(I figured with the cap/rape/release theme of the game, this picture seemed to be appropriate. :P)
Griefer: Someone who shows up to an RP sim with the general goal to cause chaos and distress, making it difficult for others to play the game. Typically greifing is done by people who don't like, or agree with RP, or that sim's specified RP.
Troll: In Internet slang, a troll is someone who tries to harass[1] by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[3] In addition to the offending poster, the noun “troll” can also refer to the provocative message itself, as in that was an excellent troll you posted. While the term "troll" and its associated action, trolling, are primarily associated with Internet discourse, media attention in recent years has made such labels highly subjective, with 'trolling' being used to describe intentionally provocative actions outside of an online context. (Wikipedia)Last night a girl, dressed in what appeared to be cosplay, came into my camp's sim and tried to RP with us. At first, we honestly all thought she was a greifer or a troll. Some of us joked about capturing her and other people decided to plainly ignore her. During our RP, I approached her - simply curious as of to what she was interested in doing here. She walked across the bridge and I asked her "What do you seek" she then told me "meditation" and some other para-RP stuff I don't honestly remember. I then nodded and went back to what I was doing.
Sortly after that, she IM'd me, asking why I wasn't more territorial. I told her that 1) the bridge in question wasn't my bridge and 2) Valleri likes to avoid conflict. She then suggested that she approach them in RP. They ignored her. Why? Was it because they don't RP with anime freaks? No. Actually, a lot of us enjoy a good con every now and again. Was it because they were busy? Possibly, but unlikely, as if an armed person approached me I'd be a bit worried... it was because every last one of us recognized her cloak... and EVERY last one of us thought she was here to troll us, or cause us grief.
This was followed up by her IMing me after they didn't talk to her. I tried, tried, TRIED to explain to her that it was probably because they thought that she was just trying to cause trouble... or honestly, because her character just didn't have that was very Gorean about her, (this character was VERY fixated on Japanese culture as well as a certain anime.) I eventually gave up and let Jaem have the computer. What originally started with trying to explain why her RP wasn't Gorean ended up as trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls. In the end her message ended with "Good night, /b/rother." Which lead us to believe that she was a troll.
In the morning she talked to me about how much of a dickwad Jaem is and how people from mmm-chan are total douche bags... (How she figured out he was a lurker, I'll never know.) This has inspired me to write this blog... of which I will discuss how to contain the troll or griefer in your community.
First things first...
There is nothing wrong with a bit of mischief in good taste. The link below is an explanation of Gor, brought to you by ED. You will notice that it is mean, rude... and funny as shit.
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Gor
But also realize, that the troll who wrote this, probably RPs on SL himself.
Trolls often don't mean what they say. They're just trying to get you going or make you upset. Only a fool would take this stuff seriously. Trolls aren't actually terrible people. They are just human beings with a set of beliefs who have a specific way of making themselves heard. You know, like Goreans. Ever hear the expression "DON'T FEED THE TROLLS?" When you recognize a troll, most people will be quick to defend. But the easiest way to deal with a troll is to ignore a troll. Like bullies were in the third grade, they'll get bored and move on to something else.
While griefers are typically not quite as clever as trolls, they can be a lot more serious about their work as a griefer. These are the people who lag the sim with "griefer tools" and work especially hard to take a sim down by making RP difficult. I was actually involved in a forty person raid of nothing but griefers with "manther" tags, who not only had intentions of annoying the fuck out of us, also taking time out of our RP to fight them AND lagging our sim to the point that we couldn't even freaking move. Whereas, same as the troll, you should ignore them - you should probably also mute them and it's IMPERATIVE that you contact your sim's administrator so that this person might be ejected and banned from the sim.
If you can't remember anything else in this blog, please remember this -
DON'T FEED THE TROLL! YOU WILL ONLY GIVE IT MORE POWER, THEREFOR MAKING IT STRONGER! And also, realize that if you walk into a RP sim wearing a recognizable cosplay costume, you can - and more than likely WILL be mistaken for a troll.
Yesterday, I was able to participate in the celebration of my sister Eva's advancement. She is now serving the tribe as En, and both Jaem and I are very glad for her. Oh. I should probably mention, at this point, I've gone back to the Sa Sa'ng Fori (which is probably one of my better roleplay decisions lately.)
