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 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 We Know That Griefing Is Not A Fully Bad Thing
While many servers do not allow greifng and protect spawns there are some reasons. First why do they grief well some do it 'For the lolz' others 'For the reaction' and last 'For fun' all theese reasons are valid and is there way of playing.

When notch created this game he did say 'we would prefere it if you did not grief' in the rules.

How Do They Grief
well most griefers know use other people clients which they make for the public also there are now many clients where they pay and get the in game client but sometimes they do cost more than this game itself so that is why many people stick to the non payed clients.

Greifng teams like 'Team Avolition'(Team Freedom is what it stands for) and ICanHasGrief and also many other popular griefers on video sites have custom clients which either another very well know coder like Scetch the creater of the Nodus client a very popular non payed client to make theres. This also brings high demand for there client so people say they have a leaked version they either found or hacked sometimes it could be a member of the team how would cleverly do a link via adfly or serveys so you can trust them but if not it COULD be a virus so DO NOT risk it.

Clients have many good features for them to greif with so look on this page at the client section for more info.

Why Are People Intrested In watching Griefing Vidoes
Well it is simple either they want ideas of how and who to grief, enjoy watching it for comedy and entertainment or they do it to see how they grief and how to prevent it like they age old ''Hello i am a moderator from Planet Minecraft here to review your server for a higher rank in the listings. I will require OP or admin to do this to test and because I am important you may think that I do not need OP or admin still but i will not grief and we also need to use the reviewing client so this is important or IT will be kicked off the sight'' A:You do not know that a moderaotr is comming on so check your email B:Why OP or admin? Couldn't you just show them C:Sometimes the server is not on Planet Minecraft and also even if they are pretending to be another site your server is on please do not belive them. Now planet minecraft does have mods and admins so if you did recive an email do not be dumb listen to them because they are important.