I've seen some wrong definitions for smurfing being batted about here. Many years ago, there was a great article on smurfing at a now defunct website. I had foresight to copy that article.

Keep in mind that I did NOT write the article. Credits go to a gamer named ThumP.

My own opinion, before the meat of ThumP's article, is:

* Smurfing is not equivalent to cheating. A smurf may or may not be a cheater. Smurfing got a really bad name when better (average) players would smurf to go beat up much weaker, newbie players (definate instance of cheating).

* I have been known to smurf. Either players refuse to let the "great" OEK play with them, or else they call me a liar when they see how easy it was to beat me.

* In competitive ranks there is smurfing going on. Article covers it better than me.

OEK

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Text of ThumP's very old article from now defunct website:

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All About Smurfing

by ThumP

I've probably responded to over 50 posts and at least as many email messages about the topic of "smurfing". People ask what smurfing is, they ask when people do it, and they want to understand why people do it. This short excerpt will try to define the concept and explain the mentality behind it.

Definition: Smurf- To deliberately change one's online name so as to not be recognized by other players in the online community.

I don't give a jolly damn if you invented smurfing or knew the people who did.
-MacRat

Background: We all know that the "Smurfs" are those cuddly little cute blue elf/gnome-type creatures from the 80s cartoon. They were harmless (annoying) little guys that went around picking berries and singing songs. So what has "Smurfing" got to do with online gaming? Well, about five years ago the game Warcraft2 was a huge online real-time strategy hit. A few of the top-tier War2 players were recognized by all (you could say that, in a way, they were famous within their online community). They decided to play a little joke on some of their friends, and temporarily changed their names. They thought it would be funny to assume the names of harmless little creatures, so they decided to stick with a "Smurf" theme. They challenged a few other well-recognized gamers just for kicks. The unsuspecting buddies were highly confident that they would utterly destroy these newcomers with such stupid names, and didn't hesitate to talk smack, belittle them, and verbally abuse them. The game started, and soon the non-smurf team had a double helping of humble pie forced down their throats as they realized they were getting schooled by this unknown team of Smurfs.

This was the birth of "smurfing". The name stuck, and the term became generic. Now whenever anyone changes their name to conceal their identity, they're said to be "smurfing".

Qualifiers: One of the key misunderstandings, or misuses of the word "smurfing", is that in order to smurf you must be trying to conceal your identity. This doesn't work if nobody knows who you are in the first place. In other words, if I've played three online games and nobody knows who I am, I can't possibly smurf (by the very definition of the word). On the other hand, if I'm the worst player that's ever connected to the Internet and everyone knows me and knows how much I suck, I can still smurf.

Another common misconception is that you must be an excellent player in order to smurf. Smurfing means that you're changing your name so you won't be recognized. This generally has implications that you're very good, but (although far more common) it's not necessarily the case. The reason it's more common to see excellent players smurfing than lousy players smurfing goes back to the definition. In order to be a player that is recognized in the community, one usually has to play quite a bit. Most people that play quite a bit naturally become pretty good players. Occasionally there are known players that never become very good-but people still know who they are. It is entirely possible for such a player to smurf.

Also, since the term was invented it has become a generic term. That is to say, you don't need to change your name to "Smurfette" or "Papa Smurf" to be smurfing. If you're changing your name from "GrumpyBeardedGuy" (and a lot of people know you by that name) to "Mean Tiger" or "BigBadWolfe", you're still smurfing.

Philosophies of the smurfer (or "why people smurf"): There are a few basic reasons people smurf. Some smurf because they're so incredibly well known that they're sick of all the attention (good or bad). For the same reason that movie stars wear big hats and dark glasses when they go in public, some well-known online players choose to avoid the public swarmings that occur by going incognito. A classic example of this would be the Quake god Thresh (who has won every major Quake and Quake 2 tournament in the world). I hear that when Thresh wants to play a few casual games of Quake online (can such a person really play a 'casual' game?), he never uses the name Thresh. First of all, when he does use his real name for in a general setting, people don't believe it's really him-they suspect it's an imposter. Secondly, if they do think it's him they'd be out to get him. He could join a level with a dozen players there that have been swapping rockets for 20 minutes already. Two minutes after Thresh joins, one of the players (that had a 30 frag headstart) wins the game. This player will undoubtedly take screenshots and spend the next six months bragging to everyone who will listen to him about how he "beat Thresh". Not cool.

Another reason people smurf is to 'play for fun' instead of playing a highly competitive game. A top-level Age of Empires player, for example, might want to screw around with a Roman Tower rush (a pretty weak strategy) or to play as Egypt and only make Priests (another weak, but fun, strategy). If a player is going to use some off-the-wall strategy that's not very strong, just for the fun of it, those that beat him will never let him live it down. It can often be much more fun to just be another 'no-name' player than to be a big-name player with half the world out to gun you down (just for bragging rights). Great players using their real names must play their very best every single game or risk tarnishing their name. Some players enjoy a high level of competition in every game. Others do not, and they'll opt to smurf.

Occasionally, a group of friends will all change their names to the same name so that nobody can tell who anyone else is. There are various names for this (I've heard it called everything from a 'kibble' game to a "thump" game). These games can be a heck of a lot of fun as they make communication to allies nearly impossible. Coordinating attacks and strategies is a nightmare for both teams, and the chaos that ensues can be pretty entertaining.

This eight-player game was absolutely crazy. To make matters worse, I believe some of us were even cooped (ie, you need to communicate with each other to do well).

A final reason people choose to smurf is that it's a heck of a lot of fun to rise through the ranks of a rating system. It's fun to hold ground near the top of the ladder, but it's kind of a boring process. It's much more entertaining to be gaining ground and working your way towards the top. Several top-tier players will have their 'real name' sitting near the top of a rating system, then create another smurf name (or two, or three, or ten) and slowly work those names up into the top ranks of the rating system, too. Although this is often against the rules of rating systems, it's usually pretty easy to do (using alternative email accounts). This is even more true of the Microsoft Gaming Zone, which doesn't even require a valid email address for registration. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, it just means that you never know who you're going to play against.

Those against smurfing: There are really a few camps with differing opinions of smurfing. Some people think that smurfing is unethical, cowardly, and/or just plain bad to do. There is something to be said for a player having to stick by his name through thick and thin. Smurfing can encourage foul play and poor sportsmanship, as people don't need to worry about facing the same folks with the same name in future games. Some rating systems (such as the MS Gaming Zone) keep statistics about different players, including wins, losses, disconnects, civilization preferences, and other game-related data. If players go about changing their names every other day, this data becomes much less useful.

Conclusion: Whether we agree with the philosophy of smurfing or think it's a spineless ploy, people will continue to smurf. People smurf for a variety of different reasons, but the bottom line is that they don't want to be identified. One of the draws to the Internet and online gaming is the anonymity it offers. Smurfing is an extension of that anonymity, and in cyberspace nobody can feasibly make you identify yourself. Understanding where smurfers are coming from and some of their motives can help you better understand the online gaming community as a whole. Smurfs are out there, some will tell you who they are after they win (or lose) and others will not. Smurfing is a part of cyberspace, and now at least you know what it really means to "smurf".

Have fun, and 'cya on the battlefield! (but will you see me? I suppose it depends on if I'm smurfing

*thump* *thump*

-ThumP