Summary
SomeFallout 76players have recently observed an uptick in griefers. The problematic trend may be a side effect ofFallout 76currently experiencing historically high player activity.
Griefing, the act of causing grief to members of some online community, has been a thing for as long as online multiplayer games existed. But Bethesda’s live-service RPG has long enjoyed a reputation as a game with an extremely friendly community. That’s in part because manyFallout 76veterans are happy to help and advise newcomers, but also due to the fact that the game doesn’t really incentivize PvP combat, even though it does support it.
Fallout 76 Griefers Are Nuking Low-Level C.A.M.P.s, Trying to Force PvP
The community’s welcoming reputation is now being tested, according to an influx of player reports that emerged online in mid-May 2024. Several dozen accounts of griefing have been posted to some of the game’s largest online hubs, such as the r/Fo76 subreddit, over the week ending May 18. While that may not seem like a significant number in a vacuum, it still represents a notable increase in such complaints as far asFallout 76is concerned. Some of these reports describe malicious players launching nukes at low-level C.A.M.P.s, despite them not being in anyFallout 76area generally worth nuking. Meanwhile, other players are saying they have encountered teams of griefers spamming Mini Nukes at them, trying to either crash their game or get them to retaliate and initiate PvP while being outnumbered.
This uptick in griefing could be a side effect of the game blowing up in popularity, attracting many new and returning players in the process. Since Amazon released its hitFalloutTV series on April 10, the Steam version ofFallout 76has broken five all-time concurrent player records in six days, with the game also experiencing a notable increase in player activity on consoles. The Steam edition of the RPG peaked at 73,368 concurrent players in late April and is still seeing approximately 40,000 people playing at the same time every day a month later, according to SteamDB data.
TheFallout 76PC player base was approximately four times smaller immediately prior to the TV show’s debut. With so many new people joining in, it’s inevitable for the game to end up with more griefers, even if its percentage of friendly players remains the same.
Some fans appear determined not to let this trend affect the game’s welcoming reputation, having reported that they are trying to rebuild other people’s C.A.M.P.s whenever they see them nuked, and work even harder to support newbies in other ways. Between that andFallout 76’s existing anti-griefing measures, it’s possible that this potential uptick in malicious player activity will pass before long.
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
