Griefing is the term for actions taken by a player for the express purpose of souring other players’ enjoyment of the game, with no in-game benefit to the player taking them.
Griefing is significantly more prevalent in online games1, as in offline play there’s a very quick and efficient anti-griefing mechanism called “people stop wanting to play with you,” whereas online there are many players and a significant enough veil of anonymity such that griefing is not as easy to punish. Many online games have begun to punish griefing through the use of player reports and moderation systems.
Elias, G. S., Garfield, R., & Gutschera, K. R. (n.d.). Characteristics of Games. MIT Press. ↩