One Hour One Life Forums

Sadly, there's no stopping a griefer on a mission now. I will not discuss strategies to counter griefing in this post, nor techniques on how to make you colony grief proof. I will instead attempt to discuss a "big picture" perspective about the phenomena of griefing itself.

Needless to say that this represents my personal opinion, but I'll say it anyway.

1- There are things that people do that exacerbate the situation and increase griefing:
- Running after the griefer in-game yelling DIE IRL or FU or whatever really only give them more enjoyment and fun from griefing. In fact that's one of the main pleasures they get out of it. Better to stay silent or even say XD when shot, while running back and alerting the rest of the colony.
- Filling the forum with angry posts about griefers and how much they are triggering us is also another driver, and may even be a more permanent and enjoyable one than the responses in-game since more people would witness it and react to it. Whenever you are writing a shitpost about griefing, try imagining what they must be feeling while reading it; if this would make them chuckle, it's not a good post.
- Turning on other players who are offering solutions you don't find to be enough (like this post maybe), is just more conflict and chaos that griefers relish on.
- Declaring you won't play ever again because of their actions, even if it's just a moment of weakness, adds fuel to the fire and may even give griefers more drive to keep on griefing since it's actually achieving something irl, and forums are celebrating those achievements.
- Saying that griefers are stupid, or sociopaths, or immature 12 year olds, or any insult for that matter, would either get a laugh out of the griefer reading your post, or make them even more determined to prove how wrong you are (and you are most likely wrong btw)

2- My recommendation for the current state of the game:
- If your colony (usually a well established one) is the target of a griefer, deal with it as best you can at first. But if you find that that griefer is planning to spend his play time finding you and griefing you again and again, don't spend your play time playing their game. Better to just let that colony go for now, and go build something else. Let them roam around an empty village pillaging alone. That will definitely be less rewarding. It would also feel less like griefing and more like futile destruction. In other words disengage from the game and let them play alone.
- Don't get too attached to one colony. instead take advantage of this "infinite" server and build more and more colonies everywhere. It may take a griefer 2 or 3 lives to focus and completely destroy a colony, during that time 20 more could be established. And if they jump from colony to colony and grief as much as they can, the effect would be less destructive and much easier to manage.
- If a griefer gets to you and you feel tilted, take a break for a little while (20-30 mn) like you would in any other game. While the destruction of a colony may seem like a big loss, the major effect of griefing is the effect it has on your play style. You become less trusting of others, and less tolerant of honest mistakes. And that chain keeps going from one player to another. Stop that escalation when it gets to you: take a short break, watch a streamer you like for a while, then come back with a clear mind and contribute to the colony you're born in the best you can with what you've learned.

3- Very big picture:
- If you perceive this game as an everlasting city building simulation, you'd only be disappointed with every new update. In fact Jason would become the ultimate griefer in your mind. Try another perspective: spread you seeds far and wide. Sometimes you live in a working advanced city, sometimes you are an eve starting from scratch, and all ranges in between. Eventually, you'll see your mark in every single village you spawn in and when you spot a griefer you'd smile and keep playing knowing how futile their attempts are at stopping progress. Side bonus, they might get to that conclusion themselves and find it more rewarding to build than to destroy; even griefing gets boring at some point.
- If you find yourself "triggered" by something, ask yourself why. A griefer may in fact be an unwilling contributor to your personal growth (nothing would upset them more btw). Why is a guy shooting me with an arrow then typing XD so frustrating to me? And if your answer is about the game, that's surely not the right answer. The right answer would be about your own expectations and most of the time about your real life.
- Remember that a griefer is also contributing to the game, whether they know/want it or not. They are making us smarter and stronger as colony builders, they are also making Jason think deeper about the design of the game. While some are publicly saying they are griefing for good (no matter if you believe them or not), others may be doing it out of boredom or for the pleasure of destruction. Still, like you they are part of this civilization, and their attempts to be different or special is actually making them more and more the same. "I am not a slave worker like the rest of these chumps, I am in fact a special griefer like the rest of those chumps". Welcome to the irony of real life, where rebels join a club for rebels protesting against others who like to be part of clubs
- Love and treat all your kids the same. You may be disappointed with one eventually, but that's better than punishing all of them just to avoid one heart break.

Wasn't expecting this to be so long, but it just sorta happened.

If you're reading still, thank you. And if you're already writing a reply, I'm looking forward to reading it