Or...you know. It could have not happened at all. To anyone. Because griefing could fall under the same rules as harassment, and repeated offenses get one banned from playing in Open.
Serious question. Do you actually find this to be legitimate gameplay? Do you see this as anything other than griefing?
It might be griefing, but as its a one off act, then its not really harassment.
And while i certainly don't approve of what happened, i do applaud the effort that went into it. Having gone to BP myself, i know just how much effort it requires.
Is it legitimate gameplay? I think i have to say yes. There were no exploits, it happened in open, a trick was played, and it worked.
So, we have a situation, which is not exactly against the rules, could even be a case of "all is fair in love and war", but regardless, still was a definite case of someone doing something to deliberately try and cause someone grief.
As always, if you don't like this sort of thing, you can always play in other modes. If you do play in other modes, then you can happily ignore this sort of thing.
It is clear there is still a large part of the community who seem to accept the risk this sort of thing can happen by the very fact they play in open, even if they disapprove of it.
SDC do this sort of thing for the notoriety. They openly admit it. If people didn't give them the attention they want, they would get frustrated. Instead people get riled up.
I love how easy it is to take the forums for a walk.
Tiny bit of bait brings in a lot of squealing forumdads!
You see, they love the attention they get from doing this sort of thing.
Advice:
Stop playing in Open or be wary of tricks like this.
If you see a thread like this, don't dive in head first. Think about what the OP wants. Don't give the OP what they want.
If people didn't get all excited over threads like these, there would be an initial post, a few people saying "Yeah, wow, you guys are great" and then the thread would die.
Instead, all people are doing here is giving SDC more visibility and feeding their salt generator.