{"id":2171,"date":"2011-11-02T15:01:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T15:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/griefer\/"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T16:49:12","slug":"griefer","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer","title":{"rendered":"Griefer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_griefer_mean\">What Does Griefer Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game that goes out of his or her way to annoy other players. The term griefer is derived from the idea of \u201cgiving [someone] grief\u201d. There are many, many ways that a griefer may go about angering others, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trash talking<\/li>\n<li>Stealing kills<\/li>\n<li>Camping<\/li>\n<li>Turtling<\/li>\n<li>Intentional friendly fire<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_griefer\">Techopedia Explains Griefer<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Much like chat room users can report trolls, gamers can report griefers. Once a person is accused of griefing, they are given warnings and other due process before being removed from the game if they do not change their behavior. It is a difficult balancing act for companies because they want to encourage competition, but not abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Griefers can be a business concern for online games that depend on subscription fees because they can make other players dislike playing (and paying). For this reason, many online multiplayer gaming companies have specific employees to monitor players\u2019 grievances and act as arbitrators and \u2013 if needed \u2013 judges.<\/p>\n<p>Popular types of online games that can be negatively impacted by griefers include:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1919\/massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game-mmorpg\">Massively multiplayer online role-playing game<\/a> (MMORPG) &#8211; takes place in a persistent state world (PSW) with thousands, or even millions, of players.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/27052\/role-playing-game-rpg\">Role playing<\/a> &#8211; the gamer controls a fictional character who undertakes a quest in an imaginary world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1922\/player-versus-player-pvp\">Player versus player<\/a> (PvP) &#8211; designed for one person to compete against another player or players, rather than against the game&#8217;s artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/241\/first-person-shooter-fps\">First person shooter<\/a> (FPS) &#8211; can have multiple players and each gamer plays from the point of view of the protagonist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Griefer Mean? A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game that goes out of his or her way to annoy other players. The term griefer is derived from the idea of \u201cgiving [someone] grief\u201d. There are many, many ways that a griefer may go about angering others, including: Trash talking Stealing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[3089],"class_list":["post-2171","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-culture-communities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Griefer? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Griefer and the role they play in video games.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Griefer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Griefer and the role they play in video games.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-11T16:49:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Griefer\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-02T15:01:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T16:49:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer\"},\"wordCount\":267,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1916\/griefer\",\"name\":\"What is Griefer? 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