World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is an mmorpg played by 15 year old pimple faced males who will never lose their virginity. In other words, welcome home.
There are a few ways to troll and grief WoW players; here are a few of the most popular methods.
In an MMORPG, it is often possible to grief another player or party by aggroing a number of nearby mobs that would ordinarily not be close enough to see the target party, then running toward the party so that the mobs chase you into them and attack them. If done at an inopportune moment, such as when the other player or party is currently fighting a close fight, this can turn their victory into a defeat and possibly a party wipe, making "training" a way for a single player to use the environment to defeat an entire party of the opposite faction – or even of the same faction.
The developers of World of Warcraft seem to have realized that this is undesirable – even on a PvP server, the fact that one player could successfully and repeatedly grief an entire party of other players, even players of the same faction, could have a strong negative impact on a lot of people's gaming experiences. The WoW developers aren't against grieving behavior when there's a PvP remedy (if you can get together a group of allies to trounce the offending party or simply kill all the mobs quickly, the problem is solved), but when the griever is impossible to attack (is not set PvP, or is of the same faction as his targets), there is no such PvP remedy. There are, therefore, countermeasures against mob training in WoW:
- Outside of instances, a mob will break off pursuit of a player that stops attacking it, unless that player remains close to the mob spawn point. Once the mob is a sufficient distance from where it started, a player attempting to train it must continually attack it in some way, or else it will leash back to its spawn point in Evade mode, ignoring everything until it gets there. Inside instances things are different - mobs will typically chase players until they catch them.
- A mob that is targeting a player will keep targeting that one until another player moves to the top of its aggro list for some reason – the targeted player can die, Vanish, use Feign Death, etc., or another player can do enough damage to the mob to supplant the first player at the top of the mob's list. If there is no one else on its list, the mob leashes back to its spawn point, again meaning that it ignores everything on the way back.
- Inside a normal (non-heroic/non-raid) instance, the only players present are all in the same party, so there is no way for a player not in the party/group to train mobs on them.
- It's possible to have multiple parties in the same heroic/raid instances, provided that all the party leaders have the same Raid ID. This can occurs under two circumstances: (1) the instance was not completed and more than one person decided to resume it, or (2) someone, having the Raid ID, decides to grief people and remain in the instance (which would take away an available spot in the instance so no one can get in).
Training mobs on somebody has been made very difficult in WoW, although it is still not totally impossible. If done in such a way that there is no PvP remedy to the situation, it is a reportable offense.
One of the most famous examples of training occurred when a Horde guild successfully pulled Kazzak to Stormwind.
Bluewalling, also known as blue shielding or blueflagging, is the act of attacking someone who has their PvP flag up when yours is not up. It is considered by some as dishonorable due to the lack of fair chance to attack you before you approach. While not against any specific rules, it is up to the player to decide if they want to be "honorable" or have the upper hand.
On the official Blizzard boards, some servers usually have some list or another of bluewallers, or if not, at least complaints against them expressing strong anger and frustration.
This phenomenon is, for the most part, restricted to PvE and RP servers as players can travel through many more zones without raising their PvP flag, and flagged players are generally an atypical occurrence. It is also a controversial piece of etiquette, while others point out that it is a part of the rules system itself. It is also difficult to define or even enforce since there is very little practical difference between suddenly flagging PvP and then attacking and attacking from behind a bluewall, despite the former technically not being bluewalling.
The name "Bluewalling" comes from the blue color of the text above a non-flagged player's name, rather than the color of a flagged Alliance player's iron, a common misconception.
One notable exception where bluewalling is generally accepted is in capital cities where a member of the opposing faction's PvP flag will automatically get enabled, if they enter. Entering an opposing faction's capital city is informally thought of as trespassing and one can expect to get attacked just for being there, if you're from the opposing faction. Also, a rogue may find Bluewalling acceptable since it is a valuable, if not essential part of being a rogue, and is in the "sneaky and backstabbing" nature.
Some people, however, do not consider bluewalling an offence at all. On a PVE server, if you are for any reason flagged, that means you are subjecting yourself to PVP, period. That means unflagged people can attack, flagged people, it doesn't matter. That means you have to be really careful when deciding whether to flag or not. Sometimes Blueflagging is part of a strategy, when waiting for reinforcements to show up to start the battle, or whatever the case may be.
There is another occurence that hasn't been described here yet that has to do with the flagging process. When a high level character goes to a low level area flagged on a PVP server, some inexperienced players may unkwowingly target and attack the flagged player, subjecting themselves to immediate ganking (most prevalent at Elwyn Forest/Westfall/Crossroads). While infuriating to most, that is just a part of the game, and should be just taken as a lesson for the future.
Note it is possible to accidentally attack a pvp player and become flagged through careless tab-targeting, especially in crowded neutral areas with many daily quests and popular grinding areas, such as Isle of Quel'Danas. If that happens the attacking player might consider using /sorry emote (even if killed) to let the other one know it was an accident.
Also note it is not possible to become flagged through use of AOE attacks around players or NPCs, the attack will simply have no effect and will not flag you. Bear this in mind if you are fleeing from NPC guards and you try and AOE fear/snare/etc to escape as it will do nothing. This behaviour also prevents griefing attacks where flagged players could stalk a player using AOE to farm mobs.
After killing another player, corpse camping is where that player then continues to camp at the enemy's corpse (either by using stealth or other means) and kills them when the player resurrects themselves. Although this is frustrating to the camped player, this is not considered griefing by Blizzard and is not subject to punishment by Game Masters.
Waiting for players to resurrect at a graveyard while flagged as PvP is also considered corpse camping, even thought there technically may be no corpse.
Kill stealing is rushing to kill a mob another player was heading towards just to prevent them from getting credit for killing that creature or trying to get an item drop before they do. This is especially bad when the mob is somewhat unique or difficult to find.
Defias Messenger in Westfall is an especially notable one because he is passive until he is attacked and he roams a wide area, so it is difficult to find him even if someone has not killed him.
A loot ninja, aka ninja looter or simply ninja, is a player who takes loot to which he or she is not entitled. The act is referred to as ninja looting or ninjaing. The term predates World of Warcraft and originated with the notion of looting as quickly as possible. The common synonym for this behavior is greeder, though that term has ironically fairer play connotations specific to WoW.
The term seems to have a few different meanings depending on whom you ask, including:
- A player who, when in a group, rolls "Need" on everything regardless of if he or she can use it.
- A player who takes everything not nailed down in an instance without asking: chests, ores, skins, herbs, etc..
- A player who sits by or tries to disturb another player while he or she is fighting a mob so the other player dies and he gets an easy kill (and loot) afterwards.
- A player who rolls on an BoP item that everyone else has passed on or a player who loots a corpse without permission after everyone has passed on a BoP item. Generally, groups decide how to best make use of the item that no one can use, sometimes DPS classes will back out of +healing/+spell damage (as opposed to just +spell damage) even if it is an upgrade and will ask for the item if no one else needs it. Additionally, if no one needs it and no one reconsidered, it often goes to a enchanter, who disenchants it, and then the group rolls for the materials acquired from the disenchanted item. Sometimes players loot items for more sentimental reasons (like "town clothes" in RP servers) and will normally pass on it unless no one else needs it. If there are no enchanters in the group and no one changes their mind, generally the group will roll for it's NPC value.
- A player who loots a chest or harvests a resource while another player is fighting the mobs which were defending it, possibly using stealth or a dash ability to aid in this, and
- A party or raid leader who changes the looting system to Master Loot near the end of a boss kill and steals the loot off of a corpse without letting other players roll for the items. Especially one who sets up a group just for the first or second boss, and then hearthstones without speaking or claiming he has to sleep or work, meanwhile setting up another group to loot it again, perhaps prominent of Gold Farmers.
Loot ninjas are, understandably, not well liked by other players. Often, a ninja will get a bad reputation on a realm which eventually prevents them from being invited to participate in any high level instances. Many guilds also have rules stating that ninjas/pirates should be kicked from the guild on their first offense.
- Need more information.
- Game Master Response
- Contact the person who recieved the item, they can send a request to transfer the item back. The problem is this will not work for someone who in essence is stealing the item.
Several features in World of Warcraft were designed to minimize the opportunities for players to ninja/pirate loot, addressing problems which had occurred in earlier games.
- A mob is tagged by the first player character or group to damage it, and it can not be looted by anyone else.
- Rogues, druids and Night Elves cannot remain stealthed while looting or harvesting resources.
- The loot options in the game allow a person to roll on items that drop. While a ninja/pirate may roll on items he or she shouldn't, there is a chance the more deserving player will win.
Here are some spamming methods
- Sending an overly repeated message or large useless quantity of text in a Chat channel. Also known as Spamming. Players often "spam" the Trade channel with multiple copies of the same message in order to get their message seen. This can be reported to Blizzard by using the "Report Spam" button when right-clicking a player's name in the chat box.
- In-game whispers of "spammers" advertising gold farming services, power leveling services, etc. to a large number of people anywhere in Azeroth, Outland or Northrend. Spammers may also utilize the in-game mail system as another medium of advertising their services.
- Repeatedly using the same spell or ability in combat. A fire Mage might be accused of "spamming Scorch", a Shaman of "spamming Frost Shock" or a Druid of "spamming Moonfire".
- Dirge: The level 70 dagger Dirge, is generally the first thing one think of when you think of people spamming the general or trade chat. Most players will notice at least one Dirge spam while leveling their character, but most people don't comment on it (either because it amuses them, or they are just /Ignore the spammers.
- Gold farmers: As their name implies, sell gold to players. They generally advertise on level one characters (generally orcs or humans (often the most populated towns of the horde/alliance)). Most gold sellers have names made up from random letters (Hbvfwaer, Hyeftr, ect.) Both purchasing and selling gold or other in-game items using real-world currency is explicitly against the Blizzard Terms of Use and can result in bans and legal action by Blizzard.