Winterbells There's something very cute and appealing about this game, and it makes a nice xmas-time diversion. All of the orisinal stuff is worth taking a look at.
"Really, what can they offer me, besides gimmicky stuff?"
I upgraded to a Soundblaster X-Fi Gamer Edition fairly recently, after having used both an Sblive and onboard sound (ASRock Dual SATA, Athlon XP 64 3700+). I notice a dramatic sound quality improvement for both games and music right away. But the reason I purchased the card was for performance in games.
The performance benefits of a sound card are most significant at key moments in multiplayer games, when you are (virtually) surrounded by models making noise and your computer can't quite keep the frame rate fast enough to prevent hitching. Offloading some of the sound processing to a peripheral card leaves that much more cpu cycles available for graphics processing. The bottom line is that in key firefights, you get to move/shoot first.
The positional audio in the X-Fi seems to work a bit better than the SBLive and this also confers a significant advantage in multiplayer.
Well, at least I don't use the toolbar, and I don't allow the cookies. I'm on variable IP, so at least someone would have to jump through a few hoops to link my search history with my real life name. With Google's track record, it's a pretty safe assumption that this technology will be optional and discrete from it's standard search service.
It could be kind of nifty. I often watch movies on my computer and surf IMDB and Wikipedia for trivia about the flicks on the second monitor.
Agreed in principle, but there are sports out there much more suited for a geek:
Fencing is top of my list. You'll feel right at home with many of its practitioners, and can chat about fantasy novels, MMORPGS, or chess on the sidelines. The sport itself is so cerebral that a common saying is that once you fully understand fencing, you are too old to practice it. That, and the fact that it is primarily an individual sport make it ideal for the kind of personality that gravitates to software engineering. One can participate the sport at varying levels, from the casual social fencer who mostly chats at the local club, to the obsessed competitor flying to regional tournaments and contending for national rankings.
Climbing is a geek sport if ever there was one. With an endless array of devices and techniques to obsess over, and a huge mental component it is no wonder that most of the climbers I run into tend to be engineers. While a belayer is necessary, it is again primarily an individual sport. The overly thin build of many geeks is an ideal starting point once they cultivate a little strength. The heavier set folks can still participate at the level they are comfortable with.
Other athletic pursuits where you will find a heavy proportion of brainy types are backpacking, ultimate frisbee, and archery. There really is no incompatibility between the mindset of a developer, computer gamer and an athlete. In fact, I think of them as merely different kinds of geeks. Or, as in my case, the same kind.
There was a moment in 1999 when I knew that CDs were obsolete. I remember the year because Buena Vista Social Club was a hit movie, and a friend bought me the cd for Christmas. I put the cd on the shelf (it's still there in its plastic wrapper) and promptly downloaded the mp3s to use on my diamond rio. It was simply a matter of convenience
I reached a similar point with eBooks a few years ago. As with mp3s, the availability is dependent on the subject matter (think scifi/fantasy/tech/current bestsellers). But if it's out there, an eBook is so much more convenient than its dead-tree counterpart, I would have no use for the bound version.
With eBooks I can:
-Carry a vast library with me to read on my Zaurus or cellphone while waiting in lines/offices/meetings.
-Load it to a friend (and still reread it)
-Perform text searches, and cut-and-paste quotation excerpts.
-Make notes in a text, while retaining a pristine copy.
-Read in bed at night with a backlit display. No need for a flashlight!
And best of all, I don't have to make room on one of my four bookshelves when I acquire a new book to read.
"To disprove your assertion, that ALL scientists have this belief, I need only provide one single dissenting opinion."
Providing a single counter-example does not disprove any statements I made, nor does it disprove the existence of a consensus of climate scientists on the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Apparently your error is in believing that consensus implies unanimity. While they are similar concepts, they have different connotations, especially regarding the existence of (a limited number of) dissenting viewpoints. It is an important distinction.
I have provided another link to the article, which the straw-men in your post makes it apparent you did not read or digest. It most certainly does find a overwhelming consensus in the published, peer-reviewed articles of climate scientists.
The phrase "To know is not to know" comes from the ancient Sanskrit, and means that one should never be so certain of ones viewpoint, that it impedes your ability to seek and obtain a better or different understanding of the subject. This mindset is inherent in scientific thought, and underlies the use of the term "theory" to describe a set of statements that been repeatedly tested and proven. In no way does this mindset conflict with the use of consensus as a guide to distinguishing mainstream science from fringe elements.
"Bah. I don't believe this statement; if you'd like to convince me otherwise, show me some data wherein you've polled a MAJORITY of climate scientists as to their present understanding, beliefs and conclusions about the current data"
A scientific appraisal of the consensus among published works of climate scientists has been performed. I linked to it here. The results have been available for some time, and are, or should be, common knowledge to anyone who bothers to educate themselves on the subject. Arguing that climate scientists are not in widespread agreement that human-induced global warming exists betrays an appalling ignorance of the subject, or worse simple dishonesty.
I skimmed your linked article, but I'm afraid I found it rather more "explosive" than "decisive", by which I mean it stinks of the "writer's dysentary" that afflicts so many authors past their prime. If there is a logical argument in there, it is too well buried beneath logical fallacies and falsehoods to be worth sorting out. I'm actually somewhat of a fan of Crichton's early works, esp. Travels. But he has always had an anti-science bent, and an inclination toward the supernatural. Not someone I take very seriously.
Consensus is widespread agreement among a group. Scientific consensus is more formalized than that you find among other groups, because it is a natural result of peer review and practice of the scientific method. A fundamental component of the Scientific method is the testing of hypotheses with experiments. Reproduction of these experiments and Peer Review are the methods by which faulty experiments and logic are exposed and corrected. This is the self-correcting methodology that has allowed the feats of science to overshadow inferior methods of prediction, that once dominated our decision-making.
I find the objection to scientific consensus a tad moronic. What, exactly, would you prefer to rely on? A few lonely dissenters who are unable to produce results that hold up under peer review? Or groups who are guided by alternative decision-making such as astrology, religion, or short-term economic or political aims? Go ahead, but don't kid yourself that there is anything scientific or logical about your viewpoint.
"The climate is extremely complex, and very few experts are saying things in such black and white terms."
Wrong. There is widespread scientific consensus on the existence of global warming, and that human activity is contributing to it.
A 2004 Survey of 928 peer-reviewed research articles related to climate change from 1993-2003 concluded that:
"Many details about climate interactions are not well understood, and there are ample grounds for continued research to provide a better basis for understanding climate dynamics. The question of what to do about climate change is also still open. But there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen."
Noteworthy is that none of the articles dissented with the consensus opinion. None of them. Not much of a controversy, at least among people who know what they are talking about.
I talked my parents into converting to Comcast from a local dial-up ISP. They loved it, until we realized that they could not use Skype anymore. The quality of the connection dropped severely. Clearly not a bandwidth issue, since the local dial-up ISP worked fine, and for all other uses the cable connection was much faster.
A recent and well-publicized study concluded that Video games boost visual skills, which can be applicable to a wide range of every-day activities. I noticed this some years ago when competing in fencing, a sport highly dependent on visual perception and eye-hand coordination. Playing "twitch" games such as online first-person shooters had a perceptible effect on keeping me "sharp" for competition. It did not replace practice, but augmented it, in a manner similar to visualization, which I also practiced. The mental state of flow which produces the best results in athletic endeavors and games, can be practiced and cultivated independent of the sport to which it is applied.
Other skills I've acquired from games include a facility with logic I attribute to learning chess from my father at an early age. D&D and MMORPGs taught me a bit about group dynamics, and resisting the pull of addiction.
Staying properly hydrated also helps address the root cause of the injury, by promoting flexibility of the connective tissue, and allowing the fascia to function properly.
Well, I generally refrain from blatantly commercial posts but in this case it's on topic and begging for it. If it's a PC gamer you are shopping for, esp. a MMORPG player, it would be hard to go wrong with a t-shirt from my girlfriend's Gaming and Geek T-Shirt shop.
First of all, the $15 month is fairly trivial when weighed against the opportunity cost of the time spent playing, even for the most casual of players. But most MMORPGS do tilt toward the "hardcore" obsessive players by imposing a competitive environment, where the overriding advantage is given to time spent playing, rather than skill or intelligence.
Personally, it's a turn-off for me, and one of the main reasons I've not particulary liked any of the MMORPGS since original Everquest. In original EQ, one could play only against the environment (PVE) or, when engaging in Player versus Player (PVP) the combat was limited to only those close in level. None of the major post-EQ MMORPGS have this feature and they suffer for it.
"But aside from game engine upgrades, the whole genre hasn't evolved all that much when it comes to how you play the game. It's still about shooting everything that moves."
I disagree completely. I've been hooked on FPS' since Wolfenstein and the gameplay is constantly evolving, albeit slowly. Capture the flag was probably the first innovation, but has largely been replaced by the round based combat that began with Rocket Arena. Action Quake brought in "realistic" weapons, Classes came in with Team Fortress, etc. My favorite game at the moment is still Battlefield 1942 which uses all of these elements, and integrates vehicle based combat for a highly complex game that has kept me captivated for years.
I'm hoping the boys at DICE will have even more interesting changes in store with Battlefield2.
murder: he crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought (emphasis mine)
If abortion is legal, then it is by definition not murder. What you are trying to say is that you would like to define it as murder, thus making it illegal.
"Maybe it's just me, but it didn't really sit right with me that Yoda, "got busy" with the lightsaber. First of all getting all acrobatic just isn't his style.. not to mention hopping around like a mexican jumping bean."
Exactly. I would have expected Yoda to fight with a form of Aikido. I'm sure he would have if they had enlisted the services of swordmaster Bob Anderson, the foremost fight director in the business. It was his work (and doubling for Darth Vader) that gave the duels in The Empire Strikes Back their authenticity. His recent work on the LotR trilogy was stellar as always.
Unfortunately the Hong-Kong theatrical combat has become the rage ever since the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Anderson is only fight director resisting this trend, even when it is hideously inappropriate.
The success of the original trilogy (and I mean their quality as well as commercial) is largely a result of the talented people Lucas assembled to make them. Not the least was the work of the then relatively unknown Harrison Ford, and of the masters Sir Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing (as Tarkin) and the voice work of James Earl Jones. I thought Anthony Daniels as C-3PO was believable and humorous. The rest of the cast was quite adequate to the task.
I don't fault the actors for their performances in the new trilogy, except perhaps Hayden Christianson. It was truly disheartening to watch the valiant effort made by Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor to bring some life to a truly abysmal script, only to be deliberately upstaged at every turn by a megalomaniac director and his hideous cgi.
"Do you kill someone in real life and say "Well, the rules of the universe allow me to kill you, it must be intended." Why is it that when a game designer gives you freedom to do as you like, you suddenly think it's reasonable to exploit these freedoms in any way you like?"
Because it's a game, and I distinguish between fantasy and reality. Do you march around your neighborhood hacking small creatures to death with a sword to gain experience?
An open ended game is license to do whatever you want and that is the appeal of it. I'm not particularly interested in the dopamine-reward cycle of endless experience-bar watching and waiting for a "ding!". If that's what trips your trigger, there are always games and servers dedicated to that sort of play. I'd rather spend my time getting into the psyche of my character, and if he is an evil necromancer, he's not going to be aspiring to kill just rats. If he is a druid of the forest and you are wantonly slaying the creatures under his charge and leaving the corpses to rot, well, he's going to have something to say about that.
I don't play GTA, but it is obvious that those less than savory features are part of the appeal of the game. With very few exceptions (see the friendly fire posts in this thread), there is no reason to put a feature in a game, when it is desireable that said feature never be used.
Yes this is an instance where the pursuit of realism enables grief play. Reflective friendly fire, just doesn't give quite the same realistic spin on tactics that normal friendly fire provides.
Battlefield 1942 has some excellent game features that, when enabled can make this nearly, albeit not quite, a non-issue.
-A "buddy" tracker. By adding a player to your "buddy" list, you can easily locate his position on the map, and his nametag stands out in bold green. Since teamkillers, are invariably players of little skill, this removes their only advantage, that of hiding behind the wrong uniform. In fact, they are unlikely to be aware of the "addbuddy" command, thus giving you an advantage.
-The TKPunish command. This can be set so that a player who is Team-killed can "punish" the TK, causing an extra long wait for the opposing player to spawn. Again, the teamkiller is often unaware of the command, conferring an advantage to the "good" guy.
-An automatic "Kick" threshold. When the teamkiller reaches a certain negative score, he can be automatically kicked. The "good" players kills of the TKer will be offset by his positive score actually playing the game.
I invariably play Friendly Fire servers, because I prefer enhanced challenge and skill level required for shot selection and identification of targets. When teamkillers show up, on a well designed game, it can actually be fun to focus on them and see how long it takes for them to quit in frustration.
"How would you like to be "imprisoned" in a MMORPG by some rogue "virtual cop" who decided you were acting improperly? Something to think about."
In original everquest there was just such a prison. It was located under the "city" called Qeynos. The GMs (I think it stood for Game Masters) would teleport players there if they were deemed to be "disrupting the zone" and try to get them to cool off.
Much of what passes for griefing, isn't. The true definition of a griefer is someone who is trying to inflict grief on the other player. Seems obvious right? When a player "attacks and kills" another player, on a specially designated "Player vs. Player server, where everyone there has chosen PvP, when all of the supposedly "normal" players are shouting insults and vulgarities at said player in chat, who is the one trying to cause grief?
Exploiting of bugs could certainly be termed grief play, but this is essentially a game mechanics issue and should be addressed as such. The bottom line is, the game mechanics define the rules of the game, and if an action is allowed it is a legitimate part of the game. For example: if wildly unbalanced encounters between high-level and low-level characters are not desired, then they should be prevented by game mechanics.
In-game chat, and mechanics exploits are the only real tools of the griefer. An/ignore command, and timely patches in a quality game make this a non-issue.
If a supplement was shown to be completely healthy, with no debilitating side effects, it would not be illegal (at least in theory). The point in preventing doping in sports, is to allow the non-dopers to compete on a level playing field. Otherwise, all competitors would be forced to take harmful drugs to have a fair shot at competition. Unfortunately, that is much the case in many sports, cycling, track and field and football among others.
The same issue will be very much a reality with these drugs in the workplace.
Slashdot Mirror
JellyBattle - A wierd turn-based multiplayer pvp strategy game. Probably the best flash game I have played
Tanks! - multiplayer pvp tank game
Insaniquarium Singleplayer but fun
Winterbells There's something very cute and appealing about this game, and it makes a nice xmas-time diversion. All of the orisinal stuff is worth taking a look at.
I upgraded to a Soundblaster X-Fi Gamer Edition fairly recently, after having used both an Sblive and onboard sound (ASRock Dual SATA, Athlon XP 64 3700+). I notice a dramatic sound quality improvement for both games and music right away. But the reason I purchased the card was for performance in games.
The performance benefits of a sound card are most significant at key moments in multiplayer games, when you are (virtually) surrounded by models making noise and your computer can't quite keep the frame rate fast enough to prevent hitching. Offloading some of the sound processing to a peripheral card leaves that much more cpu cycles available for graphics processing. The bottom line is that in key firefights, you get to move/shoot first. The positional audio in the X-Fi seems to work a bit better than the SBLive and this also confers a significant advantage in multiplayer.
Well, at least I don't use the toolbar, and I don't allow the cookies. I'm on variable IP, so at least someone would have to jump through a few hoops to link my search history with my real life name. With Google's track record, it's a pretty safe assumption that this technology will be optional and discrete from it's standard search service.
It could be kind of nifty. I often watch movies on my computer and surf IMDB and Wikipedia for trivia about the flicks on the second monitor.
Fencing is top of my list. You'll feel right at home with many of its practitioners, and can chat about fantasy novels, MMORPGS, or chess on the sidelines. The sport itself is so cerebral that a common saying is that once you fully understand fencing, you are too old to practice it. That, and the fact that it is primarily an individual sport make it ideal for the kind of personality that gravitates to software engineering. One can participate the sport at varying levels, from the casual social fencer who mostly chats at the local club, to the obsessed competitor flying to regional tournaments and contending for national rankings.
Climbing is a geek sport if ever there was one. With an endless array of devices and techniques to obsess over, and a huge mental component it is no wonder that most of the climbers I run into tend to be engineers. While a belayer is necessary, it is again primarily an individual sport. The overly thin build of many geeks is an ideal starting point once they cultivate a little strength. The heavier set folks can still participate at the level they are comfortable with.
Other athletic pursuits where you will find a heavy proportion of brainy types are backpacking, ultimate frisbee, and archery. There really is no incompatibility between the mindset of a developer, computer gamer and an athlete. In fact, I think of them as merely different kinds of geeks. Or, as in my case, the same kind.
I reached a similar point with eBooks a few years ago. As with mp3s, the availability is dependent on the subject matter (think scifi/fantasy/tech/current bestsellers). But if it's out there, an eBook is so much more convenient than its dead-tree counterpart, I would have no use for the bound version.
With eBooks I can:
-Carry a vast library with me to read on my Zaurus or cellphone while waiting in lines/offices/meetings.
-Load it to a friend (and still reread it)
-Perform text searches, and cut-and-paste quotation excerpts.
-Make notes in a text, while retaining a pristine copy.
-Read in bed at night with a backlit display. No need for a flashlight!
And best of all, I don't have to make room on one of my four bookshelves when I acquire a new book to read.
Providing a single counter-example does not disprove any statements I made, nor does it disprove the existence of a consensus of climate scientists on the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Apparently your error is in believing that consensus implies unanimity. While they are similar concepts, they have different connotations, especially regarding the existence of (a limited number of) dissenting viewpoints. It is an important distinction.
I have provided another link to the article, which the straw-men in your post makes it apparent you did not read or digest. It most certainly does find a overwhelming consensus in the published, peer-reviewed articles of climate scientists.
The phrase "To know is not to know" comes from the ancient Sanskrit, and means that one should never be so certain of ones viewpoint, that it impedes your ability to seek and obtain a better or different understanding of the subject. This mindset is inherent in scientific thought, and underlies the use of the term "theory" to describe a set of statements that been repeatedly tested and proven. In no way does this mindset conflict with the use of consensus as a guide to distinguishing mainstream science from fringe elements.A scientific appraisal of the consensus among published works of climate scientists has been performed. I linked to it here. The results have been available for some time, and are, or should be, common knowledge to anyone who bothers to educate themselves on the subject. Arguing that climate scientists are not in widespread agreement that human-induced global warming exists betrays an appalling ignorance of the subject, or worse simple dishonesty.
Consensus is widespread agreement among a group. Scientific consensus is more formalized than that you find among other groups, because it is a natural result of peer review and practice of the scientific method. A fundamental component of the Scientific method is the testing of hypotheses with experiments. Reproduction of these experiments and Peer Review are the methods by which faulty experiments and logic are exposed and corrected. This is the self-correcting methodology that has allowed the feats of science to overshadow inferior methods of prediction, that once dominated our decision-making.
I find the objection to scientific consensus a tad moronic. What, exactly, would you prefer to rely on? A few lonely dissenters who are unable to produce results that hold up under peer review? Or groups who are guided by alternative decision-making such as astrology, religion, or short-term economic or political aims? Go ahead, but don't kid yourself that there is anything scientific or logical about your viewpoint.
Wrong. There is widespread scientific consensus on the existence of global warming, and that human activity is contributing to it. A 2004 Survey of 928 peer-reviewed research articles related to climate change from 1993-2003 concluded that:
"Many details about climate interactions are not well understood, and there are ample grounds for continued research to provide a better basis for understanding climate dynamics. The question of what to do about climate change is also still open. But there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen."
Noteworthy is that none of the articles dissented with the consensus opinion. None of them. Not much of a controversy, at least among people who know what they are talking about.
I talked my parents into converting to Comcast from a local dial-up ISP. They loved it, until we realized that they could not use Skype anymore. The quality of the connection dropped severely. Clearly not a bandwidth issue, since the local dial-up ISP worked fine, and for all other uses the cable connection was much faster.
Other skills I've acquired from games include a facility with logic I attribute to learning chess from my father at an early age. D&D and MMORPGs taught me a bit about group dynamics, and resisting the pull of addiction.
Staying properly hydrated also helps address the root cause of the injury, by promoting flexibility of the connective tissue, and allowing the fascia to function properly.
Well, I generally refrain from blatantly commercial posts but in this case it's on topic and begging for it. If it's a PC gamer you are shopping for, esp. a MMORPG player, it would be hard to go wrong with a t-shirt from my girlfriend's Gaming and Geek T-Shirt shop.
Personally, it's a turn-off for me, and one of the main reasons I've not particulary liked any of the MMORPGS since original Everquest. In original EQ, one could play only against the environment (PVE) or, when engaging in Player versus Player (PVP) the combat was limited to only those close in level. None of the major post-EQ MMORPGS have this feature and they suffer for it.
I disagree completely. I've been hooked on FPS' since Wolfenstein and the gameplay is constantly evolving, albeit slowly. Capture the flag was probably the first innovation, but has largely been replaced by the round based combat that began with Rocket Arena. Action Quake brought in "realistic" weapons, Classes came in with Team Fortress, etc. My favorite game at the moment is still Battlefield 1942 which uses all of these elements, and integrates vehicle based combat for a highly complex game that has kept me captivated for years. I'm hoping the boys at DICE will have even more interesting changes in store with Battlefield2.
"92% of web searchers"
92% of 1,399 is 1287
If abortion is legal, then it is by definition not murder. What you are trying to say is that you would like to define it as murder, thus making it illegal.
Exactly. I would have expected Yoda to fight with a form of Aikido. I'm sure he would have if they had enlisted the services of swordmaster Bob Anderson, the foremost fight director in the business. It was his work (and doubling for Darth Vader) that gave the duels in The Empire Strikes Back their authenticity. His recent work on the LotR trilogy was stellar as always.
Unfortunately the Hong-Kong theatrical combat has become the rage ever since the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Anderson is only fight director resisting this trend, even when it is hideously inappropriate.
I don't fault the actors for their performances in the new trilogy, except perhaps Hayden Christianson. It was truly disheartening to watch the valiant effort made by Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor to bring some life to a truly abysmal script, only to be deliberately upstaged at every turn by a megalomaniac director and his hideous cgi.
Because it's a game, and I distinguish between fantasy and reality. Do you march around your neighborhood hacking small creatures to death with a sword to gain experience?
An open ended game is license to do whatever you want and that is the appeal of it. I'm not particularly interested in the dopamine-reward cycle of endless experience-bar watching and waiting for a "ding!". If that's what trips your trigger, there are always games and servers dedicated to that sort of play. I'd rather spend my time getting into the psyche of my character, and if he is an evil necromancer, he's not going to be aspiring to kill just rats. If he is a druid of the forest and you are wantonly slaying the creatures under his charge and leaving the corpses to rot, well, he's going to have something to say about that.
I don't play GTA, but it is obvious that those less than savory features are part of the appeal of the game. With very few exceptions (see the friendly fire posts in this thread), there is no reason to put a feature in a game, when it is desireable that said feature never be used.
If I didn't know better, I'd think you must be referring to Fansy the Famous. But perhaps that's not what you had in mind?
Battlefield 1942 has some excellent game features that, when enabled can make this nearly, albeit not quite, a non-issue.
-A "buddy" tracker. By adding a player to your "buddy" list, you can easily locate his position on the map, and his nametag stands out in bold green. Since teamkillers, are invariably players of little skill, this removes their only advantage, that of hiding behind the wrong uniform. In fact, they are unlikely to be aware of the "addbuddy" command, thus giving you an advantage.
-The TKPunish command. This can be set so that a player who is Team-killed can "punish" the TK, causing an extra long wait for the opposing player to spawn. Again, the teamkiller is often unaware of the command, conferring an advantage to the "good" guy.
-An automatic "Kick" threshold. When the teamkiller reaches a certain negative score, he can be automatically kicked. The "good" players kills of the TKer will be offset by his positive score actually playing the game.
I invariably play Friendly Fire servers, because I prefer enhanced challenge and skill level required for shot selection and identification of targets. When teamkillers show up, on a well designed game, it can actually be fun to focus on them and see how long it takes for them to quit in frustration.
"How would you like to be "imprisoned" in a MMORPG by some rogue "virtual cop" who decided you were acting improperly? Something to think about." In original everquest there was just such a prison. It was located under the "city" called Qeynos. The GMs (I think it stood for Game Masters) would teleport players there if they were deemed to be "disrupting the zone" and try to get them to cool off.
Exploiting of bugs could certainly be termed grief play, but this is essentially a game mechanics issue and should be addressed as such. The bottom line is, the game mechanics define the rules of the game, and if an action is allowed it is a legitimate part of the game. For example: if wildly unbalanced encounters between high-level and low-level characters are not desired, then they should be prevented by game mechanics.
In-game chat, and mechanics exploits are the only real tools of the griefer. An /ignore command, and timely patches in a quality game make this a non-issue.
The same issue will be very much a reality with these drugs in the workplace.