The timer ticks down toward zero. We tear across the Boneyard, one of Halo: Reach‘s best multiplayer maps, my good friend Rus driving with me sitting shotgun. I’m clutching the blue flag in hands that would be sweating if they were real. We shed our red teammates like skin; they race past us going the other direction on foot and in alien vehicles, crashing to pieces against the blue players that pursue us. They fall, re-spawn, hurtle past, and fall again. All the while the timer ticks down.
Seconds left. No blues in sight. No more obstacles. No chance of losing now. But something happens. The clock reaches zero. The game is over, and it’s a tie. We imagine our teammates, hands gripping controllers, first puzzled, then enraged. Maybe they’ll press “B” to exit the lobby in frustration instead of letting the game whisk them away to the next match. Maybe they’ll watch the instant replay, fast-forwarding through to the end to find out how we could have possibly let that victory slip away.
Then they’ll see us drive past our base, me still clutching the flag, passing within feet of where we could have scored and won, instead putting virtual petal to the metal and driving off the edge of the map and into oblivion. We take the team’s win with us, but earn ourselves a different sort of victory. We are trolls. It’s what we do.
We’ll play a game straight for hours, our teammates unsuspecting, hunting for that perfect moment.
There’s an art to good trolling. It’s not about being as destructive or antagonistic as possible. Anyone can chuck grenades at their teammates. That takes no guile. It’s philistine. What’s the point?
The term itself, “trolling”, has become worryingly mainstream, its definition growing nebulous through overuse. Judges are using it to define shady attorneys and copyright abusers. It’s being applied to basically anyone who acts like a dick. Third-rate trolls with no craft have become universally despised for ruining games, and most gamers have forgotten what it even means to get truly, honestly trolled.
Urban Dictionary gets it: trolling is “the art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off…trolling does not mean just making rude remarks,” it says. “Trolling requires deceiving.”
It’s not the act of screwing up someone else’s game that gets us off. It’s the thrill of the chase. We want to surprise you. We’ll play a game straight for hours, our teammates unsuspecting, hunting for that perfect moment. The moment that will make the anonymous eyes behind a dozen scattered televisions widen in surprise. We’ll make you rage. We’ll make you cry. You’ll throw your hands in the air in frustration. And afterward, if we’ve trolled you right, you’ll laugh.
Death At A Funeral
Seven years ago an avid World of Warcraft player suffered a tragic, fatal stroke. Her online friends organised a very public ceremony during which friends and enemies alike could come and pay their respects.
A rival guild, ironically named Serenity Now, decided to crash that ceremony, and a bloodbath ensued. It was brutal, calculated and somehow, naively, unexpected. Or so the story goes. Regardless, the video remains hilarious to this day.
I’ve never met Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, but if I ever did I’d ask him how big a troll he considers himself. I’m fairly certain what his answer would be.
Dark Souls was made for trolling. Summoning other players to help in your world requires you to transform into a vulnerable state that leaves your virtual back door open to invasions from malicious players hoping to prey on the weak or unsuspecting. Dark Souls features underhanded spells that turn your avatar into a tree or a statue so you can hide out in the open, and weapons that let you steal valuable in-game currency called Humanity from victims too slow to move out of your way.
One evening recently I found myself invading other players’ worlds, as I am wont to do. I lose some games and win others. That’s how it goes. But two sociopathic thugs showed me the meaning of trolling that night.
[clear]
We had more encounters that night, but the dishonourable duo usually came away with the upper hand. They were playing a dirty game. That spell is frowned on in PVP circles for being far too debilitating. And the Humanity-draining attack, though normally easy to dodge, is not exactly sportsmanlike. After playing Dark Souls more or less continuously since its release, I thought I had seen everything. I never expected to be ganked so hard, and I never saw it coming. I still haven’t stopped laughing about it.
Making A List, Checking It Twice
If you managed to sneak in some Dark Souls this past holiday season in between football games and family dinners, you may have come across a white-haired player dressed in red robes. He may have dropped an item on the ground and gestured for you to take it. If you were a nice boy or girl, you’d get to keep the present.
But if you were naughty and tried to attack your benefactor or steal another player’s present, you’d be dealt with accordingly. Dark Souls Santa doled out holiday cheer and deadly justice in equal measure. The video above is one of my favourites.
Rus and I spent a few summer months hopelessly entangled in the block-shaped world of Minecraft, rapturous at the idea of playing splitscreen co-op on my massive TV on the Xbox 360 version of Mojang’s world-building masterpiece. At first our sessions were strictly exploratory as we tested the limits of a game he and I had previously only dabbled in. But in a game where you can build anything, things quickly turn nasty.
Back to Halo: Reach for a moment. In Forge Mode — a simplified map editor — I would often craft house-sized teleporters that would send other players to the bottom of the ocean and rake them back and forth across the battlefield like a vacuum cleaner for trolls. In Minecraft, we started smaller, laying simple traps and plundering each other’s supplies.
He spent hours building pointlessly huge structures made of easily-harvested materials. I dug elaborate systems of tunnels in search of elusive diamonds. Once my companion realised it was easier to steal my diamonds than find his own, I made it my goal to build a Rus-proof vault. That’s not easy in a game where the primary mechanic is destroying things with a pickaxe.
[clear]
It was elaborate. I considered it masterful. I stored my loot inside, along with some food and a bed in the event I was besieged. Yeah, I may have been too into it. When I lured Rus back into my world, he was appropriately puzzled for several minutes. I grew smug. Then he battered down the door, rushed past the molasses-quick lava, and plundered my diamonds anyway. I was out-trolled and I knew it, but it was still worth those few minutes of satisfaction.
The Long Con
EVE Online players have actually built themselves a virtual economy that is, if anything, even more complex than the real-world one. Maybe in EVE, it’s not considered strange to spend a real year of your real life plotting to take down a powerful corporation, entering its ranks at the bottom level and working your way up the corporate ladder until you can pull the trigger on its CEO and decimate a $US16,500 (real money) company at the behest of its main business rivals.
[clear]
It’s easy to be a mediocre troll. Anyone can throw grenades at their teammates in Modern Warfare or scream expletives into the mic during an otherwise friendly game of Team Fortress 2. It takes no forethought to simply blow up all your team’s vehicles, leave your friends behind in Left 4 Dead, or harass online strangers in fits of sheer boredom. Anyone can mod their console and make themselves invincible or steal a friendly player’s air-dropped care package. Those forms of “trolling” are unimaginative and easy. But most things that are easy aren’t really worth doing.
I love a good solo, narrative experience. I much prefer it to stale, repetitive competitive multiplayer. I was playing Zelda while other kids were absorbed in endless Counter-Strike matches. I also don’t like sports. There’s a pattern there, I think.
But as I’ve gotten older some games have continued to mirror the real world more and more closely. Now the will of the player is more important than the rules of the game, and just like in real life our interactions with other people define our experiences. That’s what makes it interesting.
Playing by yourself is fine, but it’s when others challenge the very boundaries of your experience that things really get good.
I visited Bungie last year to get an early look at the Halo makers’ next game, Destiny. They promised a game with seamless multiplayer that will allow players to jump in and out of each other’s worlds without even realising it. When I asked them what kind of limits they’re going to place on player-to-player interactions — will there be PVP zones? Will I be able to attack other players on sight? Can I be a troll if I want to? — their noncommittal answer did not fill me with hope.
Long after I’ve finished the main missions and the side quests, tried all the challenges, and unlocked every achievement, I continue returning to games like Dark Souls and Minecraft because I can manipulate their systems. Being able to push the boundaries makes a game endlessly interesting, especially when you can do it in a social setting. Maybe Destiny will end up being safer for the masses, but if its PVP doesn’t allow a little wiggle room for trolling it might not hold my attention for very long.
I touched on this months ago in an article about blurring the lines between single player and multiplayer. Playing by yourself is fine, but it’s when others challenge the very boundaries of your experience that things really get good. I hate falling into a routine. What I want is to be surprised. Trolling is how I accomplish that, but I always troll in a way that I hope will cause my victims to have a more unpredictable — or even shocking — experience as well.
It’s this thought that drives me to enter the next match and wait for my opportunity to do the unexpected — even if it means losing. Some victories are fleeting, but our teammates in Halo might just remember those two idiots who drove off the edge of the world and laughed on the way down.
Comments
23 responses to “When Video Game Trolling Is A Good Thing”
The best article Kotaku has seen in a while – relevant, topical and well written. Great!
agreed
I actually find the people you refer to as a “dishonorable duo” and “playing a dirty game” much more likeable than people like you. Yes, they might have been using cheesy tactics, but YOU invaded THEIR world.
And intentionally losing a game might be deliberate, but it’s neither clever nor secret. One out of three for what you implied was an accurate description of trolling.
Great article. I kind of agree with the author. Where do you draw the line between having a bit of fun and being a troll? I think the “troll” label is thrown around a bit too liberally these days. I play jokes on people in games, I’m not malicious in any way… I just like to have a bit of fun outside of the norm. It’s not different from how I behave at work or at home, I love playing jokes on people to lighten the mood. Vanilla multiplayer can get a bit mundane at times and an injection of humour (ableit sometimes indirectly at someone’s expense) can go a long way provided it is not malicious.
“Boneyard, one of Halo: Reach‘s best multiplayer maps”
Where I stopped reading. Little wonder Halo is now garbage when trash like that is even considered “good” let alone “one of the best”.
I remember Modern Warfare 2 being the best online FPS to troll. It was too easy. Me and my mates had 2 favorite methods of trolling. One was used against annoying team mates and the other towards the opposing team.
Our clan tag was tRap and it was called trap for a reason. We would tell unsuspecting victims that we knew a glitch to get a high kill streak. We would then guide them to an inconspicuous corner, stand in front of them and then trap them in. To add insult to injury if there were a group of us we would then start firing so we would turn up on the radar. If the person being trapped had a kill streak then that was extra points.
The second method of trolling involved a nuke and playing countless hours of domination. Me and my mates played domination to the point where we could control the game flow. One of us would get a 25 kill streak and then save the nuke. We then purposely let the other team dominate all the points and let the ticket run until 199 and then trigger the nuke.
Fun times.
Indeed a fun article.
Scatman John was a saint.
I used to play this game called America’s Army. I remember it well – it was probably the best game my computer could handle at the time and I never had money to buy games so a free one was a godsend. Anyway – I remember that we used to have rounds where the entire team would agree to jump off the bridge, committing suicide. So 30 seconds into the game the other team would just immediately win for no reason. It was funny at the time?
The typical argument made by the troll – that they’re somehow adding something to the game, that they’re magically an improvement over what people have joined up to play.
Newsflash – you’re nothing but a pain in the arse. If you want to troll, keep it to your private Minecraft server and leave the rest of us to play the game we’re trying to enjoy.
I’m just commenting here to see if @berym downvotes it, since he seems to have some vendetta against anyone commenting in this article, regardless of what they’ve said, and I wish to see if the pattern continues on a larger data set.
Naw, just people that post a specific opinion that is shared by everyone I downvoted.
@tigerion, for example, gets an upvote. Moderate opinion from the dude, seems sensible, disliked the funeral stunt.
So in other words, people who don’t share the same opinion as you get a downvote. Got it. This article is meant to promote discussion on a controversial topic and that discussion is going to consist of differing opinions. I didn’t realise my views were shared by other people and that was a negative thing. My views are my views and they are by their very definition uniquely mine. If you don’t like that, that’s fine. Downvote away.
No, people that post an opinion I violently disagree with get a downvote. What do you use them for? Other than when people dislike what you’ve posted, I mean… which is your problem with my downvotes. Enjoy being a hypocrite much?
I replied as well, as it happens, but it’s a new account (I’ve lurked until very recently) and they insist on moderating everything I post (that reply above snuck through because I edited it, a loophole in their system, it seems)
I’m sure that the author will like Watch_Dogs then, because its multiplayer seems similar to Dark Souls.
I agree with some of your comments, when the game has troll features built in the bigger and better you can make it the more enjoyable it is. Invading in hard souls and getting picked apart is part of it. The eve corporate espionage is part and parcel of the game. Halo, not so sure, but I would be surpised and maybe a bit pissed but would probably laugh it off. It only becomes annoying when something happens constantly.
Have to disagree with you on the WoW example you have give. Those guys were not clever or masterful, they are Westbro Baptist Church level arseholes
They deserved it, good intentions aside. If they wanted to roleplay a funeral, choose to do it on a roleplaying server or at the very least in a non PVP zone – easy fixes. They were asking for it from anyone who had low enough morals or just didn’t care, and surprise surprise, on the Internet where anonymity rules this is not hard to come by.
Not to mention that the horde was also roleplaying in a sense. Attacking an unsuspecting group of Alliance officers at a funeral is exactly the kind of thing I would expect from the Horde. I found it brilliant.
The reason they chose that place was because it was her server and her favorite location. They did naively ask not to be attacked and many horde visited with good intentions. Its just the case that a small few spoil for the many.
No – quote from the organiser:
“We will be having it at the Frostfire Hot Springs in Winterspring, because she loved to fish in the game ( she liked the sound of the water, it was calming for her ) and she loved snow.”
They chose a stupid location. They combined the two things she apparently liked, but still held it in a vulnerable location. Poor organisation, they should have held it in Dun Morogh.
It was a bit long and i didnt read all of it. I might go back to it later, but to be honest, I think trolls THINK they are affecting people more than they actually are. Most people just move on to a another game. Like if somebody stole your seat in a food court or took your parking spot. There a few noisy victims, but most of us just move on and not let it affect us.
‘Pedal’ to the metal I think it is. Not ‘petal to the metal’. For future reference and all
While I agree that the term troll has become quite widespread, a great many terms used through history became more commonplace as time went on. A recent example is “WTF?” it used to indicate significant surprise and disbelief though nowadays it has replaced “What?!” in a lot of peoples vocabulary.
To the article, throwing a game is hardly a clever troll but the essence that most “trolls” are just dicks is pretty accurate. The opportunity for a glorious troll comes along so rarely and any self respecting person who identifies as a troll will take those opportunities to feed their own need for amusement, even though we know that, in the grand scheme of things, nobody really cares, but we don’t need them to as long as it makes us laugh.
I considered whether or not to reply to this article because by doing so, some might think I’m trollbait.
I put an effort in, when I play any game. I enjoy the challenge, I enjoy bettering myself, even if it is just a game. When I PvP, I play to win. I don’t bitch and moan (too much) when I get saddled with team after team of people phoning it in.
To me, people like you, have something missing in their lives, where they can only find enjoyment from ruining other people’s games. Sure, I like the feeling when I beat another player in a 1-on-1 fight and I often play the rogue so I rarely fight fair – but I don’t gank and I don’t grief… except for people like you.
As a contributory player, I often surround myself with likeminded people. When some jerkwad like you thinks s/he’s god’s gift to the internet and teamkills or intentionally throws a match, s/he goes on the shit list. Now in an MMO there’s not much one can do – besides acting like I’ll support you when we attack a base and then melting away or following you around stealing every node from you or tagging mobs *just* before you get there; but in a shooter, I will become your serial killer.
Now you might think it’s all in good fun and that you’re just enjoying the game the way you want to, but one night Rus is going to be busy and you’re going to want to play a few serious matches. And if you played the games I did, I’d love to ruin your night like you’ve ruined countless others.
I’m glad you met your match in Dark Souls. Honestly, just the fact that you think Serenity Now’s stunt was funny marks you as an arsehole in my book – nice touch trying to play up your humanity by starting with how tragic the the stroke was before calling the people that loved and respected her naive; and that you find the desecration of their event entertaining.