i personal try to keep all babies that i have. i raise them to 3, then let them fend on their own. killing all babies just because a small amount of them may prove dangerous is a bit…overkill. ok wall of text, but heres my view on things:
you should always ask a griefer why they are doing what they are doing, an try to fuigure out what kind of griefer they are:
From my experience, there are several groups of ‘greifers’:
- new players. these players might be doing something, for example killing sheep for clothes, but they do not realise the consequences of doing so. they do not realise how hard it is to get new sheep, or even that sheep can breed. some grief because they do not know how to play properly, and destroying is much easier to learn then creating. it gives them something to do.
How to deal with them: tell them the consequences. don’t be mean about it, try to do it gently. teach them how to do the action properly - teach them to feed a lamb before killing a sheep. another option is to tell them to take the tutorials, because those are very helpful
i don’t think its fair to kill these players as babies, because you never give them a chance to learn. if you teach them how to play, they can be valuable assets to any eve camp. you can teach them to do one job, and they will do it for you. many of these players end up as berry-bush tenders, as it’s really the easiest job to take. it makes things run smoother, because you will never have to waste your time tending berries; this lets you do the more complex jobs: forging, building sheep pens, ect.
- young players. These people, even if they have played a long time, do not think about how something will affect the village as a whole. Kids have not learned cause and effect yet, and are selfish. telling them they are doing something wrong usually leads to yelling matches and escalation. they are just here to have fun, and doing work isn’t fun, so they cut corners - they kill the last sheep.
How to deal with them: it is very difficult to deal with these players, as they aren’t very rational. try to teach them to do the action properly, but don’t be confrontational. if they truely cannot be reasoned with, kill 'em. the kid will probably grow bored of playing after a while of being killed, and either mature up and learn selflessness or quit the game, hopefully to return when they are older. much like the new players, though, if you manage to get one to listen, they can become valuable assets to a camp and free up time for you to do more complex jobs.
- jerks. they mess things up on purpose. they can’t really be reasoned with. these are people that are mature, informed people, but choose to grief anyways, for enjoyment or to let of steam.
how to deal with them: kill em, and curse them.
anyways, from what i see, 2/3 of the ‘greifer’ population can be reformed - with a little patience, you can make a would-be burden into an asset.
yes, spending time teaching new and young players can take up time you need for other jobs, but remember: the more people you teach how to play, the less people are destroying things tomorrow. spending all your time teaching someone how to play may make your eve camp fail in the short-run, but in the long run, it really helps. it’s like a pyramid scheme: if one teaches 5 players, and each of those players teach 5 players, and if THOSE players teach 5 players, then you end up getting a lot of people that know what they are doing.
tl;dr: i find that many greifers just don’t know what they are doing or why it is bad, and teaching them how to do things properly is beneficial in the long-run, even if it fails in the short-run.
