about griefers.

I use to play a game, Ultima Online back when I was 14.. Griefing was so easy in that game. To the point where imagine you just made the new best flexy item and were on your way to put it on your vendor... But i killed you and took it and sold it.

This type of gaming gave me satisfaction. Why? Because people who bitch and moan SOOO BAD, they would follow me, tell others what I did, warn everyone, post on forums.

I became a living legend by playing like this in volume.


Thats what these people want, thats THE ONLY THING. Attention. They go around baiting people with things that aren't bannable... Maybe a shoulder bump- Oh I lagged sorry Linden. Then the receiver respondes. 90% of the time.

Just a heads up. Cause maybe there are networks of the creeps. Wouldnt be too hard to imagine, a group were they cyber each other with stories about bumping and forced shoves.

Well, I got griefed (caged) for the first time last night. It wasn't a noob, it was a user with a 2005 birthday.

I asked the griefer why they caged me and they simply replied 'fun'

I was visiting a private island (well off the mainland) where the griefer rents a property. When I mentioned to the griefer that I was going to AR them, they basically said don't bother, this isn't Linden land and all LL would do was notify the sim owner. Can anyone confirm whether this is correct? Do LL take action directly against the griefer or is it up to the sim manager to deal with?

I also notified the sim manager and hopefully they will get back to me.

I'm not one to dob, so initially I was just going to forget about being caged. It wasn't until the jerk said they were doing it for fun that I got cranky and ARd him.

It is so tempting to retaliate though. Like many SL residents I have a personal arsenal of orbits, cages, push weapons, shield killing bullets etc. I am fairly sure the griefer would have come off second best as even though he was older than me he seemed pretty clueless. But I really don't want SL to descend into a grief / anti-grief warzone, especially the residential sim where I was at the time.

That is true. Until it is fixed the best idea is to copy the relevant details from the chat history and paste it into your abuse report.

These oh-so-talented scripters are the ones creating the weapons that the griefers use - they're MAKING MONEY from it, and you think they're going to help you???

ROFLMAO!!!

Actually, yes. It's called funding both sides of an arms race


I'd like to share a new experience. I was attacked recently by someone who had the same first name as someone else that was 2 plots of land over. One was firing a sumogun at myself and a couple that i know, The shell pushed one of my friends way off into the sunset, while her girlfriend and I dove into my burrow. His aim was very bad, and he seemed to be lagging as he fired.

When I approached the other one with that first name (one had mysteriously vanished after the attack), he blamed everything on the one that had actually initiated the attack.

So I tried an experiment. I have a dual-core computer. So, I opened up two instances of SL, one on each core. I proceeded to successfully log into both my toon and my RL lady's toon at the same time, and by alt-tabbing windows, controlled each one.

This suggests to me that having an instance-limiting script in the SL client that prevents more than one toon from being logged in at a time might assist with griefing problems.

Yet more proof LL doesn't care what is going on.