Gaming's Most Evil Pranks

You’re not supposed to like griefers. You’re supposed to look down on their childish pranks designed to frustrate and humiliate. You’re supposed to frown at the way they ruin it for everyone else. But we don’t care as long as it’s funny. That’s why we’ve collected some of our favorite game-related pranks of all time. Long live the griefers, the spoilers, the tricksters, the con artists, and jerks whose cruel schemes have brought us joy at the expense of others over the years.

 
Adults love lying to children. They lied about Santa Claus. They lied about the tooth fairy. They lied about how you’re “special,” and apparently, a lot of them also lied about a really “neat” game their kid should try.

The Maze is an old school prank, packaged as a simple game that charges you with navigating your cursor through a series of mazes without touching any walls. As you progress, the passages become narrower, encouraging the player to lean in closer to the monitor so they can needle their cursor through The Maze’s winding paths. That’s when the game strikes by blowing out your ears with a piercing scream and a disturbing screenshot from The Exorcist.

For years, pranksters have been sharing YouTube videos with candid footage of their friends and co-workers screaming like little schoolgirls when they get to the end of The Maze. But given the way that adults love screwing with the fragile minds of children, there’s no shortage of footage featuring tiny tots sobbing in the corner after experiencing The Maze’s unexpected finale.

Above: It’s been years since this video made its rounds on the web. But copycat grownups are still trying to capture the perfect video of a weeping kid

Above: If you want to scar a child for life with The Maze, all you need is an internet connection, this link, and no soul

The folks from Team Roomba are a bunch of douchebags and we love them for it. Think of them as the Penn & Tellers of first-person shooters. These guys have elevated the art of online griefing into a fine art form. One need only look to their most famous Team Fortress 2 video to appreciate how beautiful playing like a bastard can be. After exploiting a bug that allowed Team Roomba to trap their entire team in the spawn room, they proceeded to challenge their angry group with trivia questions in exchange for their freedom.

Above: Our favorite Team Roomba moment, where they trap their teammates in the spawn room and pepper them with trivia questions before letting them out

Above: Teleporters are more fun when they transport your teammates into the enemies’ line of fire

Above: Snipers like it when you stand in front of them and shoot flames in their face. It makes things more challenging