Griefers and Elite's Emerging Karma System

[JaskoMaughann]

You bothered to note it?

I was feeling charitable. It's Friday..

 

[Rampant]

Another pointless response. In my opinion.

Your opinion is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
All in my own opinion, of course.

Yours

Mark H

 

[Delilah]

This thread is slowing down, and despite the entry of trolls/griefers, it has been remarkably productive. As the OP, I want to say thanks for staying on point, and producing a constructive thread re: a karma mechanic for Elite. Thank you!

 

[Adept]

<snip>
Does this mean everyone who griefs is an everyday sadist? No. There are personality tests for the dark tetrad, and one cannot say a priori that all griefers are anti-social or ill. But it does mean that a good proportion of griefers are malevolent, and likely drawn to the current mechanics of Elite because it allows them to grief without consequence.

It is also important to distinguish pvpers from griefers. Pvpers enjoy the combat side of things, and often the role-play of activities like "piracy". The overarching narrative of a game defines the roles that players might adopt. Griefers are motivated by anti-social urges irrespective of narrative framing, and introduce an unhealthy element in-game.

As someone who enjoys pvp and has led a largish organization dedicated to it, I do not want to see the end of pvp in Elite. At the same time, the research suggests there is good reason to worry about the impact of griefers on the Elite community, particularly those new to us.

Whatever karma system that Frontier designs should keep the above elements in mind, and do what it can to discourage griefing.

Update: Obsidian Ant has a nice discussion of the Karma mechanic on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpL4t02eLy0&list=TLGGVViFGYM8nWoxNDA1MjAxNw

Quoting the bit I want to emphasize. Excellent post overall, have some rep.

Disincentivising unwanted behavior and providing structure and rewards for PvP is something that is my own focus as a Designer. I hope Frontier are finally waking up on this subject.

Elite can be so great. The game has the potential to be truly mold breaking as both a space game and an MMO. That requires courage and determination though, which has so far been lacking.

David Braben would back them up too. Those who have read or listened to his views on gameplay and griefing will know, he wants engaging gameplay with emotional impact and conections, and he wants the emphasis on cooperation over confrontation, with PvP conflict meaningful and important when it does happen.

The current bare bones mechanics don't reward that, but that doesn't mean we can't have it in the future.

 

[NeilF]

Quoting the bit I want to emphasize. Excellent post overall, have some rep.

Disincentivising unwanted behavior and providing structure and rewards for PvP is something that is my own focus as a Designer. I hope Frontier are finally waking up on this subject.

Elite can be so great. The game has the potential to be truly mold breaking as both a space game and an MMO. That requires courage and determination though, which has so far been lacking.

David Braben would back them up too. Those who have read or listened to his views on gameplay and griefing will know, he wants engaging gameplay with emotional impact and conections, and he wants the emphasis on cooperation over confrontation, with PvP conflict meaningful and important when it does happen.

The current bare bones mechanics don't reward that, but that doesn't mean we can't have it in the future.

Absolutely!!!

Powerplay (coming after Wings) should have been the beginning of a whole raft of combat orientated scenario/gameplay improvements to allow PvE and PvP to offer more interesting combat scenarios and mechanics, for a reason. eg: Missions to protect/attack something. With PvE this could have been with a Wing of CMDRs or NPCs, against NPCs. And in OPEN, there could have been the mechanic to allow CMDRs to do either side, thus orchestrating PvP.

Indeed, these mechanics could have been utilitsed from time to time in CGs too.


Ultimately there needs to be purposeful PvP for actual reasons/outcome. After 2.5 years, flying around and randomly interdicting, or having to orchestrate "friendlies" for no game reason/outcome, surely isn't ideal?

ps: And of course now we seem to be on the verge of combat with the Thargoids? Wouldn't those defend this/attack that scenarion have been useful to leverage? eg: Missions to escort civilian convoys out through asteroid field etc.