Jean-Jacques Rousseau once claimed that individuals were good - undone by the corrupting influences of society. Chek Yang Fo recently suggested (Other Players) a form of corruption in MMOG spaces takes form as "grief play" and "greed play". Greed play, by Chek Yang Fo's description could be thought of as grief play without intent, e.g., greedy players engaged in distruptive activity without the explicit intention to disrupt others. In contrast, grief players, by Chek's definition, intend to disrupt...
CNet News recently publicized John Suler's classification of griefers in terms of their intent: antisocial types challenging authority; and those out to getchya, personally. Over on Broken Toys, Scott sees griefing as just plain inevitable when folks run around in social environments with too much anonymity, or rather, plenty of "no-risk opportunity to be an ass." But perhaps a more dispassionate judgement can be kinder, e.g. Chek and Elina (Koivisto) suggested that its not all negative - "grief players may bring positive effects to the game in specific settings ... PvP..."
Perhaps everyone is right, except Rousseau. Is there some virtual world equivalent of Gordon Gekko's axiomatic "greed... is good".
What did inserting the words "axiomatic (perspective dependent)" add? We all know the quote. We know the source, the context, the author and so much more. That's why it was a good quote to use. But adding a scattering of words just to show you're aware of the existence of semiotics is the reason most of your postings get far less comments than they deserve. And use less allusions. We know you're smart, it's ok.
Posted by: Umm... | Dec 20, 2004 at 05:48
What did inserting the words "axiomatic (perspective dependent)" add?
The question suggested here was whether one dared assert "grief is good" (ala "greed is good"). Arguably, however, both imply a value system - perspective - which some may feel uncomfortable with.
Or maybe not, that is the question.
Posted by: Nathan Combs | Dec 20, 2004 at 07:47
You know what they say. "Hell is other players."
Posted by: Grim | Dec 20, 2004 at 13:53