The lull before cataclysm brought out the Great Reign of Griefers and Trolls. This time was expected to end after the release of Cataclysm, when the expansion should have brought about more activities for these griefers and trolls to do that weren’t griefing and trolling. Many theorized that these players had previously been so occupied diving into the content, in some way or another, that they weren’t bored enough to be so driven to harass those who don’t think everyone in the game is a ‘bro’. Occasionally of course, griefers and trolls end up harassing each other. This is similar to a gang war. The major except is after the words are done flying between the two players or groups of players, no one has been shot. On the other hand, many innocent by standards in /trade or /general have lost precious IQ points in fray. Now we are weeks into the Cataclysm and the tremendous amount of rude players have not receded into the black depths of their parents basements (or where ever they come from). No, they are still out in force! For the first few days of Cataclysm it seemed even worse. General chat in hyjal was just as abusive and useless as trade chat usually becomes. Douches were out in mass sniping kills, jacking nodes, and otherwise doing whatever they can to be as selfish, unhelpful, and unpleasant as possible.
Now weeks later, trolls in trade chat haven’t quite died down to normal levels, but there’s even more nerd rage spam about someone ninja’ing something. Players are more likely than ever to find their elementium node stolen after a mob hits them while they were trying to mine. After such an event, even a /say of “really” could result in being spammed by the offending players guild with “umadbro”. Although I haven’t been personally privy to this event, I’ve heard many stories of 3 guild-mates joining a dungeon queue as tank or heals for the quick queue time, then refusing to tank or heal. At which point, given the simple majority, they kick anyone from the group unable or unwilling to tank or heal until they find someone who can. You might be shocked by this, but yes, the griefers are organizing. (more…)