Internet Road Rage

Introduction

As in day-to-day 'real' life, people surfing through the internet encounter situations where anger can provoke them to the point of frustration and rage. This phenomena has just begun to be researched, but the amount of information steadily growing on it indicates the importance of trying to understand and cope with it.

There are many questions the psychology community are searching for answers to regarding internet mentality. A few of them are: What is the link between the psychology of ones mind and the internet? How do people become affixed/addicted and center their lives in this 'virtual-world'? Does their actions reflect their real personality, or can it be an 'alter ego' (an escape from themselves while on the internet, per say)? What causes people to be driven to the point of feeling the need to 'get even' with others on the internet? Who are these people that do it? Why do they do it? And finally, how do they do it?

Though I will not be able to answer all of these questions, this report will provide links to other in depth analysis' and studies that may help explain a bit more on a few of those(and other) topics.

My Virtual Path in the Quest for Some Answers

Without a program that will search for your exact specifications during a net search, it can take hours or days to find something accurate and informing. I found all sorts of information from people regarding cyber psychology. Some of them dating back to 1995 with no visible credentials except self-proclaimed titles. The web is after-all, a virtual world. People can pretend to be anybody there. I will give you one example of such link that is not related to any University, is older(1995), and contains no links within it for reference or further research options. Tom Abate- Examiner Technology Writer. His page was listed as an analysis of one persons assessments regarding the link of psychology and the internet, via escape-ism.

Most of my time spent researching on-line was narrowed to two resources. One being Dr. Leon James, also known as 'Dr. Driving' and his students reports which contribute to the ongoing research. The other was Dr. John Suler.

"Today it is apparent that the information age and the computer environment require a learning to learn literacy, not a fixed knowledge base with pre-defined target skills and content. As the on-line environment globalizes and incorporates more and more of mind, that is, of our daily thoughts and feelings, interests and intentions, it forces upon us a new potentially hazardous affective state, namely that of being a perpetual novice." -Dr. James

His interpretations are very well thought out, and left me with very few questions about his research.

He also discusses and links to cyber-archeology, virtual settlements. Basically, this report is a well researched summary of previous web-documents that combines the collective information, and he adds his own theories. I am not exactly certain of what exactly he was trying to say, because there was no set 'line' where his synopsis(of other's reports) ended and his began. It seemed more of an inter-mixed observation vs. 'his upgrades to the theories' style format. You must read the entire report from start to finish to understand his argument.

Over the course of 3 years, I have played a MUD and have kept a 'virtual diary' of my experiences of it. My initial intention was to learn the psychology of people on the internet for use in a future report, and now I have found a place to put the information to use. Over the past 3 years I have established 'virtual' relationships with over 50 players that I can consider 'friends' on-line even though I have met none of them in person. I never mentioned to anyone that I had logged any significant conversations for personal research purposes, and all they knew about me is that I am a psychology undergraduate at UH Manoa.

Background of the Subject

The Case study was performed on a MUD called RoP(Rights of Passage). It is a Dungeon and Dragons based game that has divided itself into a GOOD vs. EVIL roll playing Multi-User-Dungeon.
So you have a better grasp on what that means: GOOD players see EVIL players as ' *+An Orc+* is standing here.' (or what ever the race the person chooses to play), and visa versa. The instructions of the game promote 'cross alignment'(good vs. evil) killing when ever one comes into contact with another player of opposite alignment.

Each side of the 'ongoing war' can see the other people who are on their side and speak to them, but there is no information given as to who is on-line or where the people playing on the other side are. On a side note, on each side there is a 'clan' system where certain people are allowed to join(clan owners choice). If there is a correlation I could use of the purpose of clans, it would be the equivalent to a fraternity- a closely knit group of people who stick together and strive for a common goal: to win the most and/or to have friends to associate with while on-line.

The database of the MUD contains 2394 people, and out of those 1193 are considered 'Newbies'(A Newbie is someone who is under the level 15 out of 90 levels possible). Since my study does not include the 1193 newbies, that leaves 1201 total dedicated players. The mud Good vs. Evil balance is approximately %60 Good and %40 Evil so that leaves me with 480 people on average of whom I've had contact with over the period of time I've stated previously. Out of those, about 50 I have gotten to know quite well.

It is a player killing MUD and killing can occur between 'good vs. evil'(object of the game) or it happens between people in squirmishes on the same side. As in Mr. Shintani's report, killing another player can relieve tension for ones self, but as in this report you will see, that just isn't enough sometimes.

Hypotheses

1) Much of the aggression people demonstrate on the internet stems directly to their own 'real life' personal problems and backgrounds.

3) There are limitless ways, not yet fully mentioned in CyberPsychology to achieve 'getting even' with a person on-line who angers you on the internet.

Observations/Analysis

In the realm of the virtual cyber world while playing a game such as this, you have the opportunity of creating the type of character that contains some of the abilities you have in 'real' life as well as the abilities you don't(strength, speed, and magic powers/intelligence). I've listened to people time, and time again say how they rolled their stats(the basis for how powerful your character will be) for hours or days. People can become obsessed in creating the best character available. The performance/power of ones character determines how much the other people will want to 'group' with you(e.g. giving you social status in the game), and how well you can survive or 'tip the scale' in good vs. evil battles.

There are people who spend countless hours on-line merely for the betterment of their character. One can level up to a certain level, remort(basically start at level one again with a bonus to your stats increasing the effectiveness of your character). I have seen in my time being an 'evil' character(3 years) a total of 50+ people who were, at one time, on-line every time I logged in, trying to improve their character. What's the end result? The people become so powerful that they have few equals on the game and can basically 'say anything to anybody' without repercussions. A sort of dominance that a few of them have admitted they do not posses in real life, yet enjoy having it on the game.

It's a reward system for 'putting in ones time' into an activity they enjoy, that with time and dedication they will eventually become powerful enough that no one can defeat them.[Check Dr. Suler's references, Avitars, and Wanna-be Wizzards for a correlation]. What do they do when they achieve this? It depends on the individual and their motives for playing so much. Some do it for the joy of being all powerful yet remain humble enough to still associate and keep friends. On the other hand, others who are either socially inept, or who use the MUD for a source of tension release by causing problems for others find themselves thinking of themselves as 'all-mighty' or having a god-complex of some sort.

Direct Examples of Behavior Observations:

After purchasing an airline ticket to head to the state I'm originally from, I spoke to two clan-members, and one other person on-line who I had formed a 'virtual' friendship with, requesting to meet with them when I entered the area in person and go 'have a drink and talk story'. The replies I received were mixed. One was eager to meet with me, another was hesitant and admitted they didn't usually turn 'on-line' friendships into 'real' ones, and the third didn't comment at all even after persistent attempts to get an answer from them.

After searching for the reason why the third person wouldn't meet in person I discovered(from one person who plays the game and also knows him in person) that he likes to keep to himself and doesn't socialize much. I had kept tabs on this person for some length of time and have had his ICQ address for some time, and realized that he spends at least 6 hours a day on average on-line. This person is one of those I had mentioned that could always be found on the game, but since I had his ICQ number I could also monitor how much time after he had accomplished his goal on this particular game he still spent playing some sort of internet related game.(ICQ allows you to keep in close contact with people while they are on-line. All one has to do is click on the ICQ symbol and check whether people they know are on-line or not. The program lets you know automatically.)

Background information of this character: On the mud he has become progressively more talkative and aggressive as his mudding experience and knowledge have grown. The latest news I've seen indicates a tendency that he experiences boredom(he gossips more about how he desires the game to player-wipe and start fresh, while sitting in one room much of the time). Since he's achieved his goal of becoming a dominant high level, he logs on this particular game much less, looks for a fight, doesn't seem to care whether its a fight with 'good' characters or one of his own 'evil' characters. Then logs off.

I've seen this pattern with many people who have spent a lot of time leveling their character to the fullest potential, many times over. It is disturbing because, they spend so much time achieving dominance, but when they finally reach it they soon grow bored, become very hostile, and quit playing frequently. The tendency I've noticed is once certain people have achieved their goal in becoming dominant in one game, they move on to the next challenge(game) and try to prove themselves there(Yes I have kept tabs with numerous people's advances in other MUD's, and virtual games such as Doom, Quake, Command and Conquer, and Ages of Empires). The internet addiction seems to be a strong influence and drive to allow their alternate ego loose, which hungers for an escape from themselves and all of their real-life problems.

The alternate ego is no new concept, but I'm assuming your asking yourself 'how does this relate an alternate ego with this persons actions, where's the connection?' It's because my study didn't include just a few people, read on and see more.

Example number 2 and 3: Two personal friends of mine whom I entered the cyber-realm with I discovered picked up distinct personality differences while on-line. One of them who I've known for years became sociable to the point of 'giddish' or annoying on the net games we'd play. His personality in 'real space' was fun loving, yet responsible. When he logged on line though, he transformed into a care-free personality that paid no respect for consequences, deliberately disobeyed the game rules after it was mentioned to him to 'calm down' and eventually got his character(s) deleted. Since the internet to this friend had no real value to his 'real life' he decided that what ever he did wouldn't matter so he took advantage of everything he could because there wasn't any repercussion that could affect his future that he could see. This he described to me personally when asked the question, 'why did you get yourself deleted?'

However, the other friend who went on-line with me for a time demonstrated a more profound affect on his emotions in 'real space'. In real life his personality is very sociable, and friendly. I've seen him contain his anger in numerous situations where many others would have gave into it. His cognitive process was to think over a situation(try to rationalize) before reacting emotionally.

When he built a character on the MUD, his personality was extremely hostile from the start. For help on the game, he 'gossiped'(a channel everyone playing can see) constantly, and became infuriated when told to shut up and stop spamming. He couldn't grasp the fact that people from the Netherlands didn't care who he was or want to give him any respect until he 'put in his time' as they had and earned it.

Time and time again I heard him gossip, "oh yeah? come to Hawaii and let's see you say that to my face!" Minutes later, someone would kill his character and at the next computer terminal over I'd see his face pure red and fists clenched in frustration.

This person just could not grasp the fact that when your on the internet, nothing in 'reality' matters. Cyber-space doesn't hold the same rules that our non-internet society holds. It's not based on 'who you know', or 'what credentials' you have. It's based purely on, 'what you know'. Power on the internet stems from knowledge of it and ways to manipulate it. What I'm speaking about is the power to dominate others no matter their physical size, strength, or 'in reality' knowledge of the world. Any human being with a phone cord and a computer can log on-line and learn the necessary skills(over time) to become a successful traveler, business person, game player, or hacker.

I would like to take a moment to state that in No way do I support the internet being used for reasons of achieving dominance. It is merely a observational point of view where I've seen others demonstrate a tendency to try and achieve it.

Fortunately this friend of mine did not know the internet very well, and didn't have the techno-skills to 'get even' with other players. He decided it was better for him to quit playing because it only brought him frustration. He did not know how to meet people effectively on the net, and didn't care to learn.

Crashing and Force Loading

Crashing of the game can occur for numerous reasons. Popular methods include, crashing it to 'force-load' equipment. Equipment on the game helps the player become stronger and more powerful, and every time the computer reboots, the probability for a certain piece of equipment to load on a 'mob'(e.g. a computer simulated beast than can be killed) increases. Another reason would be if a person just died and didn't want who ever killed them to keep their equipment. Crashing the game would effectively erase the temporary(5 minutes worth) game files and the Equipment would be lost.

Learning crash bugs is a long and difficult process. For example, on the game there are 26 different styles of prompts one could choose from, and they are listed: prompt (A-Z). Someone figured out that typing 'prompt 10000' would crash the game, and they abused it for quite some time. Finding crash bugs usually requires some knowledge of coding, and a lot of patience searching for the keywords that cause them. It's extremely annoying when people find them and abuse them. Perpetrators are generally deleted and their site banned.

Overloading peoples computers, causing game lag

A ping is a packet of information relayed from your computer to another then back. It's purpose is to assess data such as 'packet loss'(loss of the amount of data sent vs. received). It's intention is for the person who is Pinging to find out how good a connection with a particular server is.

There are ways to abuse this though: First one is by continually pressing the ping function at a rapid rate which overloads a server/computer over time and causes it to crash. The second method is to create a ping packet that in itself contains hundreds of pings within. When the server receives the first packet, it is virtually flooded with pings causing an immediate shut down/crash.

'you can also use 'pinging' to send viruses' ; 'I don't know how to do it but...some viruses are very small and can be in packets.' - One of the people I interviewed.

'Poisoned' Cookies

Cookies are similar to pings, except they are requests for information. For this part I am going to Paste the conversation I held on ICQ which describes cookies purposes when abused.

--> Unnamed tells you 'cookies are like..' ; 'requests for info etc.' ; 'and can have viruses in them' ; 'you can send people programs that have pwses encoded in them(pws - password stealer)' ; 'it is a self executing program that sends detailed account info to ' ; 'when you log on.'

Punters

A punter is a bot that sends thousands of messages to a server. They are not huge intricate programs, but rather small programs that sends countless, random, blank messages. There are many different methods with varying affects of punters on a targeted computer/server, but my information is limited to one type of punter that works in varying degrees. This form of punter abuse spams someone HEAVILY with messages. Some versions of this type of punter simply Spam someone's screen until their messenger locks up, as well with their client server.

Some punters do it only once, but can freeze up your system. ; 'and like I said locks up your client' ; 'it will lock up a pentium 400.' ; 'no its not huge, it just replicates text, you know.. random Spam.' ; 'but most of the punters merely send you thousands of blank messages.. which does the job fine' ; 'some of the better punters have even been known to lock up computers with t3 connections, but they aren't practical becuz they send millions of lines.'

ANSI and Email bombs

I will use excerpts again from a conversation I held with one of my interviewee's, all context in the quotes are his, divided by a ';' sign to indicate each time he broke each sentence and concluded in the next message I received from him. None of the following include anything I said. I excluded my replies/questions in this excerpt because they are irrelevant and take up more space.

'I noticed you said EMAIL bomb, do you know anything about ANSI bombs?' ; 'it screws up the character set where if you hit enter it actually displays a 5, etc.' ; 'to my best knowledge the way they work is they overload your keyboard bios to the point of being confused.' ; 'you can put viruses in pictures on websites, etc.' ; 'where when they load them they get virused.'

Email bombs are virus' of varying size and abilities that can be sent as an innocent email, but can be executed and infect your computer when you press the key to 'read' them.

These methods can be vary largely in destructive aftermath, and the only correlation I found between them is that both contain viruses that when the user unknowingly activates, they execute their programs with often drastic results. Both have been known to be used as random acts of aggression, but email bombs can be used to target someone in particular. A random strike at users denotes a lack of remorse or respect for anyone navigating the web and seems anti-social in nature.

PWS and Batch File Viruses

PWS refers to Pass Word Stealer, and though as mentioned above under 'Poisoned Cookies' I'm mentioning it here because they can be send in programs(e.g. downloading programs off the web). People use PWS programs for all sorts of reasons. Some admitted they like doing it 'just because they can', and claim 'it's fun to download shareware through one persons account, then transfer it to a few other accounts(to cover tracks) and then mine for free'. Other people do it on a MUD to gain access of an Administrators account where they will have access to hack into an individual players account and corrupt the files. Basically that will render the persons character inoperable or deleted.

Unnamed tells you 'OK..' ; 'I send you a program..' ; 'usually on-line type programs, ftp clients, etc.' ; 'and when you run it, it searches for your account info, and sends info on your account to my email address.' ; 'password, etc.'

Batch file viruses. The simplest and surprisingly easiest way to 'get even' with another person. I refuse to reveal the information on how to create these mini-viruses, but I will give a brief over view of one. It can show up as a game, commonly loaded onto diskettes, or can be transferred through a program such as ICQ. Once the programs been activated, it first shuts off information to your computer screen of what files will be downloaded next. It only shows 'Beginning to load 'Gamenamehere' while the program pauses the computer and begins deleting vital programs.

When it's finished it will instruct the person to restart their computer to play, but when the computer reboots, nothing happens. The virus had successfully erased vital start up files. This virus I was shown contained only 10 lines of text. The person I interviewed on this stated: 'some viruses are as simple as batch files..' ; 'I wrote a few that way' ; 'just fuckupyourcomp.bat :P'

Hacking into Files and Stealing Information. (Miscellaneous)

The rest of my information I was able to compile regarding how people have been known to 'get even' was in less detail than what I've discussed above, but worth mentioning. One of the people I interviewed mentioned these topics for methods they've used when they were in a rage with someone on the internet: Mail flooding through port 25; exploding e-mails; Having a user killed by an IRC operator in a chat network; "users at sometime got even with their shell administrators by hacking root and type ***(Note: can't show details on codes, sorry), which formats the hard drive like ..people are shit in the net.. assholes". Those were quotes from messages sent to me regarding how to get even with people from one individual.

The last popular way I wished to get more information on, but the person I was interviewing neglected to comment further on it was on the subject of 'Trojan horses'. They are small programs that mimic other programs that can really mess up a computer. They are different from viruses in that they don't get loaded into the memory. "Trojans are programs that run and dunks your computer", as this person stated.

Logs of MUD events and Interviews

This section is a look at some of some reasons that people possibly displace their 'real life' aggression and problems onto the net and the other people navigating through it. None of the names represent the people I've spoken to as to protect confidentiality.

First log, dated 11/23/97. The situation was that a person I spoke with daily on one MUD had just gotten deleted for Crashing the MUD for the purposes of force loading. The MUD had been shut down by the Administrators for a week to correct the glitch in the system and the players spread out among other MUD's to spend the mean time until it was back up. I met with my virtual-friend(at another MUD) who had been deleted on the MUD that was currently shut down at the time. And here is an excerpt of the conversation:

(him): I got sloppy and careless, getting caught I guess was inevitable

(me): Damn, It's gonna suck not having you there. why'd you do it?

(him): I guess I just didn't care anymore, I already had my character as high as I wanted to get it and there wasn't much else to do.

(him): well, I got alot of stuff irl to deal with too so the game didn't mean much to me.

(me): ahh, you got other issues eh?

(him): nod, guess I sort of did it intentionally so I can get back to stuff that I need to take care of in my life

(him): oh, that bug I used there works here too! watch this

Game Crash Detected! Saving your characters current state!

This wasn't the first time I had seen somebody do something drastic because they had Irl(in real life) problems, but it was the first time I had bothered to log and save it.

Example 2: Dated 8/14/97. One individual had apparently just maxed out their credit card and had realized that their shopping spree was going to have severe repercussions. I will save space by not including the details of his elaborate gossips regarding it and just summarize what was said.

(another-player): So let's have fun until then! Lets RAID!!

(him): ok, everyone follow me at spring (the spring is a common meeting place for a party of 'Evil' characters to meet to go on a raid into the 'good' players homelands for a fight.)

Ten minutes later that player and most of the people that went in his group all died. He recklessly charged into a group of anti-Evil game mobs trying to kill a couple 'Good' characters and his group was quickly overwhelmed and died, but he got away. Everyone that had died in his group was furious he led them into a death-trap, and his response to the matter was 'if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen'.

I mentioned this situation because it is an example of how his personal life bled into his game mentality. Because he was in trouble with his life outside of the game, he decided to try and make everyone else in the game share his frustration. This one 'logged' incident was not the first time, nor the last he had pulled something like this.

Example 3: Dated 3/17/98. During an interview with one person who had knowledge of how to hack their way into systems, they asked me 'what exactly are you writing a report about, and why? Feeling obligated, I informed him(I knew this character via the MUD for two years) of the paper and it's purpose to "find ways people 'get even' with each other on the net." I never mentioned anything to him about writing further on searching for a reason about 'what motivates people' to exhibit internet road-rage. He next asked me why I went into my field. Our conversation continued:

(me) I went into my field originally because when I was younger I had a lot of aggression which caused me to shoot off at the mouth. I learned a few techniques on how to think first, before saying or acting, and from then on psychology became an interest.

(him) nods

(him) I have a lot of agression which can be directly related to my mother

(me) don't tell me you were bottle fed:P

(him) no, mines a whore :P

(me) that's rather drastic to say isn't it?

(him) my mom you name shes does it.

(him) she never got to physically abuse me though, cuz when shed try id beat the fuck out of her.

(me) jesus

(him) this was when I was 11 though, now I just hold her head like the funny movie thing :P

(me) worse thing that happened with me was my mom threw a wooden spoon at me.

(him) my mom threw china at me once :)

After knowing this person casually on the MUD for two years, I have seen him get moody and attack another player, or get into a gossip channel fight with people from time to time, but never knew he had so much aggression pent up inside. On the MUD I have gotten to know numerous people that cheat and play both sides(have Good and Evil characters). I have met many others who like to 'script'(a computer dialog set up to keep your player busy doing something while you are away from the computer). And I have met people who deliberately crash the game.

Conclusion

In almost every case of internet 'road-rage' on this particular game, I have listened to players give one reference or another to an actual problem their experiencing 'in-real-life'. Dare I say, at times it seems their character is often used as a medium to escape their real problems, but they soon find the problems follow them onto the game and express their concerns through their actions while playing. e.g. displacing their hostilities on the game Administration or other players by means of the methods I listed under 'Methods of Getting Even'.

Some Spread their feelings of mis-fortune with others as a means to selfishly help themselves feel better about their own incongruities. (A form of projecting of ones anger onto others) -The, 'My toy is broken and I can't play, so you shouldn't be able to play either so I wont be alone' thought process.

Over this period of Three years, I have seen many players come and leave from the MUD. Some chose to leave on their own, others were 'removed' from the game by the Administration by abuse of the rules of the game. There were many times I have been able to predict actions by players, yet some situations and occurrences that took place caught me by complete surprise. In only 3 cases have I been able to speak to the individuals and found that outside 'real-life' issues were what probably drove them to perform their actions on the game.

In two of these three instances, the motives and the peoples following actions took me by surprise. I thought I knew the people better. I fell victim in not recognizing the consistency paradox. "believing that others behavior is consistent and stable". Behavior varies in situations, but is generally consistent over time in the real world. On the internet however, since it is just a 'virtual-world', behavior is difficult to predict because one has to consider the events that occur to a subject in both realities to truly understand the motivations for their actions.

A Review of Key Points for Future Research

After finding little valid information using the words 'internet psychology', I changed the search name to 'CyberPsychology' which narrowed the field down to 90 relevant links. Here are a few that caught my attention.

How to conduct psychological research via the Internet Theory behind virtual support groups On-line psychotherapy "Internet Addiction Disorder" Psychology of various on-line phenomenon, such as flame wars, relationships, etc.

It is a subscribable forum where issues are discussed regarding these topics and more. It also includes information of current research being conducted on the net.

It is a web page to a journal, posted quarterly. The cost is quite high ($150), but the knowledge within is written by numerous Ph.d's in the medical and psychological field. One of the editors of the quarterly is from 'Mental Health Net'(above).

The Psychology of Cyberspace

New York State Psychological Association created a page to inform the public of ongoing psychological events/forums. The current seminar listed takes place in New York on October 12, 1998. There are links leading from this page elsewhere. Worth checking out for those truly interested in this particular subject of Psychology.

Cyberlibcypsychology

The WebMuseum CyberCulture Research Library - An excellent search engine linked with various studies and research, including Dr. James' research and class reports/findings. Highly recommended to research information on CyberPsychology.

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