The actions of some players trolling unprepared new players in game for the lols leads to bad feeling. If they stopped doing it of their own accord, that would be the only solution. But that won't happen because some people just have no consideration for others.
So, in Dark Souls, you can get an item that lets you invade other players. Depending on your own player level, you will be matched with players of a similar level, within a percentage above and below your own.
Why invade? Because it's basically the way that PVP happens in that game. You can only be invaded if you, as a player, consume a specific item. This item will allow you to invite other players into your instance (using Elite -relevant terms here) and have them help you beat the level and bosses. However, using this item
also allows a random stranger to invade you, and directly oppose your effort to work through the game.
It seems like, in Elite, a similar approach was taken when changing the game from a purely solo / PVE experience (in the original games) into a multiplayer game. By playing in Open, you are essentially doing the same thing that a Dark Souls player does; you're creating the opportunity for spontaneous co-op, but also spontaneous PVP. You can't have one without the other. You can have arranged co-op in a PG, but this thread has demonstrated that a lot of players are looking for spontaneous experiences, or at least seeing other CMDRs so the game doesn't feel so empty (I guess NPCs don't count).
Anyways, one big difference is that there's apparently little or no level matching in Elite. Meaning you can have an extremely experienced CMDR matched with a newbie, and vice versa.
But, from my own experience, combat rank alone is not a very good indicator of actual player skill. If it were, a Novice and now Competent level CMDR like me wouldn't be able to take down Dangerous and Elite level players in combat ships, but even in my short time in the game, those are things I have done multiple times. In other words, CMDRs whose ranks reflect a lot of PVE grinding, and/or whose builds are designed around PVE instead of PVP, may be as easy to destroy as a newb in a Cobra.
So really, the fundamental issue here is, as you note, that some players enjoy treating Elite as a combat flight sim. I'm certainly one of them. I don't consider it griefing or whatever to engage another CMDR via interdiction. I am engaging in PVP in the only mode of the game in which it is explicitly possible, and in which the mode's intrinsic "Do as you wish" ethos is truly the whole of the law.
The fact that my interdiction is meaningless - because the CMDR isn't a PowerPlay enemy or whatever - is more a symptom of a game in which all PVP combat is essentially lacking in larger meaning. This is a failing of the game design, pure and simple.
But I promise you - even if there
was a "valid" in-game rationale for PVP, there would still be players who felt like they were getting harassed or griefed when subjected to PVP that wasn't of their choosing. This is another fundamental game design issue, because of FDev's choice of forcing PVE and PVP players into the same game mode. Part of learning the game, then, becomes learning to accept that Open play means that PVP can happen anywhere, anytime, whether you're ready for it or not. That's apparently what FDev wants?
