# Trolls in unlikely online games. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 6, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204 "2013-11-06T01:26:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/1 "2013-11-06T01:26:46Z")
I’ve just had an informative evening. Apparently, I’m a fag with a 3 inch _bleep_ (whatever that is), one or possibly several ugly wives and kids, on the brink of being taken to the cleaners in a divorce for sexual inadequacy and simultaneously having gay sex with another player. What was I playing? Ticket to Ride Online 😕 Anyone else have weird encounters with trolls in unlikely places? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/2 "2013-11-06T01:30:42Z")
Reminds me of the earlier days of the Internet when Build-A-Bear Workshop decided to set up a forum just for kids. It didn’t take long for pedophiles to end up talking to each other on it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/3 "2013-11-06T08:00:06Z")
I’m actually not surprised. You can really screw over another player pretty severely in Ticket to Ride and not even know it. I feel comfortable in speculating that the OP unknowingly cut off someone’s route pretty severely and probably cost him a bunch of points. Considering the abuse people were dishing out over _Uno_, I’m not actually all that shocked at what happened. Just because you have the brains and desire to play something like Ticket to Ride doesn’t mean you’re more mature or even-tempered. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/4 "2013-11-06T10:47:35Z")
I don’t know what cursing at other players is correctly called, but playing to screw over other players is usually known as “griefing.” For some griefing is the point of the game no matter which game it is. I admit I’ve played that way. It’s actually quite a lot of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/5 "2013-11-06T18:23:10Z")
> [@JLRogers](#): > > I don’t know what cursing at other players is correctly called, but playing to screw over other players is usually known as “griefing.” For some griefing is the point of the game no matter which game it is. I admit I’ve played that way. It’s actually quite a lot of fun. You’re missing some subtleties here. “griefing” is best defined as playing ONLY to screw over other players, even if it doesn’t benefit you/causes you to lose. Just “screwing over other players” is often best described as “playing the game.” ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/6 "2013-11-06T22:10:39Z")
If you want to screw people over, why not play a game like EVE Online where it is effectively encouraged that you screw people over deliberately? Hell, one guy started an in game bank and scammed hundreds of people out of thousands of real world money’s worth of in game resources …and got a news article out of the deal. [And he wasn’t alone](http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/28/eve-evolved-top-ten-ganks-scams-heists-and-events/) … 😛 ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/7 "2013-11-07T06:55:50Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > You’re missing some subtleties here. “griefing” is best defined as playing ONLY to screw over other players, even if it doesn’t benefit you/causes you to lose. Just “screwing over other players” is often best described as “playing the game.” You’re not parsing my post the way it was intended, but I’m willing to clarify. When a player chooses to make screwing over other players the point of the game regardless of the designers’ intentions that is griefing. Whether that happens to result in a positive in game outcome for the griefer is irrelevant, because the player cares only in as much as that result may further the goal of screwing over other players. Case in point, I used to play MUDs back before graphical MMORPGs were popular. Killing a weaker player repeatedly did provide experience points that furthered the designers’ intended goal of making one’s character more powerful, but that had nothing to do with why I did it. > [@aruvqan](#): > > If you want to screw people over, why not play a game like EVE Online where it is effectively encouraged that you screw people over deliberately? Because destroying others’ efforts is less satisfying when they expect it. It is much more effective when they don’t anticipate that their hours of work might be for nothing. That said, I don’t play many games any more, and my griefing days are long past. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/8 "2013-11-07T17:14:53Z")
Supposedly there is a flight sim game called War Thunder. Its free to play, but you can pay money for upgrades/better planes. A lot of obsessive milsim type people play this game, but are highly vulnerable to a particular kind of griefing: Ramming. Apparently the easiest way to destroy an enemy plane is to simply ram into it 😛 I’m not that familiar with the game, but the way I understand it you have a finite number of different plane types, so they probably ram an expensive plane with a cheap one, denying their opponent their sweet ride. This is kind of a variation of something they did in EVE online, where it was possible to suicide attack with a cheap ship to kill a much more expensive ship. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/9 "2013-11-07T19:00:36Z")
_Ticket to Ride_? I am absolutely not surprised by that reaction in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/10 "2013-11-07T21:05:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _Ticket to Ride_? > > I am absolutely not surprised by that reaction in any way. Yeah those Beatles fans can be brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/11 "2013-11-07T21:15:58Z")
No, seriously. I was playing once with a friend I’ve known since high school, and when he took the last Portland-Washington route the turn before I could complete my trans-continental route, I did a spontaneous impression of R. Lee Ermey that was dead on-accurate, except it was both cruder and longer. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/12 "2013-11-08T06:31:53Z")
I’m not surprised someone lost their shit - what surprised me was that the type and quality of the insults made it obvious that the person was 8 years old, and just learned the word “dick”. Dunno why, but I always figured something as inherently geeky as online board games would attract an older crowd, who’d know how to insult better. And he started with this string more or less straight of the bat - both New York, Miami, Seattle and L.A./Vegas were wide open still, with several possible cross-continental routes viable. If I completely fucked his routes, he should seriously LTP. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/13 "2013-11-08T13:59:05Z")
Yeah - [The Oatmeal speaks](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/online_gaming). ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/14 "2013-11-08T15:21:50Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > I’m not surprised someone lost their shit - what surprised me was that the type and quality of the insults made it obvious that the person was 8 years old, and just learned the word “dick”. > > Dunno why, but I always figured something as inherently geeky as online board games would attract an older crowd, who’d know how to insult better. Oh come on. We’re not talking about Rise and Decline of the Third Reich or something here, this is Ticket to Ride. It’s simpler than freakin’ Monopoly, for Bob’s sake. It’s a KID’S GAME. The “Recommended Age” on the BOX is 8-12. Just because a lot of adults enjoy it doesn’t make it geeky or an “older crowd.” ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trolls-in-unlikely-online-games/673204/15 "2013-11-08T16:29:35Z")
You misunderstand - I figured few kids would be attracted to it, since it’s a freaking board game online. The age where children like to swear and say “dick” and “fag” and “sex” a lot is also the age where they don’t want to appear childish (stupidly enough) and consequently don’t like stuff that’s “for little kids”. So I figured the 12-14 crowd would be mostly entirely absent. I guess I’m wrong. If there ever is a Monopoly Online, I’d actually expect the median age to be 35 or something.