Mhm. It's okay to be an asshole, as long as your farts sound funny like a trumpet. It's okay to be make other people's lives miserable, as long as you're funny when you do it? That's just ridiculous.
Something like that. Douchebaggery for the sake of douchebaggery is rude, but when it's not intended just to be a douchebag and is being done for a joke it's definitely on a different level.
It's hardly ridiculous, it's fairly typical of human behavior. It's ok to insult people as long as you're funny when you do it, isn't it? I would suggest that such banter is typical of people. It's the core of comedy.
Someone has to be the brunt of a joke.
Actually, that doesn't quite work. If the game had hinged purely on my own actions in the game, sure. It'd never have mattered. I ignored bullies in school (or bullied back, depending on the gap in size/age), and it worked like a charm. I ignore griefers in a game, and it works like a charm... but do you really expect an entire server to ignore griefing? Doesn't work. No way that you'll get an entire server to do it. And thus, a semi-large part of the server in question gets affected, which these asstards thinks is funny, and thus they keep it up.
Except even in such a way they can't
ruin a server. Their actions are a
catalyst, nothing more. The server is ruined by how people react. Now you could then argue that without the Goons' antics the people wouldn't commit to such actions, however
it happens all the time. Roleplaying servers
with or without griefers are notoriously unstable due to the rather higher-than-average number of Drama Llamas that end up on said servers.
They fall apart with or without the Goons' involvement. It just happens
faster when the Goons are around.
I still don't see how you can defend it as 'funny' when it's ruined the gametime of so many people across the world, for no better reason than that assholes decide to make other people's online time as miserable as they can 'for teh lulz'.
Well, in part because this isn't real life. This is a game. I've had them ruin my intended fun on more than one occasion, and it was
still fun, because they made me laugh. The core of comedy is derision. It has always been that way and it always will be. Even "knock knock" jokes are making fun of the person you're telling them to by leading them into a trap.
No one is really strongly affected by Goon antics. They aren't beating people up, ruining their lives, or torturing their pets. They're making some jokes at the world's expense.
So what? We
pay people to do that
every single day that oft say things that make the Goons' antics
pale in comparison, and we
laugh our asses off at it.
It's interesting to me how some people take offense when
they are the butt of the joke, but it's totally cool when it's other people.
And it's especially intrusive on roleplaying servers, where game-mechanics and RP does not go hand in hand. Like I said, in Eve, I don't mind. Game-mechanics, 'griefing' and RP goes hand in hand. Very hard to grief in Eve, or at least every player in Eve signed over money to CCP saying 'please grief me'. In other games... doesn't work that way.
If the game-mechanics do not go hand in hand with the RP, then I would suggest the RP needs to be refined so that it fits within the world it is taking place in.