In what way is griefing a good thing to have in a game?

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That’s a good definition, and it made me realize how bad the griefing actually is.

There are actually players out there that intentionally make first discoveries of celestial bodies. In doing so, their name becomes permanent emblazoned on the galaxy map. Once this happens, *none* of the *thousands* of subsequent players arriving later will *ever* be able to put their name on that same body. This is a crushing disappointment. Other people want to have their name on the galaxy map, but now they can’t. The misery of disappointment this creates multiplies by the thousands of players that experience it for each one of the hundreds of thousands of celestial bodies already discovered, and note also that this misery perpetuates *forever* (name-claiming is permanent). A gank hurts for a moment, but name-claiming hurts *forever*, times a thousand.

Now for the first discoverer, there was little risk in permantly and exclusively claiming the planet or star. They may have even done so using an exploration ship with a highly overpowered frame shift drive, that people just starting would have no chance of out-jumping. And the first discoverer *loves it*. I have never seen an explorer express empathy for the way they bully others by spamming the galactic map with their name while others are powerless to ever change it.

I’m sure you agree, exploration griefing negatively impacts the game both in scope (creating hundreds of thousands of griefing “monuments”) and duration (forever). It gives one person the selfish enjoyment of name exclusivity at the expense of thousands of innocents people that may have travelled for hours (even days) only to be bitterly trolled by the uncaring first discoverer.

In the name of compassion, empathy and good morals, I implore you all...please stop making exploration discoveries, because cyberbullying bullying hurts.

lol. True to character, providing the most ridiculous analogies and flimsiest excuses to justify his evil acts. See you in Eravate one day, Zarek Noobkiller, overlord of nothing. ;)
 

DeletedUser191218

D
I think it's just a case of taking the rough with the smooth? For every ganker, there are probably ten people who'll give you a friendly o7 when you meet them but I think it's a good thing it's 'allowed' (within context of the crime and punishment laws) because ultimately NPC's, no matter how well written, will always be more predictable than the random human element.

Totally, but that kind of misses the point. I'm not suggesting banning pvp but there are other, more clever ways of implementing it. The best mmo environment i've played is undoubtedly ESO. PvP happens all tje time, even more than ED. But you either use the arena or challenge to a duel. And the result is you constantly have loads of players in open in every area. Everyone wins. You can go about the game without being harrassed by anti-social behaviour or you can PvP at any time you like. Now to reiretate - in what way is the implementation as FDev have done it BETTER than this?
 

DeletedUser191218

D
I blow up random people because the people I'd like to blow up are usually attacking my player factions BGS or Powerplay in solo and private. All that's left to blow up is the people doing their own thing or other PVPers.

I guess because of that. It all depends if you want to be a bad guy or not. A criminal/murderer in the game.

Its fun, but if they were to really leave it that way. I'd like to see them go in depth with how a criminal works against other players like they did with the BGS and Mining update. Those have functionality and they feel like a "career" with in depth mechanics built around it.

SDC had a really good write up about this.

Ye that's fine. But that is really easy to do without the inevitability of the griefing epidemic that us killing ED's openn
environment. Just a bit of thought and planning on the implementation. Other games manage it abd have MUCH larger online player bases than ED
 

Robert Maynard

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I think it's clear what is meant by 'griefing' in this context. I note you haven't actually explained why you think the game is better for allowing it as opposed to not allowing it.

My question is in earnest. If you think the game is better for it I'm interested to know why. Simply stating that one can avoid it by not playing in open doesn't really address the question. I wonder how many players now avoid open purely for that reason. I personally know of quite a few. Are you happy that they aren't getting fuller enjoyment of the game because of the insistence on allowing a minority of aggressors to push them into solo or private groups?

For better or worse, it remains possible in a game where player interaction is possible. Pointing out that each player chooses which mode to play in, each and every game session, is simply pointing out that players have choice - whereas, in Open, any player can choose to instigate an encounter with another player as a target, whether the target enjoys it or not. The onus is on the player making the mode choice to choose the mode that best suits their playstyle expectations.

The "git gud or go Solo / Mobius" campaign has been running for years now - rather "successfully", in terms of encouraging players to decide which they prefer, i.e. changing their play-style or game mode choice.

Differentiating gameplay from "griefing" is non-trivial - and highly subjective. Which is probably why Frontier leave it up to the player to choose their mode accordingly.
 
lol. True to character, providing the most ridiculous analogies and flimsiest excuses to justify his evil acts. See you in Eravate one day, Zarek Noobkiller, overlord of nothing. ;)

Griefers (according to the definition I was responding to):
- Negatively impact game for others
- Their actions are of little risk to selves
- Lack of empathy regarding actions

Exploration griefers satisfy ALL the criteria for griefing.
 
I think a huge issue in the current game is the extreme difference between a fully engineered combat ship, and any other ship not similarly prepared for defence. I've had a big chat with someone who has been very kindly helping me to outfit my ships for adequate defense, and it takes (IMHO) a LOT of effort, both in outfitting as well as engineering, to get ships to a level deemed "survivable". That means, literally being able to survive long enough to high-wake out. It also significantly impacts their usefulness for other roles (for example the suggested builds had 3 shield boosters, each engineered with different resistences!).
Given this significant level of investment (I'm still unlocking relevant engineers), I'd wager that a LOT of players simply aren't prepared to do this.

The game needs (IMHO) a serious balance pass such that combat encounters last minutes, not seconds. Conversely the low/high-wake times would also need to be extended during a combat situation, otherwise it'd be trivial to escape.

My aim in suggesting a more extended combat scenario is that it would allow time for system security vessels to arrive and assist, IF the system in question is high/medium security. The higher the security level the quicker and stronger the response. While this is already the case in the current system, it's rare for an attacked ship to actually survive long enough before system security arrives and starts being a deterrent.

It would also give defending players, especially those not as practiced at combat interactions, more time to try to escape and even if (when!) they are killed, at least some semblance of gameplay instead of just being blown up in under 10 seconds.

To balance extended combat out, PvE payouts would need to be increased as number of ships killed per minute would be drastically reduced.


So for me, "griefing" would be attacking someone else for no good reason (other than simply "murder") in a ship and/or wing designed to kill the other player in the shortest possible amount of time, and choosing the target such that their chances of survival are, for all intents and purposes, not only zero, but also in a very short time period.
 
The problem is in determining what is griefing and what is not griefing.
Not a problem really - it is down to the victim to determine if they feel they are being unreasonably targeted and then report the incident to FD for them to judge. It is not the job of the collective community to try to delimit in "unambiguous and unequivocal terms" what is or is not griefing - that is a fools game typically advocated by griefers and griefer apologists.

FTR I personally do not consider a single ganking incident necessarily griefing - but it could be judged as such depending on the precise circumstances.

For me Solo solves everything. I don't do multiplayer, not in Elite, not in any game I own. I never will.
Private Groups is the easiest way to avoid the players that any given individual considers toxic to their enjoyment while still enjoying the multiplayer element. It is a shame that the Mobius group has exceeded the population/membership limits of Private Groups.
 
I like a true open pvp experience, but maybe it's because I played a lot of Eve Online and other similar masochistic games in the past :)

I like knowing that there is some real intelligent danger out there and that I have to be alert, when I'm doing my every-day stuff. It makes me actually think about how I actually fit my ship and look at the radar. I love ESO, but closed PVP zones don't give you the feeling of real danger, which I think, fits the "lone space ship captain" genre perfectly. All the iconic space captains had to be on their toes when flying around :)

And no. I'm not an active PVP player, but I really enjoy "running blockades" and having some real challenges in the game :D And this game really rewards smart ship fitting, alerteness and smart flying in SC when you want to get safely to your destination :)

A totally different thing is the NPC police in the game. Most good Open PVP games have some really OP police in the "safe" zones. ED's police response and the criminal system are a joke. The update to the system was totally misguided, making it simply much more convoluted and arguably "immersive" instead of effective.

There should be some effective NPC police at CG's in high sec space.
 
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But you either use the arena or challenge to a duel … Now to reiretate - in what way is the implementation as FDev have done it BETTER than this?

The obvious answer is, because it's more "realistic" – i.e. it better reflects human nature. In real life, people can attack you without warning or provocation. The obvious response is, "But it's meant to be fun!" And a response to *that* might be, "While it might not be fun in the moment, overall, a more realistic environment makes the world more alive and more fun for everyone." But it'll run and run :)
 
The obvious answer is, because it's more "realistic" – i.e. it better reflects human nature. In real life, people can attack you without warning or provocation. The obvious response is, "But it's meant to be fun!" And a response to *that* might be, "While it might not be fun in the moment, overall, a more realistic environment makes the world more alive and more fun for everyone." But it'll run and run :)

In real life there is no blockade of bloodthirsty gangsters every time you go to a city event :D
 
Totally, but that kind of misses the point. I'm not suggesting banning pvp but there are other, more clever ways of implementing it. The best mmo environment i've played is undoubtedly ESO. PvP happens all tje time, even more than ED. But you either use the arena or challenge to a duel. And the result is you constantly have loads of players in open in every area. Everyone wins. You can go about the game without being harrassed by anti-social behaviour or you can PvP at any time you like. Now to reiretate - in what way is the implementation as FDev have done it BETTER than this?
I think you need to look at the bigger picture - in ED all PvP is intended to be emergent in nature. That essentially means PvP is not expressly inhibited through mechanics nor is it expressly catered for in the main environment (CQC is another matter). There an in-game system of C&P/C&C that is meant to help moderate at least some of the more extreme and clear cut cases (seal clubbing) amongst other things. For the more extreme cases where people abuse the privilege of being allowed to PvP and take things too far there are also in-game reporting tools. The notional punishment for such behaviours would be a shadow ban which essentially means that (if imposed) for at least a time the guilty party will be still able to play but will not be able to (a) spawn with non-shadow banned players and (b) be unable to affect the BGS.

It is not a perfect system perhaps but the imperfections are mitigated by the availability of Private Group and Solo modes.
 
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And no. I'm not an active PVP player, but I really enjoy "running blockades" and having some real challenges in the game :D And this game really rewards smart ship fitting, alertness and smart flying in SC when you want to get safely to your destination :)

I wish there was more to it than Tank & Run though as once you've min-maxed it (ie best ship [Cutter] and mods) it's extremely rare to have interesting combat interactions as your ship is now borderline invincible within the time-scale of the engagement. For example, I recently had a guy interdict my Cutter pretty much every second run to a CG for about 2 hours. I'd get a "welcome back" followed swiftly by an interdiction. Each time the guy would have a different ship or a different weapon loadout.

Now I normally don't communicate with "pirates" but it's quite rare for the same player to even bother with me twice so I figured I'd see what his story was and how I'd offended him so deeply. I figured it was probably the Docking Computer again but it turns out he was just using my ship to test loadouts because "most ships blow up too fast". Now that was an interesting interaction but I was never in any actual danger or anything. I've lost that sense of excitement that comes with blockade running and I wish that it could be made more interesting somehow, with viable tactics other than Tank & Run.

A totally different thing is the NPC police in the game. Most good Open PVP games have some really OP police in the "safe" zones. ED's police response and the criminal system are a joke. The update to the system was totally misguided, making it simply much more convoluted and arguably "immersive" instead of effective.

There should be some effective NPC police at CG's in high sec space.
Yeah, the police in High Security are a joke. Given it *should* be relatively easy to give System Authority ships engineered mods that would make them effective without having to change anything else I don't understand why it hasn't happened already.
 
Because the only way to fully remove it from the game, is by utterly destroying legitamate PVP.

I don't see it as a good thing, but a neccassary evil to allow actual interesting player battles to exist.
 
If I might just add an observation to this discussion, I believe "griefing" (as I personally definite it) exists due to the extreme mismatch between a veteran PvPer flying a highly engineered ship with specialized modules and the newer player still learning the ropes. When ED first launched on PS4, playing in Open was an amazing experience, because we were all setting off in relatively equal ships just trying to make our way in the galaxy. It took a couple of weeks before the stereotypical "griefing" began, as the gap between ship builds increased over time. Now today we have the same type of griefing as seen on PC, where wings of Elite CMDRs in engineered ships "patrol" the CGs, starter systems, and engineer bases, hunting for Mostly Harmless CMDRs still flying in modest Cobras and Vipers.

I personally am not bothered by griefers these days, as I know how to avoid them, but having seen new CMDRs mercilessly slaughtered by these "wings", I have asked myself the same question the OP asks - how is this good for the game? Whether these new CMDRs quit the game because of the heavy burden of multiple rebuys ("dying" in ED is much more 'painful' than most games), or switch to Solo, or just avoid CGs, I don't see how this is a "good" thing for ED or Frontier as a money-making company.
 
In real life there is no blockade of bloodthirsty gangsters every time you go to a city event :D

That's a spurious argument.

In the real world if you go to that city event with an assault rifle (as we have sadly seen) then you have the ability to kill many many people.
The difference is that in the real world that when you then turn that gun on yourself or the authorities catch up with you, then that's it. Game over. For ever.

In ANY game the issue is that you simply dont have the same consequences. You just start again, or in the case of ED pay a tiny fee and then continue - you don't even lose any of the assets you have accrued.

The single biggest modifier of human behaviour is an understanding of consequence.

In ED there simply are no real consequences.

If you want to moderate behaviour within a game to some form of social norm that we would recognise in the real world, then you need to have consequences that modify behaviour.

Now I am not suggesting that FDev SHOULD do this. They have provided other means to very successfully avoid the problems instead. BUT IF you wanted to fix the behaviour then you would need to make being beaten (ie death) a significant set back. You can't say "if you die you leave the game", the place would be empty and FDev would go bust. You CAN do thinks like get rid of ship insurance, lose engineeed assets and mats etc. It would however make the galaxy a closer simulation of real world behaviours. There would always be an outlying 'nutter' happy to die for their opinion and behaviour though. The problem there is that affects everyone that loses a ship and again a lot would leave and FDev goes bust.

The only real solution in a GAME is to enforce some C&P in the game mechanics. This is what FDev do. And regardless of some opinions you might read it is relatively effective. Remember that FDev have deliberately developed a game where the career path of being a criminal is a legitimate gameplay style. So in order to make the game interesting with some challenge the C&P system needs to have consequences to the criminal but not prevent them from being able to play.

All in all its a very very hard situation to balance across the galaxy and the various playstyles.

To ensure that they have the maximum possible accessibility to all different playstyles FDev provide Open, PG and solo. So this is where you get to choose your playstle. No mode is 'better' than another. It's a very elegant solution.

Those that call for "please stop the griefers shooting me" are saying "i want others to play the way i do." This is pretty much the same as those that cry that 'hiding' in solo is 'cheating' and everyone should be forced into open, "make them play the same way I do." Both are wrong. both fail to understand the consequences of their demands or the game they are playing.
 
how is this good for the game? Whether these new CMDRs quit the game because of the heavy burden of multiple rebuys ("dying" in ED is much more 'painful' than most games), or switch to Solo, or just avoid CGs, I don't see how this is a "good" thing for ED or Frontier as a money-making company.
I agree with you that "griefing" is not good for ANY game, though it is the result of idiotic behaviour in essence - not game balance, griefing was a thing even before Engineers. :rolleyes:

The only true way to deal with griefers is to permanently ban anyone that engages in it, or at least shadow ban them, only then will they possibly get the message that such behaviour is not acceptable. Though I suspect the more determined griefers will just buy another account and continue where they left off.
 
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