I like to play a little game called Rust, which is perhaps one of the more enjoyable survival games out there. I've been playing Rust since it came out a few years ago and I've seen more than my fair share evil deeds done in the game. It's a brutal game. I like the brutality and the scraping to survive.
I've lost days worth of supplies. I've lost homes that took hours to build. I've had my head bashed in by a naked man who laughed at me while he did it. After each of these horrific losses I've picked myself off and soldiered on. It's part of the game. Besides, I've put more than my fair share of arrows through eye sockets and stolen peoples pants.
So when I say that a recent experience with a player made me want to never log in again you know that it's not simply because someone stole my favorite hat. No. It was something far worse than a hatchet to the head and the pillaging of my pants. It was an attempt at trolling that gave me a terrible taste in my mouth.
I had just installed a front door on a small shack that I was going to use to store some supplies while I built my art studio. I went out to grab some things when I was approached by another player. I held off attacking because they were talkative but when they were close the attacks began. I'm fairly horrid when it comes to hand to hand combat and lost quickly. My body was looted and within that haul was the key to my shack. Predictably my killer went inside my house but that's when the problem began.
Over voice chat came the grating, childish, presumptive line I can barely stand to type.
"You mad, bro?" Uggh. I wish I was kidding.
This players entire reason for being in the game was to try to get people to yell at him over chat. It wasn't to build or raid but only to make people angry. I'm old, tired and not one to be angry in any situation. I wasn't the ideal candidate for his trolling but he insisted. In the end he logged out still under the delusion that he had actually accomplished something.
The trolling is an issue that I don't like. People are dicks in Rust all the time but they are dicks in the way that the game demands. They are killing you to take your stuff, kick you off their land or simply to exert their dominance. Trolling is none of these things. Trolling is just trolling for a reaction. I can't stand it.
