Avoiding Group Babysitting... A Discussion with Myself in Three Parts...

I apologise for this to a certain extent, but I have had two previous threads: Elite Babysitter and Avoiding Group Control which are seemingly diametrically opposed to each other in content. In the Babysitter thread I more or less railed against steps being taken to protect players from griefing to the extent where it no longer feels like I would be playing a multiplayer game. In the Avoiding Group Control thread, I re-examined the situation after taking into consideration what would happen and are enough steps being taken if a GROUP (not an individual) of large numbers tried delibrately to 'wreck' the game. And in that thread a lot of hypotheticals were thrown around based on what we understand about the game system from the Beta and the DDF.

I felt that a third thread was necessary to try and bring these two sides together. What's interesting to me is that during the course of these conversations (and they have been conversations) I've been forced to examine where I stand and thus the title of this thread, a discussion with myself.

I have two seemingly opposing desires here, one of which is to play a MULTIPLAYER game and knowing that I'm doing so, even taking the risk of PvP (which I'm not particularly interested in, but do see it as an exciting way to create particularly meaningful story) and for this reason I'm against the idea particularly of the transponder allowing players to hide from each other in the midst of the NPCs.

On the other hand, I wish for there to be measures in place that aren't aimed at the solitary pilot or even the solitary griefer, but aimed at stopping a particular group, whether it be Goonswarm, already famous for their antics in EVE, or any other similarly minded group.

And I realised that perhaps I'm looking at two completely different problems in the same way, when, I really shouldn't be. I don't not want one and want the other more. I want both. And I think, so do a lot of people.

We want to have a meaningful multiplayer experience, whether it be as a pirate, or as a trader playing co-operatively with other people. However I don't think any of us want a single large group coming here with the intention of breaking it. And I don't think anti-griefing systems are meant for those people. Anti-griefing systems in place are meant for catching the single player or small group who're out to 'cause tears'.

I think having listened to David, he's particularly interested in taking care of those types of griefers via different NON INTRUSIVE systems, either through the bounty system or through match-making and trapping the 'anti-social types' as he calls them in their own instances via match-making. And I think along with grouping and the ignore function, that's as far as I really want or need that to go. There will be a period of time where the system balances, griefing on a large scale WILL take place as we all figure out how things work, but overtime the bounty and the match-making will slowly lessen those cases. It's a slow reactive system and overtime should work.

As for the 'avoiding group control', after some careful thought and wonderful discussion in the last thread, I think now, that it's a completely different topic and one that can only be dealt with through Moderation. Both in the game, via moderators (system watch dogs effectively who're keeping an eye out for precisely this type of 'gaming the system', not necessarily breaking any rules but manipulating it on a large scale to cynically move it away from 'the spirit of the game' whatever FDEV decide that to be and ruining it for others) and here in the forums where we make sure and stay vigilant against what we know to be the goons type of metagaming to dominate a community.

I hope you haven't found this boring, but having posted two seemingly opposing discussions, I felt a third was necessary (I know some of you don't) to clear up how I felt both discussion had changed my own view of the game and hopefully clarified your own thoughts, even if you disagree with me.

Thanks for reading.

PS. Hopefully this is the end of what has been a trilogy of posts examing my own ideas of how the multiplayer aspect of the game should work in terms of handling abuse.
 
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You had me up until the against metagaming part....no metagaming means dead community as it allows for people's personas to engage each other in different ways. What you want is to avoid metagame level griefing but the two aren't the same, the metagame in eve isn't just the known stories and the shocking crap that gets peddled on news sites, there are meta narratives going on no one cares about except their participants but which enrich the game in the vein of the touted butterfly effect of EVE but without the **** it can bring about.
 
Im not saying im the best pilot or even mediocre... but i feel pretty confident in taking down some noobly goons who think this game is point and click.
 
Im not saying im the best pilot or even mediocre... but i feel pretty confident in taking down some noobly goons who think this game is point and click.

You poor poor fool...goons are a multi-game group, they probably have groups for every major mmo or online arcade or Sim game so do not underestimate them...
 
Doesnt mean they are automatically amazing at a game they have never played. As far as i know that type of group gameplay is not going to be focused on.

They wont be hard to miss, they will always add in their "clan tag" permanently into their name if the ability is not provided by default..... that fact alone is enough for me to insta gib a person ingame.

afaik those groups influences are only noticeable within the EVE universe where they began.
 
You poor poor fool...goons are a multi-game group, they probably have groups for every major mmo or online arcade or Sim game so do not underestimate them...

Goons are undoubtedly here already. We can already see the metagame start to throttle up from idle. The problem for them though, and other groups like them, is that they simply won't matter much.
 
I felt that a third thread was necessary to try and bring these two sides together. What's interesting to me is that during the course of these conversations (and they have been conversations) I've been forced to examine where I stand and thus the title of this thread, a discussion with myself.

I was always told that talking to oneself was a sign of lunacy :D
 
Any type of instancing doesn't belong in an MMO.

But damning griefers temporarily to a griefer hell or somesuch where they can only play with each other might be a workable solution, as long as "griefer" is not defined as "someone who is better and more ruthless than me at PvP, or has more friends than I."
 
You had me up until the against metagaming part....no metagaming means dead community as it allows for people's personas to engage each other in different ways. What you want is to avoid metagame level griefing but the two aren't the same, the metagame in eve isn't just the known stories and the shocking crap that gets peddled on news sites, there are meta narratives going on no one cares about except their participants but which enrich the game in the vein of the touted butterfly effect of EVE but without the **** it can bring about.

I agree, I indeed meant the goons style of metagaming. OP edited to make that clearer.
 
No TL;DR means I couldn't finish the OP, I have a short attent...

Anyway, bored of that ^ sentence, all I have to say is...

From past recollection I think I probably agree with Jeff Ryan on these matters. :)
 
I think the no naming and shaming policy is perhaps FD's first strike against forum metagaming. It struck me as odd first I just assumed the forum would be the obvious place to warn people about other named players/groups but thinking about it, if it gives FD and the mods power to stop things getting out of hand on the forums it's probably for the best.

Obviously people will circumvent it off the forum but that's another matter.

I was also thinking this morning about the much vaunted "play it your way" thing butting up against FD's intentions for the way they want the game to play regarding the machanics for bounty hunting, piracy and so forth.

Some people are already saying that they want the play it your way thing to trump any rules about how they conduct piracy for example. But it seems if they want to progress within the game rankings as a pirate or bounty hunter they will have to play it FD's way - even if that's not how they'd prefer to...

Choices and consequences, will be interesting to see how it develops.
 
I think the no naming and shaming policy is perhaps FD's first strike against forum metagaming. It struck me as odd first I just assumed the forum would be the obvious place to warn people about other named players/groups but thinking about it, if it gives FD and the mods power to stop things getting out of hand on the forums it's probably for the best.
Obviously people will circumvent it off the forum but that's another matter.
I never thought of it like that, and I'm not sure that is the motivation but it will certainly help.
I was also thinking this morning about the much vaunted "play it your way" thing butting up against FD's intentions for the way they want the game to play regarding the machanics for bounty hunting, piracy and so forth.

Some people are already saying that they want the play it your way thing to trump any rules about how they conduct piracy for example. But it seems if they want to progress within the game rankings as a pirate or bounty hunter they will have to play it FD's way - even if that's not how they'd prefer to...

Choices and consequences, will be interesting to see how it develops.

I agree and think that for the single player and small group the mechanics will be interesting to see developing. And I do hope we take our foot off the accelerator in terms of how far we're willing to go to protect players, from this type of interaction. It's the large groups where I've come to the conclusion that having mechanics in place to try and stop them would be counter-productive and feel that we have to keep an OOC/out of game eye out for THAT type of playstyle.
 
I used to play EVE and they were one of the things i got tired of hearing about all the frikkin time, as well as the typical EVE drama that goes on everyday. I gave up on that game because it is... boring and subscription based.

People talk about those Corporations like they are super powers of some sort... as if they actually effect things outside of EVE.

At most, they are able to control a few stations commodities. In the meantime, everyone else is going to be enjoying the game.
 
I used to play EVE and they were one of the things i got tired of hearing about all the frikkin time, as well as the typical EVE drama that goes on everyday. I gave up on that game because it is... boring and subscription based.

People talk about those Corporations like they are super powers of some sort... as if they actually effect things outside of EVE.

At most, they are able to control a few stations commodities. In the meantime, everyone else is going to be enjoying the game.

A few? If the CFC wished it they could probably tank t2 production completely, hell they've done stuff similar to that in the past and don't get me started on the AT shenanigans.
 
Shall we just have a new forum section for debates that spiral into talk about the Goons?

They thrive through propaganda and the peddling of stories, a mechanic which makes those that have barely heard of them in awe at their magnificent power. The fact they are repeatedly brought into conversations on this forum as some sort of almighty group to be feared makes me chuckle. Anyone ever seen the ending to the Wizard of Oz?

Stop worshipping them, giving them publicity, giving them kudos and mystic, and they'll get bored soon enough, before shuffling back to Eve to blockade Jita, grief new players or target carebear miners to show just how manly they all are.
 
Shall we just have a new forum section for debates that spiral into talk about the Goons?

They thrive through propaganda and the peddling of stories, a mechanic which makes those that have barely heard of them in awe at their magnificent power. The fact they are repeatedly brought into conversations on this forum as some sort of almighty group to be feared makes me chuckle. Anyone ever seen the ending to the Wizard of Oz?

Stop worshipping them, giving them publicity, giving them kudos and mystic, and they'll get bored soon enough, before shuffling back to Eve to blockade Jita, grief new players or target carebear miners to show just how manly they all are.

Was inevitable, victim or adversary? Because if one extreme is propaganda then the other, yours, is as well ( I never exaggerated their current sway in EVE but their leadership knows not to BoB it too badly, their rank and file isn't as good as other alliances but there are thousands of the ******'s to deal with and so far their officers have been at least above average, that's their main strength really).
 
I'm not that convinced it'll be that big a problem with goon groups (new one on me) in the final release.

Firstly you have instances of 32 players, so if they group together they are automatically reducing the amount of fresh meat they can interfere with.

Secondly if you're keeping yourself clean, then by adding these players to your ignore list then you won't ever see them again. Only if you are wanted does the ignore list get, well, ignored.

If the goons are playing roles, i.e. pirating properly, then they're really just creating an alliance of pirates. As soon as they start blatantly murdering then the other game rules will restrict them, limiting places to visit safely, etc.

If the news mechanics are implemented as I understand it then the location of these "attacks" will be broadcast to the universe and I'm sure there will be equally as many willing bounty hunters to banish them.

And if it really does then DB has already mentioned in various interviews they have other ways of separating them.

**Edit: Actually I think now is the right time to be discussing the potential problems that may/will occur. That way it can be tested now and balancing put in. I'm sure as soon as grouping is implemented we will see this occur naturally and the obvious forum posting shortly thereafter if it's a problem. I just wish the posts were more constructive and less emotional, then it wouldn't sound like whining in a lot of cases, but hey...
 
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Whereas i agree there are two different issues whichever way u cut it they still cross into the same issue.

There needs to be a safe and enjoyable starting experience for new players and there must be a persistent universe which is effected by players but which cannot be dominated and controlled by a faction of players.

This should be the remit the devs r working with.

I am more concerned about Goonswarm exploiting the games mechanics in some way to achieve an artificial control. That means beta testing is paramount. And tbh id love to see Goonswarm in the beta to see if they can break it!

I am confident that individual griefing will be easier to combat than most other games out there. As long as FD ensure that the games NPC factions r stronger than ANYONE in the game then its easy.

The starting zone issue is a bit more complex and will need some clever dev to come up with a solution imo. I hope they come up with a system which keeps it pvp friendly and yet doesnt put new players at a gamebreaking disadvantage.
 
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