Me thinks, and this is without ever playing the MMO in question, that in killing villains, the doctor was affecting other players. Presumably, their only recourse was to go after him, with what sounds like varied success. In my eyes, he was being ostracized and criticized not because he was being different, as the article states, but very much because he was affecting game play and online activities of other people. Just because he was following the rules as set by the MMO does not somehow, in my eyes, give him a right to disregard the customs and traditions as set by players. An MMO, at least, means little without the community behind it and thus, to some extent, the community becomes the voice and law where none is set forth by the developers.

In that sense, I can't imagine what kind of a reaction he might have otherwise expected. Surely, as a professor who studies video games, he must also know a little about human nature. it boggles the mind that he might've genuinely believed that so long as game rules were followed, no one would fault him for being a troll.

Just a thought.