Gamers Don't Want Grief

I'm talking to YOU pinhead. You know who you are...

The gaming community calls them "griefers": people who like nothing better than to kill team-mates or obstruct the game's objectives. Griefers scam, cheat and abuse, often victimising the weakest and newest players. In games that attempt to encourage complex and enduring interactions among thousands of players, "griefing" has evolved from being an isolated nuisance to a social disease.

"The most common 'griefer counter-measure' is to put in place a strong community system," says Stephen Davis of IT GlobalSecure, a firm that specialises in developing security technologies for online games.

This is a great article on Guardian Unlimited. You can read the rest here. Find out how griefing my slowly be coming to an end.