What is considered griefing?

Sinking someones ship/ killing the people on board isnt griefing. Racial slurs, derogatory language, personal attacks would be griefing imo. Outside of those 3 things i believe trash talk (which can be done without any of those things) is ok and anything else is pretty much fair game

In my opinion, repeatedly doing anything with no expectation or hope of profit (loot), but simply because you get pleasure from ruining someone else's enjoyment of the game, is griefing.

@sioldur said in What is considered griefing?:

What is considered griefing and where do we draw the line on when someone is being a pirate, or just sorry little barnacle under my foot?

In this case you sent a nasty message...that sums it all up right there. Don't crud talk, don't insult others who annoy you, don't get in someone's face because they're upsetting you. Go ahead and laugh and talk or be friendly, sure, but unless you know the person to whom your addressing... your just setting yourself up for getting 'banned' when you send - 'nasty messages'.

Trust me as a combat vet used to a certain degree of 'thick skin' nothing upsets me more than being the bad guy when I speak my mind, which is usually the case. But even this d*****s knows better than to dare talk smack to a stranger online. All it'll ever do is get me in trouble, so, I avoid it.

It sucks... but this is the world we live in.

edit to add sorry got distracted in my writing. The best answer is simple:

Behavior which exploits various broken mechanics which lead to one sided harassment of players and other similar antagonism.

In the case above.. it's not griefing.. the player wasn't standing in areas you couldn't have killed them from, they weren't exploiting some broken mechanic, they weren't doing anything other than finding you in game and killing you repeatedly. That last part isn't griefing... it's nothing... at most it's harassment but since you could have server hopped on a whim and likely never saw the person again even that is a far cry. Unless the player was stalking you across servers, sending you messages in chat outside of game or on the app, continuing this behavior beyond sessions...

But unless we're talking about something like that... sounds like you got salty because some dude kept kicking your teeth in and got called when you raged more than you likely should have.

@personalc0ffee said in What is considered griefing?:

Just because you say you are friendly, doens't mean the other person has to be.

Also just because you say you are friendly doesn't mean you are being truthful.

OP: In the end what is considered griefing depends on who is doing the considering.

Abusive langauge, profanity, harassment for no personal gain, repeated spawnkilling for no reason, out of game harassment are the main ones that I can think of.

Sounds like you took it too far from a language POV and broke MS live TOS with the messages you sent.

It's a fine line, but I find the best insults don't need profanity. If you absolutely have to insult someone it's always much more effective to write a detailed assassination of their character that doesn't include foul language, foul language weakens your argument and lowers your standing in any frank exchange of views.

In saying the above, resorting to insults is never the best course of action. Try to learn to not get annoyed in the first place. Obviously this is easier said than done. I can't claim to be someone who will always rise above, but if you can learn to ignore and walk away in SoT it will stand you in good stead in real life, where there can be a lot more to lose from losing your cool with someone.

"Disputes are settled upon the waves"

I think this is the core of everything, it's a game, I can't understand the reason to send private message to people for insulting them because they are playing a game where they are allowed to do what they do.

So if you don't like to fight, go away. If you want vengeance for being sunked, look for them and fight.

During the game your dispute with the other crew can be for hours and hours, but after you leave the game, everything is ended.

@businessjjj Maybe ur just not as good because u cant sink there ship. What do u want that they drop anker and wave at u while u shoot there ship? I would remove my comment if i was u, looks like ur bad as f.

@businessjjj So what is griefing? Ur a pirate on a boat what can be shot so it fills with water and u sink if u dont fix it. They added a nice note on the boat of the dammed if u are getting killed over and over. And thats not griefing, u cant grief in this game its all pvp. Like it or move on to another game and let the players who dont cry every 5 min play there game.

Don’t get mad. Get even.

@boxcar-squidy said in What is considered griefing?:

@personalc0ffee said in What is considered griefing?:

Just because you say you are friendly, doens't mean the other person has to be.

Also just because you say you are friendly doesn't mean you are being truthful.

Last night a sloop tried to jump me while I was anchored at an island. They attacked and tried to board me. I killed them every time. I got their sloop pinned down and just hammered them with cannon fire until they cried out for mercy. No, really. They did. Of course, I didn’t give it.

Later a galleon pulled the same thing on me. I wasn’t going to stand and fight them, so I dropped sail and led them on a merry chase. They tried and tried but couldn’t catch me. One of them shouted, “WE’RE FRIENDLY!” Riiiiiiight. At one point they blasted “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver at me. I’m not sure if that was supposed to instill fear or make me laugh. In any case, they eventually gave up and I went back to work.

If there’s a point to this, it’s simply that anything can happen in this game, and usually I wouldn’t consider it “griefing.” Griefing is a very deliberate and obvious attempt to selectively ruin the game for you, personally. When someone sinks your ship and spawn kills you a few times, that’s not usually griefing, it’s just the way the game mechanics work. The best choice at that point is to simply scuttle.

Under no circumstances is the best choice to send them a vulgar message. That will only get you into deeper and deeper trouble.

@ik0tt0n "I love people's agony and showing it to my 'friends'". Dude, your friends dislike you. That has zero meaning and makes you look worse. Try to be a better person. Try.

@ik0tt0n
If a response on a video game forum is what you have in life to show off, then you should re-evaluate... everything.

Joining a person/ crew and throwing their loot overboard, killing their livestock or otherwise hampering your own team is considered griefing.

All acts against other pirates (spawn capming, sinking ships. stealing loot etc) is all intended gameplay.

Smacktalk is a touchy subject. I can understand people are mad or excited during combat and you can taunt people and make piraty remarks but I've heard some slurs and other language stuff and that's not ok. I'm not that offended by a small chiled speaking about my mother as if he knows her but the game is 12+ and some children might pick up such behaviour. (so don't be too offencive in game).

Never let your feelings get the better of you and send someone a PM. It'll never end well.
(I never get why people do that in the first place, it's a game for crying out loud).