I came across this article, which I found interesting:
Internet troll personality study: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism.

The article explains that according to research, people who troll online and grief people in online video games possess higher Dark Tetrad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) traits.

I will paste highlights of the article for you guys:

The researchers conducted multiple studies, using samples from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk but also of college students, to try to understand why the act of trolling seems to attract this type of personality. They even constructed their own survey instrument, which they dubbed the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling, or GAIT, containing the following items:

I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz.

I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites.

I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.

The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.

Yes, some people actually say they agree with such statements. And again, doing so was correlated with sadism in its various forms, with psychopathy, and with Machiavellianism. Overall, the authors found that the relationship between sadism and trolling was the strongest, and that indeed, sadists appear to troll because they find it pleasurable. “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others,” they wrote. “Sadists just want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!”

As somebody who both trolls and is an avid gamer who griefs people on multiplayer games for time to time, I can relate to this article rather easily.

Thoughts guys?

[Atypical_Disaster]

I'm not one to troll the Internet as I have all the entertainment I could ever want offline. However, I do admit to being a voyeur online on occasion and watching hilarious troll fests unfold when I have spare time.

Though I do like this statement:

The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.

Heh.

Originally Posted by Atypical_Disaster

I'm not one to troll the Internet as I have all the entertainment I could ever want offline. However, I do admit to being a voyeur online on occasion and watching hilarious troll fests unfold when I have spare time.

Though I do like this statement:


Heh.

I'm totally jealous of you. My personal life is too boring for me ATM haha

But yeah, I've been an internet troll for nearly a decade. I used to troll 4chan (one of the most twisted places on the internet) like crazy, I would bait people to click on links with a lot of gore and porn, I would target stupid people online and manipulate them for the lulz, and my personal favorite would be to mislead people with low tech knowledge to "fix" issues with their computer which would cause their PCs to crash.

I also delight in griefing people on online gaming. If somebody is being an idiot or sucks at the game, I spawn camp and troll them in game until they rage quit. My favorite targets are 12 year old kids on Xbox live because they're so easy to piss off.

My latest pet project of mine is playing a female character in a major MMO who is dressed like a pure Dominatrix with the biggest butt and tits possible while hanging out in social areas of the map and pretending to be a girl flirting with and hitting on random dudes in game while talking like a female in such a convincing matter that they think that I'm really a girl only to break their heart later. Last time I did this, my best friend came over randomly to hang out and I decided to leave my character logged in while we were chilling. When he caught onto what I was doing he was like "damn dude you're such a narcissist" and we both had a laugh LOLOLOL

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by DarknessIsMyFriend

I'm totally jealous of you. My personal life is too boring for me ATM haha

But yeah, I've been an internet troll for nearly a decade. I used to troll 4chan (one of the most twisted places on the internet) like crazy, I would bait people to click on links with a lot of gore and porn, I would target stupid people online and manipulate them for the lulz, and my personal favorite would be to mislead people with low tech knowledge to "fix" issues with their computer which would cause their PCs to crash.

I also delight in griefing people on online gaming. If somebody is being an idiot or sucks at the game, I spawn camp and troll them in game until they rage quit. My favorite targets are 12 year old kids on Xbox live because they're so easy to piss off.

My latest pet project of mine is playing a female character in a major MMO who is dressed like a pure Dominatrix with the biggest butt and tits possible while hanging out in social areas of the map and pretending to be a girl flirting with and hitting on random dudes in game while talking like a female in such a convincing matter that they think that I'm really a girl only to break their heart later. Last time I did this, my best friend came over randomly to hang out and I decided to leave my character logged in while we were chilling. When he caught onto what I was doing he was like "damn dude you're such a narcissist" and we both had a laugh LOLOLOL

This post totally made my day. LMAO.

It's okay to be jealous of me, I'm used to it. HAHAHAHA!

Haha awesome!

I gotta run for awhile but I'll TTYL

[crosstobear]

Back in my young immature days, I trolled the fuark out of Bodybuilding.com...

My favorite was pretending to be the ultimate liberal hipster. It's a forum full of insecure meatheads who vote Republican, so I went on about everything from white privilege to redistribution of wealth, and I used terms like "cis" a lot... One guy actually spilled his whole life story (which was really tragic) about why he thinks it's disgusting to go on welfare, and all I did was keep playing him. I apologized afterward, but I was banned. Let's see. I trolled Stormfront pretending to be a Pakistani white supremacist, and reasoned that the original "Aryans" were from the Punjab... What else... I pretended to be a Christian zealot once. That was fun. My younger years were a ton of trolling. It was entertaining.

[crosstobear]

Online gaming was the worst. Some real weirdos. I remember like ten years ago I was very big into Diablo II. So when the expansion pack came out, I had like this super-high level Assassin. The Assassin character is a short-haired chick that wears revealing clothing. So I went around from level to level and eventually I was able to "seduce" (is that the right word?) some dude who had this male barbarian character. He tagged along on all my missions and gave me free stuff and rare items, and all I had to do was talk dirty to him in the chat window. I just fed into his nerdy fantasies and was able to level up like no one's business. Lmfao.

Originally Posted by crosstobear

Online gaming was the worst. Some real weirdos. I remember like ten years ago I was very big into Diablo II. So when the expansion pack came out, I had like this super-high level Assassin. The Assassin character is a short-haired chick that wears revealing clothing. So I went around from level to level and eventually I was able to "seduce" (is that the right word?) some dude who had this male barbarian character. He tagged along on all my missions and gave me free stuff and rare items, and all I had to do was talk dirty to him in the chat window. I just fed into his nerdy fantasies and was able to level up like no one's business. Lmfao.

Nice haha. I used to love the hell out of that game!

Of course, I was guilty of invading people's games and ganking them and I even used to dupe items and corpse pop people to steal their gear lol.

But yeah, playing female characters in any MMO or multiplayer RPG type game is the best. There are so many little virgin boys who play these games that are so desperate for a woman that they will think that you're really a girl and hit on you and give you free stuff haha

[MiddayNap]

I'm having trouble understanding the appeal of this activity. The "troll", from what I understand, posts comments which are meant to upset strangers. But who cares? What could I possibly gain from engaging in such a practice?
People are strange.

Originally Posted by MiddayNap

I'm having trouble understanding the appeal of this activity. The "troll", from what I understand, posts comments which are meant to upset strangers. But who cares? What could I possibly gain from engaging in such a practice?
People are strange.

It's simple really. The satisfaction knowing that you made somebody angry, yet knowing they can't do anything about it.

To me, true trolling isn't a kid living in his mom's basement saying "LOLOLUMADBRO" or whatever to randoms. True trolling takes skill. True trolling is an art, and I'm an artist

This is a pretty funny post. Trolling (which I should add I have never heard of) is sorta like what I've done many many times in real life. Get people to trust you, make them feel as if they are totally understood by me and then get what I need while I have the use for them. I think doing it my way is so much more fun as I get more than the "thoughts"of satisfaction, I get real substance in return. I guess the mind candy is good too, just not as good as the real thing.

[MiddayNap]

Originally Posted by DarknessIsMyFriend

It's simple really. The satisfaction knowing that you made somebody angry, yet knowing they can't do anything about it.

To me, true trolling isn't a kid living in his mom's basement saying "LOLOLUMADBRO" or whatever to randoms. True trolling takes skill. True trolling is an art, and I'm an artist

Well of course you would think so. I still find it pointless, but far be it from me to deflate your ego-boner.

Originally Posted by MiddayNap

Well of course you would think so. I still find it pointless, but far be it from me to deflate your ego-boner.

Then why comment if you already knew the answer to your question/statement?

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by DarknessIsMyFriend

Then why comment if you already knew the answer to your question/statement?

Beautiful.

[MiddayNap]

Originally Posted by DarknessIsMyFriend

Then why comment if you already knew the answer to your question/statement?

I never purported to know the answer-that would be the purpose of asking questions, my friend. I only knew what I thought of the subject, not why others find it enjoyable. I can't help it if the reasoning still makes no sense to me. Humans are quite simple creatures; I suppose that is all the explanation that is needed.

LMFAO, ego-boner You're a hard-on...I mean hard one to please.

Originally Posted by Atypical_Disaster

I'm not one to troll the Internet as I have all the entertainment I could ever want offline. However, I do admit to being a voyeur online on occasion and watching hilarious troll fests unfold when I have spare time.

Rising above it all like a boss. I like it.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by StbGuy

Rising above it all like a boss. I like it.

Lol thanks. Watching people who troll is just downright hilarious though if you know where to look, some places are just hotbeds of entertainment! I haven't done any voyeuristic watching as of late but I have to say the comments section of the blog SociopathWorld is hysterically funny every time I look though my sense of humor is "different" so take what I say about what's funny with a grain of salt, teehee.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by StbGuy

LMFAO, ego-boner You're a hard-on...I mean hard one to please.

When will I learn to not drink coffee when I'm reading through this forum? I just busted out laughing and spit out my coffee, epic! HA HA HA!

Originally Posted by crosstobear

I trolled Stormfront pretending to be a Pakistani white supremacist, and reasoned that the original "Aryans" were from the Punjab

LOL Adolf Hindi.

[Atypical_Disaster]

I trolled Stormfront pretending to be a Pakistani white supremacist, and reasoned that the original "Aryans" were from the Punjab

This is so full of win I just can't even. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by crosstobear

Back in my young immature days, I trolled the fuark out of Bodybuilding.com...

My favorite was pretending to be the ultimate liberal hipster. It's a forum full of insecure meatheads who vote Republican, so I went on about everything from white privilege to redistribution of wealth, and I used terms like "cis" a lot... One guy actually spilled his whole life story (which was really tragic) about why he thinks it's disgusting to go on welfare, and all I did was keep playing him. I apologized afterward, but I was banned. Let's see. I trolled Stormfront pretending to be a Pakistani white supremacist, and reasoned that the original "Aryans" were from the Punjab... What else... I pretended to be a Christian zealot once. That was fun. My younger years were a ton of trolling. It was entertaining.

Okay you've got me seriously wanting to give into temptation now with the pretending to be a Christian zealot one... That would be so hilarious, I can pull that mask out so easily one side of my family is full of Christian zealots... HA HA HA!

Originally Posted by DarknessIsMyFriend

I'm totally jealous of you. My personal life is too boring for me ATM haha

But yeah, I've been an internet troll for nearly a decade. I used to troll 4chan (one of the most twisted places on the internet) like crazy, I would bait people to click on links with a lot of gore and porn, I would target stupid people online and manipulate them for the lulz, and my personal favorite would be to mislead people with low tech knowledge to "fix" issues with their computer which would cause their PCs to crash.

I also delight in griefing people on online gaming. If somebody is being an idiot or sucks at the game, I spawn camp and troll them in game until they rage quit. My favorite targets are 12 year old kids on Xbox live because they're so easy to piss off.

My latest pet project of mine is playing a female character in a major MMO who is dressed like a pure Dominatrix with the biggest butt and tits possible while hanging out in social areas of the map and pretending to be a girl flirting with and hitting on random dudes in game while talking like a female in such a convincing matter that they think that I'm really a girl only to break their heart later. Last time I did this, my best friend came over randomly to hang out and I decided to leave my character logged in while we were chilling. When he caught onto what I was doing he was like "damn dude you're such a narcissist" and we both had a laugh LOLOLOL

And you're sure you're not a psychopath? LOL That is some Machiavellian and sadistic sh--t man.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by StbGuy

And you're sure you're not a psychopath? LOL That is some Machiavellian and sadistic sh--t man.

LOL, dude I like your sense of humor!

I have been doing this the entire time since joining this forum. I am a 72 year old granny with a long nose, sharp teeth and fur all over. I invited you all to my picnic just to feast on all the made up lies!!!! Gotcha.