Wondering which kind of people grief

[JohnConnor]

So, I was playing on a public survival server yesterday. Before the winter, we got everything set up, grass farm, berry farm, stick farm, pots, science machine, ice machine. Anyway, we got everything and the winter gears.

 

Most of us are experienced and well-behaved players. However, none was admin. So everything went well and we survived the first winter. Someday in early spring, a guy named nVBasedGodkarma came in.

 

I was at the camp when he was lighting everything on fire using a torch. A few other players saw it too and turned on the ice machines, which limited the damag to minimum. But we could not stop him. He lit up the summer fire pit and I did not realize what was happening until I started to get freezing. And by the time I realized I was freezing, he was searching through the chests and fridges, putting meat on the ground. In no time, he finally found what he was after: a hammer! He first hammered down the ice machines to make sure nothing can stop the spreading of fire and then lit everything on fire again. This time, there is really not much we can do in-game to stop it. Although other players said that they would report to the admin and roll back, I just felt so disappointed and left. After I looked at the server a few hours later, it was reset, so I guess it was never rolled back.

 

I guess I learned a lesson of not to player on a public server with no admin. As the whole time, we cannot stop him.

 

Also, I am starting to really asking myself, what kind of people, with what kind of personality do such kind of things? Especially, he clearly knew what he was doing and what he needed to destroy so that the fire cannot be stopped so I don't think he is some child below 10 years old. 

 

So, is it like to fulfill the desire to destroy that cannot be fulfilled in real life? 

 

 

[GalloViking]

Stories like this one is why I'll never play DST.

[Mr.Mulk]

Firstly, to answer your question I think people who have sadistic tendencies tend to be the majority of griefers. When you think about it, you realize that they are just another type of troll who happens to be a bit more powerful, which is not a good thing. Why they partake in such schadenfreude I'm not sure, but perhaps there real life is so bad they try to drag others down.

 

What do I suggest? I believe there are mods on the workshop that allow for non-admins to votekick a player. I would recommend using these.

 

Finally, I have a bit of a confession to make. Despite 500+ hours in-game, I've never actually encountered a true griefer. I have met one troll, named Jeremydtr (if he ever joins you ban him immediately) who would follow you around and steal stuff you worked for (and would burn living logs). I hope this helps though!

[False]

Firstly, to answer your question I think people who have sadistic tendencies tend to be the majority of griefers. When you think about it, you realize that they are just another type of troll who happens to be a bit more powerful, which is not a good thing. Why they partake in such schadenfreude I'm not sure, but perhaps there real life is so bad they try to drag others down.

 

What do I suggest? I believe there are mods on the workshop that allow for non-admins to votekick a player. I would recommend using these.

 

Finally, I have a bit of a confession to make. Despite 500+ hours in-game, I've never actually encountered a true griefer. I have met one troll, named Jeremydtr (if he ever joins you ban him immediately) who would follow you around and steal stuff you worked for (and would burn living logs). I hope this helps though!

Could be.

 

BTW, I met Jeremydtr once. He was actually griefing in the server. Basically spent all the time searching through chests and took all the food whenever he is hungry but never tried to contribute. When he was accidentally killed during a hound attack, we found 8 meatballs, a fire stuff and tons of other resources with him.

 

And I mention that he used bug net to catch all the butterflies around the cave camp that were supposed to be for light?

[SillyWilson]

Idk what kind of personality spawns griefers if any, however from what I gather, you should watch out for:

 

The people who just join and dont talk to you, but soemtimes they are just people who want to base alone for some reason.

Also the ones who join and dont say hi but rather immediately ask 'where's the base,' especially when they ask repetitively. 

Those guys who join just before or during winter, might be there just to burn base, eat all the food, and or die and drain your sanity. 

The ones that keep dying after you res them, though that can just be bad luck and inexperience. 

The ones that follow you really closely, step for step, especially when they refuse to stop following you.

The easily offended ones who might wreck somethign as revenge for disagreeing with them/

Rarely, I even find people who make it clear from the start: ima find you, and ima wreck your base!! and then they use as many profanities as they can muster into an offensive and base threatening sentence.

 

 

Besides admins, I think the best thing to protect public servers is either the FireWall mod or the Simple Protection mod, look for servers with these.

On the topic of VoteKick, what TheSlackPack mentioned, I dont see any mods that let you votekick. According to the dont starve wiki's tutorial on setting up servers (skip to the part about Configuration under 'network',) you can put " enable_vote_kick = true " into the settings.ini, and when there is no admin on a dedicated server it will allow players to votekick, but I have never seen any server with votekick. :/

 

Good luck, don't loose all hope in humanity! . Also, NEVER join a server that has more than 8 slots, that will usually be painful.

Also, if you join a server with pvp enabled, prepared to get recked by a wigfrid and your base raided and/or smashed, and for that to be totally ok simply because it's a pvp server.

[JohnConnor]

Firstly, to answer your question I think people who have sadistic tendencies tend to be the majority of griefers. When you think about it, you realize that they are just another type of troll who happens to be a bit more powerful, which is not a good thing. Why they partake in such schadenfreude I'm not sure, but perhaps there real life is so bad they try to drag others down.

 

What do I suggest? I believe there are mods on the workshop that allow for non-admins to votekick a player. I would recommend using these.

 

Finally, I have a bit of a confession to make. Despite 500+ hours in-game, I've never actually encountered a true griefer. I have met one troll, named Jeremydtr (if he ever joins you ban him immediately) who would follow you around and steal stuff you worked for (and would burn living logs). I hope this helps though!

Unfortunately, it is not up to me which mods to be used. I did try to host servers but my ping is always ??? due to ISP and nobody joins my server, so I have to play on public server or not play at all.

[ButterStuffed]

Most of the time griefers seem to be the more sadistic people that are really bored.

 

A friend of mine is like that and I once joined him. It was a server with pvp enabled and we both went Willow, (before she was nerfed) we went following the trail of picked saplings and grass which led us to a fairly set up base with a WX-78 and a Wolfgang. We set the base on fire and killed both of them with fire and the loot we found in the chests. I felt really bad.

 

My friend wanted to do it again so for my sake I went looking for a server that clearly stated that griefing and such was allowed (This person was going for a Hunger Games feeling I guess). We went into the server and only the host was in it. We both went Willow again and started hunting this person. We found him within a day of us joining and we killed him during the night. This time it was kind of funny because he said "o sht" when we found him. I still felt bad but not as much since he clearly stated that he was going to be hunting us too.

 

Ever since then I haven't griefed.

[Xavven]

Hah, well this is as much a philosophical question as it is a DST question. Some people lack empathy and the drive for cooperation and harmony. Most humans are cooperative to at least some extent, as we're a social species that relied on teamwork for survival IRL. But being uncooperative, if you can get away with it, is a survival strategy that works too. There's a very cool video I stumbled upon a few months ago that explains this:

 

 

 

 

So that explains why there are griefers ("pirates") but we don't have to like it. In fact, IRL we have entire systems that punish stealing, griefing, and generally immoral behavior in an attempt to stamp it out (these are called "laws") and better our species. Pure cooperation of the human race could indeed lead to faster progress, but that's a philosophy discussion for another day (hint: Nash Equilibrium).

 

So yes, the correct strategy here in DST would be to play on servers with Admins so that your laws against griefing can be actually be enforced. In real life, you can't burn down somebody's home without getting arrested, so the real problem here is that PvE servers in DST that don't allow you to attack players actually gives the griefer immunity from repercussion.

[JohnConnor]

Hah, well this is as much a philosophical question as it is a DST question. Some people lack empathy and the drive for cooperation and harmony. Most humans are cooperative to at least some extent, as we're a social species that relied on teamwork for survival IRL. But being uncooperative, if you can get away with it, is a survival strategy that works too. There's a very cool video I stumbled upon a few months ago that explains this:

 

 

 

 

So that explains why there are griefers ("pirates") but we don't have to like it. In fact, IRL we have entire systems that punish stealing, griefing, and generally immoral behavior in an attempt to stamp it out (these are called "laws") and better our species. Pure cooperation of the human race could indeed lead to faster progress, but that's a philosophy discussion for another day (hint: Nash Equilibrium).

 

So yes, the correct strategy here in DST would be to play on servers with Admins so that your laws against griefing can be actually be enforced. In real life, you can't burn down somebody's home without getting arrested, so the real problem here is that PvE servers in DST that don't allow you to attack players actually gives the griefer immunity from repercussion.

I can see the point you are trying to make by pirates and fishers.

 

Not sure whether by 'pirate' you mean players that steal food or other resources from other player players collect, because if that's what you meant, the griefers I mentioned is not like that. I mean, what does he gain by burning everything, except maybe joy for him?

 

Although, in a broader view, the 'pirate' can mean those who just want to destroy others to get joy opposite to the majority of players that cooperate and push the camp forward to get joy. But I am sure I did not see Klei mention any 'survive your camp from other grifers that want to burn your camp' in addition to 'survive from nature and monsters' in their advertisement.

[Xavven]

I can see the point you are trying to make by pirates and fishers.

 

Not sure whether by 'pirate' you mean players that steal food or other resources from other player players collect, because if that's what you meant, the griefers I mentioned is not like that. I mean, what does he gain by burning everything, except maybe joy for him?

 

Although, in a broader view, the 'pirate' can mean those who just want to destroy others to get joy opposite to the majority of players that cooperate and push the camp forward to get joy. But I am sure I did not see Klei mention any 'survive your camp from other grifers that want to burn your camp' in addition to 'survive from nature and monsters' in their advertisement.

 

Hm, but the point of PvP mode in DST is to survive everything in the game including players who want to burn down your camp. So in that game mode at least, it was indeed Klei's intention to create that kind of gameplay interaction. But you're right, it's a real nuisance in co-op modes that I'm sure the devs think about trying to solve, from time to time.

 

As for your question about what griefers gain by destroying stuff instead of stealing it, there's a lot going on there from an evolutionary standpoint. On the one hand, pirates do need to overpower fishers to steal from them, so there's a vested interest in keeping the victims "in their place," but as for the pure griefer with no interest in stealing supplies for their own survival, something else could be going on...

 

Males of many species fight for dominance to earn reproductive rights. Think of how pack animals establish a pecking order, or simply how rams or deer literally ram each other to decide who's the strongest. There's a tendency in these social species towards aggressiveness against others to wrest and maintain the "alpha" position. This is why victors get a testosterone rush, and dopamine and a bunch of other things, when they cause a misfortune for a rival. The brain is signalling "you're the alpha! you get to pass on your genes!"  So the griefer simply feels good for destroying your stuff because it makes them feel more powerful and closer to (or in) the alpha position on the totem pole. They probably have no idea that it's their primitive lizard brain feeding them chemicals making them want to do it.

 

Anyway, I've been in your position a hundred times before, wondering why on earth people act maliciously like they do. It's why I've tried to learn about it. Personally, I hate it, and while there's a logical explanation for it, I loathe that it exists. How much more prosperous would we all be if everybody cooperated and had each other's best interest in mind? We all have this cool thing called a prefrontal cortex. We should be able to use reason to pull ourselves above this simple animalistic behavior.

 

And I'm no perfect holier-than-thou saint, either. I fully admit to enjoying beating people at video games, and when I was younger I even tried griefing once or twice. It felt good, in some certain way, but ultimately made me feel bad in so many other ways. For me at least, it's much more fulfilling to help people than to bully them.

[JohnConnor]

Hm, but the point of PvP mode in DST is to survive everything in the game including players who want to burn down your camp. So in that game mode at least, it was indeed Klei's intention to create that kind of gameplay interaction. But you're right, it's a real nuisance in co-op modes that I'm sure the devs think about trying to solve, from time to time.

 

As for your question about what griefers gain by destroying stuff instead of stealing it, there's a lot going on there from an evolutionary standpoint. On the one hand, pirates do need to overpower fishers to steal from them, so there's a vested interest in keeping the victims "in their place," but as for the pure griefer with no interest in stealing supplies for their own survival, something else could be going on...

 

Males of many species fight for dominance to earn reproductive rights. Think of how pack animals establish a pecking order, or simply how rams or deer literally ram each other to decide who's the strongest. There's a tendency in these social species towards aggressiveness against others to wrest and maintain the "alpha" position. This is why victors get a testosterone rush, and dopamine and a bunch of other things, when they cause a misfortune for a rival. The brain is signalling "you're the alpha! you get to pass on your genes!"  So the griefer simply feels good for destroying your stuff because it makes them feel more powerful and closer to (or in) the alpha position on the totem pole. They probably have no idea that it's their primitive lizard brain feeding them chemicals making them want to do it.

 

Anyway, I've been in your position a hundred times before, wondering why on earth people act maliciously like they do. It's why I've tried to learn about it. Personally, I hate it, and while there's a logical explanation for it, I loathe that it exists. How much more prosperous would we all be if everybody cooperated and had each other's best interest in mind? We all have this cool thing called a prefrontal cortex. We should be able to use reason to pull ourselves above this simple animalistic behavior.

 

And I'm no perfect holier-than-thou saint, either. I fully admit to enjoying beating people at video games, and when I was younger I even tried griefing once or twice. It felt good, in some certain way, but ultimately made me feel bad in so many other ways. For me at least, it's much more fulfilling to help people than to bully them.

Wow! You really has a deep analysis about them.