Requesting friendship could be accompanied with a message
- Thread starter Orbitalai
- Start date
Would it matter? Would it make a difference whether you got a straightforward friend request or a friend request accompanied by some smarmy, beguiling message like "Hey, you're really cool, wanna hang out?". Would it really change your opinion of the request? I don't trust any friend request and that policy has worked out OK for me. o7
Well, it'd be handy if I wanted to send a message to someone that just jumped out of system, since you have to be friends to talk to people that aren't in your instance.
"I want to be friends with you so I can block you and unfriend you" Not sure how well that would go!
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Being able to send a potentially unpleasant message to any player on the same platform wouldn't have any downsides, would it?
In the given case, it would come with the name of the sender and everything. And unlike many other things, this would even be stored on FDs servers. (Just like the friends list is. ) So while FD might not see the current P2P transmitted chat messges, the ones in question here would be visible to them. This makes it rather easy to report abuse. Have customer service handle that as if they'd be professionals, with according punishment, and things will be all fine. (Just give a few people, as soon as they abuse the feature, a week or two of a gaming break and let the word spread. It'll do miracles. )
Sorry, but as long as our current in-game chat is no problem, this one will be far from being one.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
At the moment players can only be communicated with in the same system (unless otherwise linked through a wing, friends list, etc.).
Being able to contact any player at will would facilitate abuse. Of course any abusive messages can be reported - however the damage is done by that point.
So you think that limited range actually enforces good behaviour? If somebody wants to insult people, he can just as well sit in SD and do so. I really don't think that the "range" of the message makes a difference here. People either show manners because they have them, or because they are afraid of negative consequences. Chat range is not a limiting factor, i would guess.
Ehh, for players on consoles, they can just send messages through their service, XBL or PSN, as is. PC has the limited communication platform.
When I was on Xbox I got some messages from real charmers, but it was mostly just people from the forums who were mad.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
True - however the consoles providers are pretty quick to act on abusive messages - to the point of banning players from using console online services completely.
Being reported on PC would not stop a player using their PC online - the consequences for the perpetrator are quite different.
Hmm. You basically make a good point to convert the game to solo only.
Sarcasm aside, other games can also handle it. Some games have the reputation of customer support being rather good, and the chat there usually is quite clean and fine. If you think that this is not possible for this game, your view on our community must be really grim.
Right, but as you said, the damage is done at that point.
This suggestion is just another avenue of many that somebody determined to be obnoxious could take. It could be limited in length to minimize the availability of such things.
If you recive invite out of the blue, you can accept, ask who is that and why does he want to have you as a friend, and unfriend him if you don't feel like it. It's not that by accepting friends request you're bound to that person forever
It might be that someone you encountered briefly wants to communicate with you and maybe throw some harsh words your way, but he can't since you have left - no reason to make it easier for them.
You can also easily just ignore those requests - some people send friends invites to everone they encounter. I don't think they'll feel especially hurt if you don't accept. It must happen a lot, so they're probably accustomed to that.
Deleted member 38366
D
Not sure if I'm the only one - but I've received Friendship requests from total strangers more than once.
(never met in space nor elsewhere)
Early on, I kept asking after a few days "Hi, anything I can do for you?" just to get the question out of the way "Well, why? Any particular reason for the request?" basically.
Plus, some of the responses were.... uhm... weird, to say the least.
Ranging from "No Response at all" upto pre-made and formatted Text Blocks that were repeatedly (!) sent when requesting clarification.
So yeah, some particular reason (a bit analog to Squadron Application, just far easier like a simple 1-liner to quickly add) seems a good idea.
(never met in space nor elsewhere)
Early on, I kept asking after a few days "Hi, anything I can do for you?" just to get the question out of the way "Well, why? Any particular reason for the request?" basically.
Plus, some of the responses were.... uhm... weird, to say the least.
Ranging from "No Response at all" upto pre-made and formatted Text Blocks that were repeatedly (!) sent when requesting clarification.
So yeah, some particular reason (a bit analog to Squadron Application, just far easier like a simple 1-liner to quickly add) seems a good idea.
My main one is 'cause I wanna say "hi, I've seen you in this system a few times today, are you working BGS 'cause if so I'd rather work something out than end up fighting you"
No, but it limits bad behaviour, exiting a toxic conversation at the moment is a single jump, if the chat is galaxy wide you can't get away.
Yet if one message per friend request is enough to do the damage, the very single message in a system does the very same damage. I just don't see a difference on that aspect.
The very only difference i do see is the community. I am not active in any other game, where this would even be worth a throught. If we ourselves think that this is a problem, then our reputation of being the scum of the gaming world might indeed be well deserved.
Why not have an optional message you can or cannot read?