Educated adults are far from a bunch of kids; it's clear they've at least thought about the issues. They argue the griefs are short lived, and the players are in control of whether they play or not. "I recognize that I'm ruining someone's fun, albeit temporarily, but jerks in an online videogame are just part of the package - 'Game Experience May Change During Online Play.' I'd like to think that everyone recognizes this by now, and I don't feel particularly bad about it," says Ryan.
Which isn't to say they treat their unknowing collaborators as mere prey. When the two Team Fortesss 2 videos were released, they tried to make contact via Steam usernames with anyone who - er - contributed. "All but one reacted positively," says Ryan. "They found it hilarious, and that erases any sense of non-existent guilt that lingered." Even during the game, they describe some surprising reactions, with people getting into the trivia especially. Ryan attributes this to their use of VOIP: "I think when there's back and forth with the players rather than a one way 'I'm ruining your game,' several things happen: 1) Players gain a sense of hope that they can negotiate their way out of the grief; 2) players realize that we aren't children; and 3) the interaction promotes some kind of curiosity about the grief that diminishes the annoying/irritating part of the grief. In some twisted way, perhaps some variant of the Stockholm syndrome comes into play, too."
Their work continues - their last big release was a Prodigy "Firestarter" parody video featuring TF2's Pyro - but a third planned griefing video is probably doomed since they lost hours of footage to one of Valve's TF2 updates, which rendered old demo files unreadable. They suspect that TF2 griefing possibilities may have run dry, unless updates cram something delightfully abuse-able. But their eyes are always on the future, looking expectantly towards Battlefield Heroes. They certainly feel the pressure of expectations. "I think we set a very high bar with the second video, and we are very conscious about maintaining that level of quality and humor," says Ryan. "Some of the stuff we have recorded is worth seeing, but fails to meet the 'TF2 trivia' standard."
Which isn't to say that they're actively looking for fresh blood or - heaven forbid - going professional. They're bombarded with requests to join, but they deny all of them. "People who ask to join have this idea that all we do is churn out videos," says Ryan, "but really the videos are an afterthought, with having fun playing random games together being ROOMBA's primary reason for existing." And whether something funny enough to match their exacting standards will emerge from their fun, we'll have to wait and see ... and perhaps even contemplate whether a griefer is actually funny before we kick him from the server.
Kieron Gillen has been writing about videogames for far too long now. His rock and roll dream is to form an Electro-band with Miss Kittin and SHODAN pairing up on vocals.
