Griefer
A player who deliberately annoys others outside intended gameplay.
A griefer, also known as a bad-faith player, is someone in a multiplayer video game who intentionally harasses, disrupts, or trolls others in ways outside the intended gameplay. Common griefing tactics include killing other players without reason, wrecking structures they built, or stealing their items. The griefer gets enjoyment from bothering other users, making them a persistent annoyance in online gaming communities.
The term "griefing" was applied to online multiplayer games by at least the year 2000, as seen in posts to the rec.games.computer.ultima.online USENET group. The idea is that the player causes "grief" in the sense of "giving someone grief." The term itself dates to the late 1990s, used to describe deliberately antisocial behavior in early massively multiplayer online games like *Ultima Online* and later, in the 2000s, first-person shooters such as *Counter-Strike*. Even before it had a name, similar behavior existed in text-based Multi-User Domains (MUDs), where joyriding invaders committed "virtual rape" and other offenses. Julian Dibbell's 1993 article "A Rape in Cyberspace" examined griefing events in the MUD LambdaMOO and how the staff responded. In Taiwanese MMORPG culture, such as in *Lineage*, griefers are called "white-eyed"—a metaphor meaning their eyes lack pupils, so they look without seeing. Other behaviors that can get a player labeled "white-eyed" include cursing, cheating, stealing, or unreasonable killing.
Griefing methods vary from game to game. What counts as griefing in one area might be an intended feature in another.
- Field
- Multiplayer video games
- Known for
- Deliberately annoying, disrupting, or trolling other players
- Earliest known term
- Applied to online multiplayer video games by the year 2000 or earlier
- Earliest behavior
- Familiar in text-based Multi-User Domains (MUDs) before the term existed
Lore & Background
The term 'griefing' was applied to online multiplayer video games by the year 2000 or earlier, as illustrated by postings to the rec.games.computer.ultima.online USENET group. The player is said to cause 'grief' in the sense of 'giving someone grief'. The term dates to the late 1990s, when it was used to describe the willfully antisocial behaviors seen in early massively multiplayer online games like Ultima Online, and later, in the 2000s, first-person shooters such as Counter-Strike. Even before it had a name, griefer-like behavior was familiar in the virtual worlds of text-based Multi-User Domains (MUDs), where joyriding invaders inflicted 'virtual rape' and similar offenses on the local populace. Julian Dibbell's 1993 article 'A Rape in Cyberspace' analyzed the griefing events in a particular MUD, LambdaMOO, and the staff's response.
Reader's Guide
Griefers have been a persistent challenge in online gaming communities, driving business concerns for subscription-based games since their behavior can drive away paying customers. Many developers release server-side upgrades and patches to annul griefing methods, and employ gamemasters to reprimand offenders. Some use a crowdsourcing approach where players can report griefing, with malicious players red-flagged and dealt with at a gamemaster's discretion. As many as 25% of customer support calls to companies operating online games deal specifically with griefing. Blizzard Entertainment has enacted software components to combat griefing, and games such as Ultima Online created separate realms for those who wish to attack anyone at any time and for those who do not. When EverQuest was released, Sony included a PvP switch where people could fight each other only if they had enabled that option, to prevent the player-killing that was driving people away from Ultima Online. The term is sometimes applied more generally to refer to a person who uses the internet to cause distress to others as a prank, or to intentionally inflict harm, as when it was used to describe an incident in March 2008, when malicious users posted seizure-inducing animations on epilepsy forums.
Origins and the Birth of a Word
The impulse to deliberately torment fellow players in virtual spaces predates the very vocabulary we now use for it. In the early 1990s, text-based Multi-User Domains already hosted what we would recognize as griefers: joyriding invaders who swept through virtual towns and inflicted what contemporaries described as "virtual rape" on local inhabitants. Journalist Julian Dibbell examined one such incident in the MUD LambdaMOO in his 1993 article "A Rape in Cyberspace," documenting both the transgression and the staff's response. The specific term "griefing" crystallized in the late 1990s, drawing on the everyday English idiom of "giving someone grief." It first gained traction in early massively multiplayer online titles like Ultima Online, where willfully antisocial conduct became a recognizable and recurring pattern. By 2000 or earlier, the word was already circulating in USENET postings on the rec.games.computer.ultima.online group. The label then spread into the 2000s alongside the rise of first-person shooters such as Counter-Strike, cementing griefing as a persistent cultural phenomenon that outlasted any single generation of multiplayer gaming.
The White-Eyed Stigma
In the MMORPG communities of Taiwan, particularly within titles like Lineage, griefers carry a vivid and dehumanizing nickname: "white-eyed." The metaphor evokes a person whose eyes lack pupils—someone who looks outward but perceives nothing, stripped of empathy or social awareness. What makes this cultural framing especially revealing is that the "white-eyed" label extends well beyond the narrow act of griefing itself. A player who curses in chat, cheats, steals from others, or engages in unreasonable killing can all be branded with the same stigmatizing term. This broad application reveals how deeply these communities view bad-faith behavior as a fundamental violation of the social contract, not merely a gameplay infraction. The griefer, in this cultural lens, is not simply a nuisance but someone who has lost the capacity for shared experience—the very thing that makes multiplayer games meaningful. The metaphor of sightlessness is particularly apt in a medium where players collectively construct virtual worlds; the white-eyed player sees the environment only as a tool for personal gratification at others' expense, unable to perceive the social fabric they are tearing apart.
An Arsenal That Adapts to Every Genre
The toolkit available to a griefer is as varied as the games they inhabit, and what constitutes griefing in one context may be a legitimate mechanic in another. In team-based shooters, a griefer might deliberately trigger friendly fire, block a teammate's line of sight by planting themselves in front of the player, or feed the enemy team with their own positioning. In sandbox worlds like Minecraft or Terraria, destroying another player's hard-built structures without permission stands as a quintessential violation. MMORPGs see powerful players descend into lower-level zones to monopolize scarce resources, while racing games produce drivers who reverse around the track to T-bone the leader. Other tactics include camping respawn points to repeatedly kill a helpless player, luring swarms of monsters into a "train" that chases toward other players, or simply going AFK in a timed interface to force opponents to quit and incur penalties. In co-op scenarios, denying access to essential items can render the entire group unable to progress. Even in the board game Catan, a player who repeatedly refuses trades to sabotage one opponent's path to victory embodies the same spirit of bad-faith disruption.
A Boundary That Shifts with Context
One of the most persistent difficulties in defining griefing is that the line between malicious disruption and legitimate play shifts depending on the game, the zone, and even the moment. A behavior that constitutes pure griefing in one area of a title may be an intended function or mechanic elsewhere. Camping, for instance, once fell squarely under the griefing umbrella—players would stake out a tactically advantageous position and wait for others to walk into it, stalling the game. Today, that same behavior is more often attributed to game design, and in titles where defeating a powerful "juggernaut" is a core objective, the juggernaut itself is the one most likely to camp. Similarly, intentional self-killing, playing at minimal speed, or standing atop a non-player character to block others' interaction may be read as griefing in a competitive context but could be a quirky expression in a casual sandbox. This contextual fluidity means communities must constantly negotiate what counts as bad faith. The griefer's defining trait is not any single action but the intent to derive pleasure from another's frustration, making the boundary less about the mechanic and more about the player's relationship to the shared experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Griefer in MUD terminology?
A griefer is a multiplayer-game player who deliberately harasses, disrupts, or trolls others in ways that fall outside the scope of intended gameplay. The label is sometimes expanded to "bad-faith player" to emphasize that the behavior is intentionally outside the game's rules.
What do Griefers typically do?
Common tactics include killing other players with no in-game justification, wrecking structures that others have built, or stealing their items. The underlying motivation is simply deriving personal enjoyment from frustrating and bothering fellow users.
When was the term "griefer" first used in gaming?
The word "griefing" was applied to online multiplayer games by at least the year 2000, as seen in posts on the rec.games.computer.ultima.online USENET group. The behavior itself, however, was already well-known in text-based MUDs before anyone had a specific label for it.
Why are Griefers a persistent problem in MUD communities?
Because their actions are designed to sit outside intended gameplay, they cannot be countered through normal in-game strategies or competitive skill. This makes them a recurring source of frustration for players who simply want to enjoy the game as it was designed.
How is griefing different from regular competitive play?
A griefer acts in bad faith, meaning their goal is not to win within the game's rules but to cause distress and disruption to other participants. Normal competitive play operates within the intended mechanics, while griefing deliberately subverts or ignores those boundaries.
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