I Did It for the LULZ
Monday, August 18th, 2008(A word of warning: some of the pages linked in this blog post may contain coarse language. Unfortunately, it’s part of the gaming culture.)
Amid the buzz of my trip to Dallas for QuakeCon two weeks ago, I received an e-mail from my colleague Jay Pinkert, who was wondering if I would be interested in blogging about the “troll culture.” The e-mail contained a link to a very interesting New York Times article entitled “The Trolls Among Us.”
For the uninitiated, a “troll” on the Internet is defined as “a user of a newsgroup, forum or message board that posts messages with the intent of inciting an argument or flame-war” (http://www.studiodog.com/web-jargon.html). Reading this well-written article by Mattathias Schwartz reminded me that “troll culture” and “gaming griefer” culture were one in the same. I have admittedly taken part in both, as have many of my past “griefing buddies.” Granted, my online shenanigans were mild in comparison to the activities illuminated in the article.
Before I get flamed in the comments (much like the comments in Virginia Heffernan’s editorial about Schwarz’ article) for being one of these so-called sociopathic malcontents who enjoy tormenting others online for sport, I feel a little background and an explanation may be in order. The best background I can give comes from my recent online griefing experiences.
I have been playing Eve-Online for two years now, and when signing up for the game, I knew exactly what role I wanted to fulfill: I wanted to be a veritable terror. I wanted to find those within the game who felt they were safe by virtue of the sheer amount of virtual property they had attained within the game, and then dramatically remind them that they could fall from the pedestal they had placed themselves upon. I aimed to grief, plain and simple. The game admittedly attracts people like me in droves, as can be seen from their forum board “Crime and Punishment,” which is an online gathering place in the Eve-Online community for those of my ilk. The learning curve in Eve is a fairly steep one, and I prepared for almost a year to embark upon my campaign of virtual destruction.
A year ago, I ran across the blog of a man known in Eve as Nexa Necis, who is the CEO of a fairly hated corporate pirate group known as The Really Awesome Players (TRAPS). Those who know of the corporation in game either respect them for their prowess in guerrilla warfare or loath them for their “cowardly griefing tactics.” I contacted Nexa, applied to the corporation, and started a year-long rampage with the pilots of TRAPS. An interview with Eve-Radio Nexa can be found here.
In TRAPS, our methodology and philosophy was simple: violently interact with other people in game to evoke a response, and if the response was unreasonable, we would commence with griefing. Favorite targets were always those who demonstrated obvious bravado. We would declare war upon our targets, stalk them in game, destroy them at every opportunity, and try to inflict as much damage as possible upon them. Our ultimate goal was to get an apology from them for their rude behavior and to have them pay us a token surrender fee as a show of good faith.
The corporation’s rules were simple:
1) No smack talk.
2) No lying, cheating or scamming.
3) Always honor your word.
4) See rule #1
Objectively, what TRAPS does could be seen as an in-game racketeering ring. Subjectively, we thought it was fun, especially if we could elicit a meltdown from our victims in public chat for posterity. After all, it was just a game, and this kind of business model is all but encouraged by the developers. Our sarcastic battle cries (common in Eve) were “INTERNET SPACESHIPS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS” and “TRAPS is SERIOUS BUSINESS”.
From the above description, the link to the trolling culture should be obvious. For those who need a little more help, consider an excerpt from Jason Fortuny’s response to Virgina Heffington’s editorial linked above (#7):
“… it’s true that there’s nothing funnier than watching an emotionally or intellectually unstable person have a dramatic, public meltdown to a few pokes & prods. It only gets better when the target escalates the situation with even more drama.”
He then goes on to say:
“You know how on your favorite basic cable reality shows the camera captures some crazy person’s meltdown? You squeal with delight at the sheer entertainment value of it.”
Further evidence of this link can be seen in another comment to that article, this time by prominent Second Life entrepreneur and favorite “troll” and “griefer” target Prokofy Neva (#28):
“… the only way civilization will stop this destructive force is by not trivializing it, not thinking “it’s only online and doesn’t count” and “the victims should get over themselves” etc. and view this behaviour for what it is: immoral and wrong…”
She then comes out and says that “trolling” and “griefing” are synonymous, and have been going on for a long time:
“There’s one curious thing that goes on in this more popular treatment of a long-known phenomenon, and that is characterizing these activities as “trolling” and not “griefing” which is the term I think is more familiar to those who play MMORGPs or are in virtual worlds like Second Life…”
What’s my personal opinion? Many of the comments in the editorial cry out against the “perpetrators,” characterizing their actions as immoral and illegal. While it is true that many of the acts in the original Schwartz article ARE illegal, such as throwing bricks through people’s windows and making death threats, those acts are admittedly over the line and have little to do with an artful “trolling” or “griefing.”
It appears to me that Schwartz’ article unwittingly paints all members of the trolling community with a broad brush, and could be construed by the community as inflammatory. At the very least, it breaks the first rule of dealing with trolls: DON’T FEED THEM. It’s very similar to rule #4 in my earlier blog about dealing with griefers, giving them negative attention only feeds the demon.
Honestly, as someone who has “trolled” and “griefed,” Fortuny’s advice in the comment linked seems sound, even if it sounds argumentative and insulting, so I will paraphrase:
- Don’t reply at all, even privately, and don’t publicly acknowledge the troll’s comments. Don’t even do it on another blog or forum, because the troll will probably follow you there. You’re just “feeding the troll”. This will eliminate further posts from the majority of trolls.
- If you MUST reply, reassess your post or comment and honestly evaluate it to see if there is a leap in logic in it that could possibly set the troll off. Skilled trolls generally only attack people presenting arguments with glaring flaws in them. Don’t post again until you’ve found the flaw, or have found a better argument by which to defend your point.
- If the troll continues to assail you after you’ve followed steps 1 and 2, the remaining trolls can usually be appeased if you demonstrate that you don’t take what they say seriously, or even play along. Doing so may make an ally of the troll, and he may then even use “his powers” to staunchly defend you. (Yes, I have seen this happen many times).
Admittedly, the above steps will only help against the average troll who does what they do just to expose what they consider “unwarranted self-importance.” For those who are over the line, they’re probably breaking the law anyway. If so, and if you have real reason to feel threatened by your troll, you should definitely contact the authorities in your area. Most places have laws against activity that constitutes a real threat against a person’s property or health.
Most trolls thankfully “only do it for the lulz.”
