Tutorials/Griefing prevention



Griefing is the act of irritating and angering people in video games through the use of destruction, construction, or social engineering. Popularized in Minecraft by "professional" teams, griefing has become a serious problem for server administrators who wish to foster building and protect builders.

History of griefing
Griefing is far from a new phenomenon in video games. It 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 first-person shooters like Counter-Strike. But even before it had a name, griefer-like behavior was familiar in prehistoric text-based virtual worlds like LambdaMOO, where joyriding invaders visited "virtual rape" and similar offenses on the local populace. Frustrated users or mal-intentioned gamers have oftentimes tried to cause grief among other players in multiplayer servers they join, but many griefers just "do it for the lulz", or just out of plain boredom.

Rise of griefing teams
Griefing developed a full-fledged culture, no longer just an isolated pathology, with the rise of organized griefing, grounded in online message-board communities and thick with in-jokes, code words, taboos, and an increasingly articulate sense of purpose. One of the more famous groups to do this was Team Roomba in their Team Fortress Griefing series that was picked up and reported by the Escapist Magazine. But as Ryan (aka FLOOR_MASTER) says, "ROOMBA as some sort of griefing organization or comedy troupe - however you want to see it - is really a new thing for us. I'm not sure we consider it to exist at that level yet. To us, ROOMBA is still just a group of Internet Friends who play games together and record said games when we find something funny about them." The group found their origins in the diaspora of culture around goon-central, Something Awful, specifically the Kentucky Fried Server, where they all played Battlefield 1942. It only became a group in name when they found themselves with the desire to enter a Battlefield 2142 tournament for kicks and had to name their clan; hence the name Team Roomba. "The tournament experience was a fiasco and remains TR's first and last venture into competitive gaming," says Ryan. The move to griefing videos was prompted by plain boredom. "You run out of things to do and start looking for unconventional ways to have fun with a game," says Ryan, "There was a long dead time between BF2142 being released and the next big FPS." So, as they waited impatiently while "enemy territories": Quake Wars, Crysis and Team Fortress 2 inched closer, they looked for other distractions. It was Roomba member penifSMASH who made the leap, with a glitch he discovered in Battlefield 2142's Titan Mode. After exploiting the glitch to quickly bring down the other teams' shields, they later on moved from these basic examples to griefs as sophisticated as the TF2 quiz. "That move was, I think, motivated by a desire to stand out," says Ryan. "I recognize that I'm ruining someone's fun, albeit temporarily," says Ryan, but jerks in an online videogame are just part of the package - 'Game Experience May Change During Online Play.' I'd like to think that everyone recognizes this by now, and I don't feel particularly bad about it," says Ryan.

The creation of teams producing their own videos popularized Minecraft griefing. Since the popularization of griefing by notorious teams such as Team Avolition, numerous griefing groups have spawned and created a strong fanbase for the topic.

Fortunately for server administrators, who wish to prevent griefing, the popularization has pushed the creation of numerous anti-griefing tools and techniques.

Basic Griefing Methods and Prevention
There are other forms of griefing, however they are simply variations on the ones listed above. Essentially, if moderators are attentive and the server is equipped with the necessary plugins, a server can be very secure from griefing.

Griefing Clients
While modifications to Minecraft clients are fairly popular with legitimate mods, griefers also often employ client modifications to aid their efforts. Common client "hacks" include:


 * Flying: Not necessarily used just for griefing, this hack gives the user the ability to fly similar to as if they were in Creative mode at adjustable speed levels. However, it can be used to easily find a place to vandalize.
 * X-Ray or Wallhack: Stops the rendering of any block besides ones desirable to the griefer. This hack is often used to find chests or valuable minerals such as diamond.
 * Fullbright or Night-Vision: This hack lights up all blocks as if they were in direct sunlight, even in pitch darkness.
 * No-fall: This hack prevents damage from being taken when falling from high areas.
 * Sneak: This allows griefers to sneak indefinitely and move at a faster pace. This will keep their nameplates hidden behind walls just as if they were holding the sneak button.
 * Speed Breaking or Instant Mine: This allows for griefers to break blocks at a much faster speed than normal.
 * Aura or Forcefield: This auto attacks anything from players to mobs within striking range.
 * Nuker: This destroys all blocks within reach radius automatically.
 * God: This makes the user invincible. Almost all versions of this hack have been patched.
 * Step: This modification allows for the user to simply walk up blocks and small cliffs (up to 9 blocks high) as if they were half steps.
 * Build: Build hacks are simply modifications that instantly place blocks in a predetermined pattern. Common builds include cubes, pillars, and platforms.
 * Fast Place: This modification eliminates the normal delay when placing blocks.
 * Freecam: This mod allows the user to separate themself from his body and fly around to scout out areas. Since infinite reach was patched, the user of this mod cannot affect any blocks outside their reach radius.
 * Spam or Flood: This allows the client to send a huge number of chat messages to the server.

How to Prevent Griefing
While there is not much that can stop a determined griefer, there are ways for a server to mitigate the risks of being griefed. The following is a list of steps server owners can take to try to keep their server protected:


 * Protect the server with appropriate anti-griefing plugins.
 * Do not let administrators abuse their power (this can incite anger in users and bring about griefing). Also, be cautious in choosing who to give administrative permissions to begin with.
 * Be careful what permissions to which people have access. Owners can limit access with Server modifications.
 * Be careful where the server is advertised. While more exposure means more members, it also means griefers can find it just as easily.
 * Become familiar with what griefers are capable of doing. There are no hacks "to gain op" or "delete the server". If one takes the time to learn what is possible (by watching griefing videos from popular teams and reading griefing forums), you will be more able to counter it.

For a much more in-depth (and anti-grief biased) analysis, see Crayboff's thread on the topic.

Anti-Griefing Server Modifications
While there are many people creating grief-friendly client modifications, there are equally dedicated programmers creating server plugins to foil their attempts. Using the popular and extensible Bukkit server software and other Server Mods, programmers have made numerous add-ons to enforce correct client behavior. There are plugins that allow administrators to log and rollback all edits done on an individual basis, employ jails to trap griefers, and even protect certain blocks or entire chunks.