It’s an unfortunate fact of playing games online that people will inevitably run across “trolls.” You know the type: players who believe themselves to be a cut above the rest, or simply find sadistic joy in ruining the lives of other gamers. Whether it’s watching the rest of the squad die repeatedly against a boss only to swoop in and take the kill and the loot for themselves or literally stabbing people in the back, game trolls are the worst type of players, but are an unfortunate reality of gaming online.
Of course, most trolls are just harmless little idiots who usually wouldn’t stand a chance in a fair fight. But there are some out there who not only troll people but do it to such extremes that we can’t actually help but grant them a begrudging respect. With that in mind, here are the five most devious game trolls in history.
Mr. Feng
Now, Mr. Feng isn’t your typical game troll. He’s actually not even really a gamer. The gamer at hand would be his son – Xiao Feng. At some point in our lives, we’ve gamed too much and somebody has taken away our consoles, turned off the internet, or simply sent us away from our beloved equipment. But Mr. Feng had a much better idea. He found his son’s favorite online game (World of Warcraft) and created his own account. Once in, he contacted a series of players with higher levels than his son. Some money switched hands and Mr. Feng now had his own squad of in-game assassins. Whenever Xiao would log on, the players would descend on him and crush him within minutes, earning a small bonus from Mr. Feng each time. Xiao eventually confronted his father and said that he was looking for a job, just one that would suit him. Mr. Feng was relieved but it’s unknown if he cancelled the hit or not.
Fansy the Famous Bard
In days gone by, Everquest once had a server known as Sullon Zek. It was almost completely without rules and revolved almost entirely around faction player versus player combat. This meant that good guys were hard to come by with everybody falling to the temptation of slaughtering people. Sullon Zek needed a hero. What it got was a Level 5 player: Fansy the Famous Bard.
One of the few rules on the server was that you couldn’t attack people below Level 6. Low-level bards had the ability to run fast – flee from battle, as it were. Fansy realised that although people couldn’t attack or catch him, mobs would drool at the chance to squish him. So Fansy headed out and provoked a bunch of Sand Giants into chasing him, knowing they would crush any interruptions. As these were the days before a limit was placed on mobs following players, he danced straight into the toughest groups around and let his merry followers lay waste to the other players.
This made the “no rules – deal with it” players mad for some reason. Their incessant whining eventually compelled the GMs to remove the level protection just to make them stop complaining. Fansy was put to rest… Until a year later when he made use of a bug in the bard’s charm skill to slaughter a group of neutral characters. Once again, the GMs were forced to bring law to the lawless server and punished him for… well, playing the game. Congratulations on bringing law to a lawless place. Fansy. You’re not the hero we deserve but the one we need. A silent crusader, a watchful musician – the Bard Knight.
Chrae
This is my favorite game troll on the list. Back in the early days of Ultima Online, slimes abounded and split into two whenever they were struck. Left alone, they would heal and start working together. Since the slimes were low-level enough that they could be avoided, one plucky player, Chrae, saw an opportunity and devised a diabolical plan. Chrae lured a few helpless slimes into his house and set to work. When it reached the point that his computer was barely able to run, Chrae did the worst thing possible – he opened the door.
Slimes flooded out and attacked everything they could see. Even max level players couldn’t stand against the constantly growing army. Almost everyone was decimated in this war that ultimately lead to the server crashing. In true evil genius fashion, Chrae made himself known the next day and demanded a ransom of 10,000 gold. If nobody paid, he would do it again. People laughed at him until he left. Then the slimes struck again and they started screaming. The developers soon released an update to prevent slimes from splitting after the second attack. You heard that right – one madman with a house and some slime changed the world of Ultima Online. One person really can definitely make a difference.
Rainz
Our next troll is once again for Ultima Online. Back in mid-1997, the beta test was in full swing for Ultima Online. On Aug. 8, game creator Richard Garriott, otherwise known as Lord British, himself entered the world to participate in a population stress test. Shortly before the incident, the server had crashed. When it was fixed, Garriott forgot to reset his invulnerability flag. And what happened? Seeing an opportunity for fame, Rainz used the spell “Fire Field” on the normally invincible god of the world. Lord British collapsed and burned.Some uppity character killed their lord and creator.
In the massive amounts of lag that followed the assassination (brought on by stress tests and the deactivation of the guard) Rainz escaped with only a few witnesses to spread the tale of his treachery. Rainz was later banned from the beta test for exploiting a number of glitches instead of reporting them.
Angwe
Angwe was once the bane of all players on the Dethecus server in World Of Warcraft. His hunting grounds: Menethil Harbor in The Wetlands . It’s one of the first Alliance PVP zones and a lot of mid-level players are forced to pass through this spot, which is the entry to the zone.
By strategically placing himself in this bottleneck, Angwe became a god amongst trolls. Although dozens of new players found themselves dying quickly at his hand, that was a happy coincidence. Angwe’s real goal was to attract high-level opponents to kill for fame and riches – which he did. Entire guides were dedicated to avoiding Angwe and whole guilds were created just to hunt him down. Angwe defied an entire server with his mere presence.
But wait, there’s more. Using an Alliance account by the name of Angwespy, he’d worm his way into a guild. Once there, he would trick leaders into making him an officer and then run a macro to remove every single guild member. According to Angwe in a Reddit AMA, “(G)anking lets you drink sweet tears, but wiping out an established guild lets you mainline them.”