Blocking feature being abused or was it intended to be this way? FDEV?

[Red Anders]

I've never blocked anyone in Elite, but I have to admit I've never considered this tactic to make Open a "safer" play mode. I've not played in Open for a year and a half now, I just got tired of the gankers, but blocking known player killers? And that actually works??? Never even occurred to me. Until now.

Thanks Powderpanic, your thread has been most enlightening and useful!

I wouldn't do it personally simply because the only reason I would decide to play in open to begin with would be the increased risk from having other Commanders present, so it would be self-defeating. All other game content is available in solo or private group. As I said though, not even getting into a wider discussion of it, partly because we both know it's been done to death and partly because I always preferred Lying Eyes to Hotel California.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Sorry OP, I disagree. Blocking is needed to keep people playing, IMO.

You will find unsavoury people, and as a player, you will want to block them from your gameplay.

I think it's good that we have this option, and if someone blocks me, "Meh.".

Hardly the end of the world.

 

[Red Anders]

They get to pick who they play with. If that isn't you, you can still share the sandbox but you have to find other kids to play with. Didn't your mother teach you that by the time you were 5? Perhaps if your idea of a good time wasn't to throw rocks at their sandcastles, they'd let you play with them in that corner of the sandbox.

Or were you the kid that threw a screaming paddy so that all the other moms gave yours the stink-eye until she either took you home out of embarrassment or turned you over her knee to teach you some manners? Because that's how this thread reads.

At the risk of taking the thread to unforseen levels of controversy, if the issue was that I didn't want to play with the rough boys my dad would have told me to stop being such a sissy.

I mean OK, if they were actually kicking my head in every time I left the house he wouldn't have been down with it obviously, but if it was harsh language/name-calling or something otherwise non-physical (such as pixels on a screen) it's fair to say that he wouldn't have had much truck with avoiding it all the time, on the basis that learning how to deal with social interaction is a fairly vital life skill and unless you're extremely lucky you're not going to make it through life without having to deal with a few people whose interactions with you won't involve giving you a cuddle.

TL;DR - you could just as easily level the 'throwing a screaming paddy' thing at people with the mentaility of 'I won't play with the rough boys and you can't make me! I wont, I won't, I WON'T!!!' As with many things in life, it's all a question of perspective.

Note - I'm only really addressing the metaphor you chose to use here, as I said I can't see anything productive at all to be gained from a lengthy discussion of OP's issue because it won't change a thing.

 

[EUS]

Just like banning many, many tools who wouldn't behave on our CS servers, this FD tool removes the tools.
The failure to comprehend the need for a block list speaks volumes.
I have yet to use it, but am fine with it being available.

 

[Ozric]

At the risk of taking the thread to unforseen levels of controversy

Please don't it was quieting down so nicely.

 

[Red Anders]

Please don't it was quieting down so nicely.

YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!

Oh, wait...

 

[StuartGT]

If you don't want to be blocked, don't play like somebody who other players block. Simple.

Repeating this.

/thread

 

[verminstar]

YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!

Oh, wait...

But its not about blocking out the risk...at least I dont think it is and thats certainly not what I use it for. Its about blocking out the worst of it. I dont mind getting caught out by a genuine role playing pirate...even though Im not one to stop running, I wont clog but the moment I lose that race is the moment I know Im a dead man anyway. That I would expect to happen because thats what I would do to someone else if were the other way around.

Im not even remotely wanting to block players who play like that or the genuine role playing pirates and the genuine role playing power players whose war I accidentally walked into. The block function was...I like to believe...designed to deal with the worst examples in the game. Those who kill without comms and fer no other reason than they can.

Its not about making open a safe zone at all, I doubt the block function is even capable of blocking so many although I wont argue the point because Im assuming. It was always the scum element that ruined open fer so many, so the block function is something I would regard as a compromise in the absense of an open pve mode.

If others wish to argue that we shouldnt even have that choice then I really dont know what else to say in reply...words just fail me utterly...think about it ^

 

[metascrawl]

At the risk of taking the thread to unforseen levels of controversy, if the issue was that I didn't want to play with the rough boys my dad would have told me to stop being such a sissy.

I mean OK, if they were actually kicking my head in every time I left the house he wouldn't have been down with it obviously, but if it was harsh language/name-calling or something otherwise non-physical (such as pixels on a screen) it's fair to say that he wouldn't have had much truck with avoiding it all the time, on the basis that learning how to deal with social interaction is a fairly vital life skill and unless you're extremely lucky you're not going to make it through life without having to deal with a few people whose interactions with you won't involve giving you a cuddle.

TL;DR - you could just as easily level the 'throwing a screaming paddy' thing at people with the mentaility of 'I won't play with the rough boys and you can't make me! I wont, I won't, I WON'T!!!' As with many things in life, it's all a question of perspective.

Note - I'm only really addressing the metaphor you chose to use here, as I said I can't see anything productive at all to be gained from a lengthy discussion of OP's issue because it won't change a thing.

So you better learn how to deal with unpleasant interactions in Elite Dangerous because that's an important life skill? It'll prepare you for the harsher games that you may encounter in the future? Give me strength.

Just pixels on a screen you say? Well if they really don't matter, who gives a crap whether or not anyone blocks any particular set of pixels?

 

[Mohrgan]

Just pixels on a screen you say? Well if they really don't matter, who gives a crap whether or not anyone blocks any particular set of pixels?

I thank the Jebusalabooba that this was written. Hamneggs.

 

[DaveB]

At the risk of taking the thread to unforseen levels of controversy, if the issue was that I didn't want to play with the rough boys my dad would have told me to stop being such a sissy.

I mean OK, if they were actually kicking my head in every time I left the house he wouldn't have been down with it obviously, but if it was harsh language/name-calling or something otherwise non-physical (such as pixels on a screen) it's fair to say that he wouldn't have had much truck with avoiding it all the time, on the basis that learning how to deal with social interaction is a fairly vital life skill and unless you're extremely lucky you're not going to make it through life without having to deal with a few people whose interactions with you won't involve giving you a cuddle.

TL;DR - you could just as easily level the 'throwing a screaming paddy' thing at people with the mentaility of 'I won't play with the rough boys and you can't make me! I wont, I won't, I WON'T!!!' As with many things in life, it's all a question of perspective.

Note - I'm only really addressing the metaphor you chose to use here, as I said I can't see anything productive at all to be gained from a lengthy discussion of OP's issue because it won't change a thing.

If you hadn't raised the straw man of "pixels on a screen" this would have been a fair point. If you don't mind, I'll just look past that and address it as if you hadn't said it. Losing a round of golf doesn;t do any more than losing a few pixels does, but the asinine player who deliberately coughs loudly as their opponent is playing a stroke, or quibbles over every ball-drop or out-of-bounds lie will still not find anyone to play with or even get blackballed from the club - the other players decide they don't want to play with them.

Yes, you are correct it can go both ways - as I acknowledged in my other post to the thread - but of the two attitudes "You MUST play with me, however I want to do it!" and "I don't want to play with you so I won't" The latter is much more defensible. Particularly since we already have whitelists in the shape of groups and friends lists. Using a blacklist as well is hardly a stretch. If somebody doesn;t like the way you play, surely it's better that they never appear in your instance rather than get all salty about you - as is your right - playing the game your way? Unless, of course, the salt is the goal - in which case applying a block is even more appropriate.

 

[metascrawl]

So we have to talk to you before opening fire if we run blockade at a CG.

I'll get right on that.

Some people like to throw around terms such as "genuine role playing", and "scum element" to justify their own antisocial behavior.

It's baffling really.

You don't have to, but it would be a really good idea. Most players won't be in least bit aware that you are running a blockade unless you tell them in game, and will have no way of knowing why you're attacking them. If they realise your attacking them for a reason that makes sense, they'll be much less likely to complain or to block you.

 

[Red Anders]

So you better learn how to deal with unpleasant interactions in Elite Dangerous because that's an important life skill? It'll prepare you for the harsher games that you may encounter in the future? Give me strength.

Just pixels on a screen you say? Well if they really don't matter, who gives a crap whether or not anyone blocks any particular set of pixels?

Try reading the last line of my post again chief.

Actually I'll make it easy for you shall I? No, I'm saying that there isn't really any kind of meaningful parallel at all to be drawn between the real-life experience of growing up and the experience of losing your pixels in a computer game. Carry on though.

If you hadn't raised the straw man of "pixels on a screen" this would have been a fair point.

The only relevance of 'pixels on a screen' is that like name-calling, they don't represent a tangible loss. If someone smashes my computer up, I will be mad. If someone blows my space ship up on screen I obviously won't be delighted about it, but in the grand scheme of things (to my eight year old self as well as the adult who is typing this) it's really not that significant. That's all I meant by it. As ever, it's a personal perspective.

I did say in my first post that my advice to the OP is essentially 'get over it' regardless of my own opinion about the whole situation.

 

[metascrawl]

Try reading the last line of my post again chief.

Actually I'll make it easy for you shall I? No, I'm saying that there isn't really any kind of meaningful parallel at all to be drawn between the real-life experience of growing up and the experience of losing your pixels in a computer game. Carry on though.

If that was your point, you didn't make it nearly as clear as you think you did, chief.

...but if it was harsh language/name-calling or something otherwise non-physical (such as pixels on a screen)...

 

[Riverside]

Try reading the last line of my post again chief.

Actually I'll make it easy for you shall I? No, I'm saying that there isn't really any kind of meaningful parallel at all to be drawn between the real-life experience of growing up and the experience of losing your pixels in a computer game. Carry on though.

I see a lot of parallels with jocks vs geeks

 

[Red Anders]

But its not about blocking out the risk...at least I dont think it is and thats certainly not what I use it for. Its about blocking out the worst of it. I dont mind getting caught out by a genuine role playing pirate...even though Im not one to stop running, I wont clog but the moment I lose that race is the moment I know Im a dead man anyway. That I would expect to happen because thats what I would do to someone else if were the other way around.

Im not even remotely wanting to block players who play like that or the genuine role playing pirates and the genuine role playing power players whose war I accidentally walked into. The block function was...I like to believe...designed to deal with the worst examples in the game. Those who kill without comms and fer no other reason than they can.

Its not about making open a safe zone at all, I doubt the block function is even capable of blocking so many although I wont argue the point because Im assuming. It was always the scum element that ruined open fer so many, so the block function is something I would regard as a compromise in the absense of an open pve mode.

If others wish to argue that we shouldnt even have that choice then I really dont know what else to say in reply...words just fail me utterly...think about it ^

I'm sure you aren't using it that way mate, God knows I know you're not scared of a scrap in games (or forums, or IRL come to that lol) and like I said, obviously I don't have any issue at all with people blocking players who are genuinely griefers, that's what the function is there for.

You know my views on genuine griefers in games, people who persistently target single players and try to harrass them off the server, or who do nothing but kill noobs and try to run off at the first sign of someone who might actually give them a fight; I used to spend whole nights hanging around the noob systems in 'that other game' for the express purpose of killing noobhunters who were there to pad their stats. I was never personally bothered by getting abuse in chat either but that's mainly because I have a very high tolerance level for it and can give it back in spades as my chatban record there would testify but again, I only set my own limits of what's acceptable for that not other people's - if anyone is uncomfortable with what's coming at them over comms in any game I would always actively encourage them to block the perpetrator.

It's clear from this thread though (and not from any of the people I've replied to on this page, just to clear that up) that some people will clearly use this as a way to basically filter out anybody they think may attack them for any reason. They are the only people that my comments were addressed at.

 

[Red Anders]

If that was your point, you didn't make it nearly as clear as you think you did, chief.

Note - I'm only really addressing the metaphor you chose to use here...

I thought that signposted it beyond any reasonable doubt but never mind.

 

[metascrawl]

I generally talk to people after the fight (if I see them again... which I often do).

There just isn't enough time to banter beforehand if you're going against anyone who isn't completely clueless.

Had a nice convo with a guy in the CG today after ganking his not-at-all engineered ship.

He seemed pretty upset about the whole engineer grind in general, but we had a positive discussion about it anyway.

Not that this is the norm. But it happens.

Well that seems fair enough I suppose.

 

[Aute]

Where is the proof that a LOT of people are going to use this as preemptive measure of being ganked, even more when the system itself doesn't encourage that, i.e you cant block people before you meet them?

Yes, so there was some youtuber blocking someone on sight, well there are enough youtubers putting up "pvp" vids about killing outnumbered and/or outgunned cmdrs on sight, so according to above logic, should that mean that most pvpers are trigger happy people killing every harmless sidewinder they meet? It actually is minority, as it very likely will be minority who will preemptive block anything what poses threat to them.

What you see is two extreme kinds of people, while majority of players will fall somewhere in between, yes they might block a couple of players who decide to be super annoying, and I don't see what's wrong with that, at least they will still be here in open for everyone else instead of leaving for private group/solo, so what's wrong with that?

 

[znôrt]

Is it just the abstract idea of it that annoys people?

it spoils the very concept, yes. in a shared and competitive persistent world players do not expect other players to shift in and out of reality at ease. that way stalking up a trader is pointless for a pirate, and chasing a criminal is pointless for a bounty hunter, there is no way of having revenge nor rush to help someone in need, or defend some territory, wager high risk activities, or even winning or loosing a battle. people like that stuff.

You need to know that other people are in danger for you to have a good time? If so, that's weirdly obsessive.

no it's not. it is violence but violence is part of us (and is of course clearly reflected in the game's offering). gaming allows for dramatized, controlled violence and people love it and it's just one example. obsessive? you ever been to a football match?

it's ok if this game is not for that, and it's ok if that's not for you, just trying to explain