I have to ask to this because while, yes, Mobius is at least slightly partially responsible, but also responsible in believing in other people, that they want PvE without getting overrun by so called "PvP'ers" that aren't looking for a challenge but just easy targets.
However, those that did it, invading Mobius specifically to disrupt it, are significantly more to blame, they decided that for fun to go into a private group and disrupt those there.
That behaviour is not something that I think should be defended, regardless of them being able to mechanically can or cannot do something, they chose specifically to go into a known PvE group and attack people, that is deplorable behaviour, immature behaviour at the very best, why are people defending this behaviour? I don't really understand this. Because they have a "right" to behave as they want? yet that doesn't count for the mobius members? if they want to play as they do in a private group? how does the attackers have any more right then the mobius members? Mobius affects no one but those that are part of it, but these people decide to push what they want onto others? and they get defended?
What was done wasn't right, I've never said otherwise, I continue to refer to the people who did it as slimeballs, as that's the only thing I can call them that won't get me in trouble.
None the less, this wasn't the first time, it wasn't the 5th time even, it's happened over a dozen times previously, and nothing has been done to address that. People slipping in once or twice, ok, yeah, that'll happen, address the problem. But when it happens the 5th time and nothing is done to address it? The 10th time and nothing is done to address it? When you KNOW the bad guys are coming but you do nothing to prevent that, repeatedly, the fault lies on you at that point, especially when it is in your power to stop them. Mobius doesn't vet the applicants, it's not that difficult, it takes a few moments of your time. He has 20,000 people he could ask to help with that as well, making it a total no brainer. I did it myself, solo, for a league with 10,000 active players, every single player had to be vetted to make sure no one was duping or doing other assorted things we didn't allow. It took me a bit of time but not all that much, and that was quite literally 20 years ago when I didn't have Facebook, Google or Youtube to use as a quick check as we have today. Mobius needs to stop being passive on this, simple as that, or it will just continue to happen over and over again. He already lets people access his account to add/remove people, so what's the problem with getting some of those same people to spend a little time to vet the applicants?
What was done this time, and every previous time, utter and total , personally, if I ran the show, I'd ban their asses and I'd ban the units they are part of who knew of the acts beforehand but didn't stop them, and it would prevent it from reoccurring as no unit would want everyone to be busted for a few giggles. I'm a hardass though, I don't mess around with people who can't play nicely with others, even in pure PvP games, there's no excuse for such behaviour, ever.
It's FD's show however, and none of their rules were broken. They do NOT approve of the actions, they did make that clear, but since no rules were broken, they can't actually step in and do anything about it. They are kind of stuck in this situation, rules apply to them that people simply keep ignoring or don't know about, which sucks and they don't like it but they are stuck with it. That said, it's really not their place to police private groups either, I'm a hardass, I've got a habit of ignoring things I KNOW I should do and doing what I prefer to do. Then again, I ran a league, not an entire game, so it's a little different situation, I was final authority and the rules were subject to change whenever the hell I felt like it, which most of my players liked as I'm not forgiving of griefers, exploiters, or hack users, at all, no warnings, no second chances, you do it, you get the boot, end of story. Doesn't go over as well for a game company in the UK as for a private citizen in the US...EU laws, they do make things interesting at times don't they?