What I've learned about griefers/gankers across the board.

[Karacetamol]

Mostly it's because I'm bored.

Like, at least in terms of open space, people are so much more willing to complain about how bad ganking and griefing and all this stuff is... and yet none of them take any precaution against it. Do you know how many shieldless traders I got to rip cargo from? How many people preferred to straight-up combat log than to use a modicum of skill to get out of a bind?

In MY experience, people that spend their time complaining about griefers and gankers are so busy complaining they don't take the time to properly equip themselves for a potentially dangerous trip.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Who are you talking to?
I don't think anyone here has identified as doing any of those things.

To anyone with the mind to listen and think deeply, and to anyone who DOES engage in these sorts of things, as they tend to read these sort of threads, for the same reasons criminals often revisit the scenes of their crimes.

 

[jasonbarron]

I’ll dare to try to stir up some actual discussion and thought here.
I will preface this with: Yes, it IS a game, and no actual, physical, harm is done.

However... time spent is still spent and cannot be regained. While many of us have refined credit-making to an art, not everyone has, or wants to spend what time they do have on chasing credits. It does not matter what your rationale is for engaging another player, you’re still costing them time, if nothing else.

Some people enjoy this, welcome it, and that’s fine. You’re both enjoying yourselves, no harm done, and I’ll wager the overwhelming majority of player contact falls into this broad realm. It’s those cases where the player contact is unwarranted, unwanted and unwelcome that are the problem. This is especially true of those who insert themselves into private groups to force their play style on others. I have to suspect there is something fundamentally wrong with those who do this. These are, I suspect, the same sort of people who think “The Knock Out Game” is either a game or funny. It’s not.



I cannot find any sympathy for this fellow at all, and feel he got exactly what was due. Make no mistake though - I am not advocating violence against anyone, even those who act up in a game, because yes, it is still just a game.

But I would strongly recommend considering WHY you engage in a particular activity.

Are you a station rammer?
Do you “invade” Private Groups?
Do you repeatedly attack the same person over and over?
Are you a Griefer?

Why? Are you just bored? Do you have some deeply seated emotional issues you need to work through? Do you simply have no regard for other peoples’ time? Is it just because the consequences are genuinely meaningless? Do you lack discipline or respect? I’m genuinely curious, because my thought processes are different. It never occurs to me to inflict myself on others, even when I couldn’t disagree more.

So what are your motivations for such actions?
What would it take to make you think about those actions first?

Yeah, let me stop you and your deep thoughts right there, big guy: ganking and destroying other players in ED is in no way shape or form comparable to the game of knock em out that you shared in that video: any comparison is despicable.

And yeah, you are too promoting the use of violence against players, by virtue of drawing the comparison to players of ED and the people caught in video in the first place and saying "that guy got what he deserved." That being shot twice by a forty caliber pistol.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

To anyone with the mind to listen and think deeply, and to anyone who DOES engage in these sorts of things, as they tend to read these sort of threads, for the same reasons criminals often revisit the scenes of their crimes.

You are not thinking deeply, you are being facetious at best.

 

[Strangepork]

In ED they hang around noob game starting points, and CG's, etc, in SC they basically ram folks ships on the landing pads in the armistice zone, and they exist in every online game.

Do they shoot folks up out in the open, no, folks who engage you in the open whether you are expecting it or not are fine, they are playing as intended, a loss to them might cause a momentary bit of salt, but as far as actual griefers and gankers, I despise them as much as anyone can be despised.

And one thing I have noticed, during times where most youth are in school in the US region, and you are on a US server, same for EU, AUS, etc, you see very little ganking at all, if any.

I shall preface the rest with not all kids are gankers, many kids are excellent kids and will be great future leaders, and most are average and will provide great homes for their families later on, then there are those destined for prison.

There is a small window on a week day where on a USS server it is likely that most kids are in school, and that is the most relaxing time to play almost any online game in the US region, because as soon as kids have time to get home, the ganking starts and continues until a short bit before school starts again.

The weekends are gank fests, including holidays.

Anytime kids are out of school there is going to be massive amounts of ganking.

Heck, in SC there are whole crews of them.

Adults who like gaming for the most part are respectful of others, and we grew up in a time when being a little snot nosed foul mouthed heathens with no respect for others or themselves in general got knocked out of us, but sadly, the world is full of bags now with participation trophies and this is what we get.

Immature little disrespectful smart alec trolls with no discipline in their lives that cannot even play an online game without trolling everyone.

Don't believe me, get on in open during a week day, when school or juvenile detention is in effect your time, on a server in your region and see how often you are ganked as opposed to all other times.

The great thing about ED though isd that it is so huge you can even visit populated area's and never get ganked, but in CG,s and noob area it is more prevalent.

Thank you, to all of our future leaders who do the right thing and are not sociopaths or rotten to the core, to the rest...

Not sure I agree but let's run with this...

Do you imagine those children are themselves being bullied, at home or at school and respond in the safe environment of a combat computer game?

 

[Aaron T]

Anecdotical as these things go, I can add a very concrete story to this. When I was a teenager, I was like that. If anyone remembers the game Freelancer, it had an open-world multiplayer mode. Now there was a choice of PvP and PvE servers, so at least we got that going for us. Anyway.

I was a ganker.

I was part of a small group of players, all around that age, 14, 15, 16, and we mostly did PvP. While we also fought against others like us, a lot of the time we just shot down players in freighters, minding their own trading business. When one of the victims asked why we shot them down, we would only answer "Because we are TDF", pretending like we were famous or infamous and people should recognize the initials of our group. Anyway. It was immature, I was immature, as we all were, but at that age, coupled with the relatively consequence-free deaths in Freelancer (we even used to suicide crash into planets for a free respawn to save on repair bills after a fight!), it felt like a fun thing to do.

Now of course there are a lot of people who get that enjoyment from ruining someone else's day, or stroking their ego by going after those weaker than them, at a mature age, but I can't deny that this probably occurs disproportionately often among teenagers. See also the various trends of PvP-survival games (DayZ etc), and these days battle royale, which all to some extent revolve around the sentiment of "showing those noobs who is boss" in a kind of lord-of-the-flies scenario.

Thank you, for your reply.

 

[Aaron T]

A PG or solo might be the best choice then.

As a former chronic pain sufferer, and one who helps people in pain for a living, I hope you find relief.
Much of the information being passed on is outdated and in some cases, entirely inaccurate.

Pain neuroscience education(PNE) has been shown to give better outcomes than many interventions.
If you're not being or have not been prescribed any, I have a bunch of resources to share if you are interested.
It will give you better chances of full recovery in many cases, and the risk is pretty much non-existent.

o7

Thank you, and please send me some info.

 

[Aaron T]

Yeah, let me stop you and your deep thoughts right there, big guy: ganking and destroying other players in ED is in no way shape or form comparable to the game of knock em out that you shared in that video: any comparison is despicable.

And yeah, you are too promoting the use of violence against players, by virtue of drawing the comparison to players of ED and the people caught in video in the first place and saying "that guy got what he deserved." That being shot twice by a forty caliber pistol.

I missed that part, going to watch the whole thing.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Thank you, and please send me some info.

I'm at work right now but will PM you some stuff later.

If anyone else is interested please feel free to send me a PM.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Let the healing begin: Aaron, please show me on this miniature foam replica of a Corvette where the bad griefer man touched you.

 

[Aaron T]

Yeah, let me stop you and your deep thoughts right there, big guy: ganking and destroying other players in ED is in no way shape or form comparable to the game of knock em out that you shared in that video: any comparison is despicable.

And yeah, you are too promoting the use of violence against players, by virtue of drawing the comparison to players of ED and the people caught in video in the first place and saying "that guy got what he deserved." That being shot twice by a forty caliber pistol.

If anyone ever hits me in the head or face they are putting my life in jeopardy.

I will use deadly force to defend my life.

I'm at work right now but will PM you some stuff later.

If anyone else is interested please feel free to send me a PM.

Thank you.

 

[jasonbarron]

I've just learned that a big land purchase I've been working on for the last couple years is finally happening. Glorious home on 22 acres in the mountains of Montana. Wonderful news... accept for the fact that the only internet access is some really low rent (as in crummy, capped and slow) microwave dish action. So, my days of griefing, ganking and generally playing in Open are basically over.

Oh well. It's been fun.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

If anyone ever hits me in the head or face they are putting my life in jeopardy.

I will use deadly force to defend my life.



Thank you.

That has absolutely nothing to do with a video game, however empathetic I may be to your situation.
Any strike is already, generally "deadly force" and you may of course respond in kind in many jurisdictions.
That's why George Zimmerman was acquitted.

 

[Old Duck]

If anyone ever hits me in the head or face they are putting my life in jeopardy. I will use deadly force to defend my life.

I think what Jason is saying is that equating real life physical violence to video game griefing is "disingenuous" at best. It's a game, so a more appropriate comparison is someone having an ace up their sleeve while playing poker (and this is assuming the griefer is cheating by exploiting holes in C&P, like ramming).

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I've just learned that a big land purchase I've been working on for the last couple years is finally happening. Glorious home on 22 acres in the mountains of Montana. Wonderful news... accept for the fact that the only internet access is some really low rent (as in crummy, capped and slow) microwave dish action. So, my days of griefing, ganking and generally playing in Open are basically over.

Oh well. It's been fun.

Congrats on the purchase!
Sounds amazing.

 

[Jenner]

I've just learned that a big land purchase I've been working on for the last couple years is finally happening. Glorious home on 22 acres in the mountains of Montana. Wonderful news... accept for the fact that the only internet access is some really low rent (as in crummy, capped and slow) microwave dish action. So, my days of griefing, ganking and generally playing in Open are basically over.

Oh well. It's been fun.

Congrats on the land purchase. Sounds like it'll be beautiful.

Well, there's always forum PvP....

Spoiler

I kid, I kid.....

 

[jasonbarron]

If anyone ever hits me in the head or face they are putting my life in jeopardy.

I will use deadly force to defend my life.



Thank you.

The proposition that our dear friend indigo is making is that the people hitting other people in the head in a game of "knock em out" are the same as griefers and gankers in ED. Do you see my point now? Is it okay to use deadly real world force against someone who ganked you in ED, Aaron?

Congrats on the land purchase. Sounds like it'll be beautiful.

Well, there's always forum PvP....

Spoiler

I kid, I kid.....

Thanks, Jenner. I'm just hoping I can at least play in Solo!

 

[Achilles7]

I've just learned that a big land purchase I've been working on for the last couple years is finally happening. Glorious home on 22 acres in the mountains of Montana. Wonderful news... accept for the fact that the only internet access is some really low rent (as in crummy, capped and slow) microwave dish action. So, my days of griefing, ganking and generally playing in Open are basically over.

Oh well. It's been fun.

Yeah? Well get this - I'm currently in Leeds buying investment properties...I think we all know who's feeling more "wonderful" right now, don't we?!

...it's you isn't it? [mad]

That's some seriously beautiful geology out there (not Leeds)! Congrats, Jason!

 

[jasonbarron]

Congrats on the purchase!
Sounds amazing.

Thanks Bob. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I've worked really hard to be in a position to get this one or a comparable piece. Kind of scary now that it's really happening.

 

[Sylveria]

Thanks, Jenner. I'm just hoping I can at least play in Solo!

Forum PvP, or the game?