News Support update - Reiteration of player harassment rules

[Zac Antonaci]

Hi everyone,

In light of recent issues relating to the way a small collective of players have been approaching and targeting specific private groups and other community events such as charity livestreams, we wanted to reinforce an important part of the existing rules regarding in-game harassment that every player agrees to when creating their account.

We wanted to reiterate some examples regarding the rules of Player harassment. If a player has been blocked from a private group, or a group/individual has taken every step possible to remove a player from their gameplay, then attempting to circumvent this in any fashion is a serious offense and action will be taken accordingly. Attempting to re-establish contact with an individual who has blocked a player through secondary accounts or other methods of attempting to evade the block are against the rules. Action can and will be taken against both the accounts in question and the main accounts of players that we deem to be harassing players through this method.

In addition taking action such as seeking out and targeting specific players purely for the purpose of being disruptive, to cause offence, or to upset players within the community can also be considered harassment. A perfect example of this is deliberately attempting to disrupt public livestreams such as the charity ones mentioned before. This includes, but is not limited to, the capturing of footage and releasing it publically in an attempt to create upset or gain notoriety through the actions listed above.

We have previously stated, and it remains true, that Frontier are not able to manage group specific rules. Players considered to be breaking these group rule sets as established by group moderators should be removed from those groups by said moderators. In addition, running a livestream in Open does invite the potential for players to approach and impact your gameplay and running a livestream in which you are declaring war on another group and they come and take action against you is reasonable and should be expected.

Ultimately it’s about context. The support team can and will review these kinds of offences and will be taking action against accounts that set their entire purpose on harassing players and groups in this way. They are currently investigating a number of incidents and will be dealing directly with any parties involved.

The Frontier Support team take the protection and safety of the community very seriously, they strive to ensure that the game remains fair and friendly. If you feel the need to report an incident, please do get in contact with support via our support site at https://support.frontier.co.uk - please include as much detail of the event as possible.

You can see a copy of the rules that everyone signs up to by creating an account, including harassment, here:
https://www.frontierstore.net/ed-eula/

Thanks for reading.

 

[Ian Phillips]

Hello all. I've removed a few posts that have nothing to do with this subject.

Please keep the comments pertinent to the topic. Thank you.

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

And some want the game to be more like EVE.

This is what you would get 24/7 if it was, thank god for FD having some common sense.

 

[Elethiomel Zakalwe]

And some want the game to be more like EVE.

This is what you would get 24/7 if it was, thank god for FD having some common sense.

Do you even understand what EVE is like? High-sec systems in EVE are actually high-sec. I don't think anyone is advocating turning Elite into a 24/7 gank fest.

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Seems reasonable all around. Group owners should be fully responsible for enforcing their own rules, but once they've taken all reasonable measures to keep someone out of their group, any further attempts to gain access to the group can and should be considered harassment.

 

[TheDayman]

My own, very personal opinion here.

There's a fine line between harassment and actual game play, and some may view harassment differently than others. The people who commit harassment know what they are doing. I get it - some people enjoy the misery of others, misery they cannot obtain by simply shooting AI. Some look for their 15 minutes of fame, while others are just seriously role-playing. But those who commit the harassment referred to here know they are guilty of the act, and those are the ones who should be punished. Now, obviously harassment to one party doesn't necessarily translate to harassment to the other. Some may view repeated interdictions for example, as harassment and in some form it is. But that's not what FD is referring to here by any means. What those parties did to Mobius is deplorable in every sense of the word. They took advantage of good intentions and turned it into something that benefits them. That's something we all should be morally opposed to. So again, my own personal opinion, but those that committed those acts deserve what's coming to them.

TL/DR - I'm agreeing with the policy Frontier is setting forth.

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

I don't think anyone is advocating turning Elite into a 24/7 gank fest.

Thats exactly what some people would want the game to be like. Sadly the truth is if the game was like that it would probably a bigger following / online community.

Gamers live for the gank, its what games like EVE, Ark, DayZ etc. are based on.

 

[xondk]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading.

Very clear statement, thank you, maybe this puts to rest some of the issues that have been around the subject.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I think the main thing to take away from this is that people have called for FD to clarify their stance on recent events, and now they have. So at least we should all feel a lot more sure now about what FD consider unacceptable behaviour.

 

[Kinmob]

Wow. Diving into the realm of harassment on an Internet mmo. Here comes the class action suit followed by mass refunds.
There is a thread on these forums right now inciting inflame harassment against a specific group. It calls for members of mobius and others to actively undermine SDCs player faction in wolfburg. It also incites many slanderous insults toward the player group SDC. Will you please take action against everyone participating in that thread. Thank you.

 

[Nerf Buck]

Thank you Zac. Had hoped this post would come. I trust that any punishment for future infractions will be firm.

 

[Aigaion]

So basically, you are lowering your pants for people that are unable to assume the fact that they can be killed by other players. You should basically rename the game Elite: Mostly Harmless, that's the least you can do seing on how it's turning right now, but hey, all big game devs always turn their backs to the minority of players to listen to the majority of crying care bears.

 

[CMDR pollycough]

You don't always get what you want in this galaxy, But you will usually get what you deserve.
+1 FD

 

[xondk]

Wow. Diving into the realm of harassment on an Internet mmo. Here comes the class action suit followed by mass refunds.
There is a thread on these forums right now inciting inflame harassment against a specific group. It calls for members of mobius and others to actively undermine SDCs player faction in wolfburg. It also incites many slanderous insults toward the player group SDC. Will you please take action against everyone participating in that thread. Thank you.

Sorry, but no, that's not harassment, that is an entire in-game reaction, if or if not it is motivated and encouraged out of the game on forums, it is a consequence to what SDC did.
And if someone is a consequence it can hardly be seen as harassment, because SDC could easily have avoided it by not doing what they did, which as described here is clearly an act of harassment, SDC harassed mobius, they reacted.

There's no ground at all for any class action law suite, because guess what, SDC broke very clear rules, that have even now been clarified further, so yeah..and the mobius and others response is done entirely in game via in game mechanics that are a part of the game, it is no different then if they decided to attack them for any other reason. Where what SDC did was based purely around enjoying harassing others, unless you can explain what possible other reason there is for going into a group and disrupting it?

 

[Jypson]

Hi everyone,

...

Thanks for reading.

Seems like common sense to me. Best of luck to the awesome Support Wing separating the wheat from the chaff!

 

[Elethiomel Zakalwe]

So basically, you are lowering your pants for people that are unable to assume the fact that they can be killed by other players. You should basically rename the game Elite: Mostly Harmless, that's the least you can do seing on how it's turning right now, but hey, all big game devs always turn their backs to the minority of players to listen to the majority of crying care bears.

That's not how I interpreted this, but sadly some people who actually want this will interpret it as a victory for them. There's a line between killing other players andrepeated targeting/following specific individuals or invading private groups after all reasonable measures have been taken to prevent that.

Here's how I interpret this: if someone wants to be a psychopath and murder everything in sight for no apparent reason that's fine. If you specifically target a particular individual repeatedly with the sole intention of preventing that particular individual from enjoying the game then that can be considered harassment.

 

[Aigaion]

Sorry, but no, that's not harassment, that is an entire in-game reaction, if or if not it is motivated and encouraged out of the game on forums, it is a consequence to what SDC did.
And if someone is a consequence it can hardly be seen as harassment, because SDC could easily have avoided it by not doing what they did, which as described here is clearly an act of harassment, SDC harassed mobius, they reacted.

There's no ground at all for any class action law suite, because guess what, SDC broke very clear rules, that have even now been clarified further, so yeah..and the mobius and others response is done entirely in game via in game mechanics that are a part of the game, it is no different then if they decided to attack them for any other reason. Where what SDC did was based purely around enjoying harassing others, unless you can explain what possible other reason there is for going into a group and disrupting it?

It is harassment, but as SDC are the bad guys, and the rest of the world are the good guys, no actions will be taken. Basically a two speed justice, but hey, FDev has to pick a side, they chosed the crybabies.

 

[xondk]

So basically, you are lowering your pants for people that are unable to assume the fact that they can be killed by other players. You should basically rename the game Elite: Mostly Harmless, that's the least you can do seing on how it's turning right now, but hey, all big game devs always turn their backs to the minority of players to listen to the majority of crying care bears.

You can kill a million people in game for a ton of reasons none of them being harassment....just saying. Maybe, just maybe there's no care bears, and maybe just maybe there's a group of people that genuinely enjoy hurting and harassing others for no other reason then that?, and despite their being many things they could do they focus on doing just that? just maybe? Or at least that's my impression of this overall thing, not that people mind pvp one bit, but only clearly mind those that see blowing people up for no reason as fun and enjoyable because they know it hurts them, and that they have little chance of defence?
Maybe those people should chose one of the many options available to them of playing the game and getting pvp through the game? you know, actual battles?

 

[Aigaion]

You can kill a million people in game for a ton of reasons none of them being harassment....just saying. Maybe, just maybe there's no care bears, and maybe just maybe there's a group of people that genuinely enjoy hurting and harassing others for no other reason then that?, and despite their being many things they could do they focus on doing just that? just maybe? Or at least that's my impression of this overall thing, not that people mind pvp one bit, but only clearly mind those that see blowing people up for no reason as fun and enjoyable because they know it hurts them, and that they have little chance of defence?

And why should they not do it as long as they enjoy playing Elite this way ? I thought that people could play the game like they want it when I bought it, but seems like I was wrong.

 

[Frontier Moderation Team]

Hey all, a friendly reminder to stay civil. Discussions and debates are greatly welcomed. Be insulting to any person via obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory comments isn't. Ty!

 

[xondk]

And why should they not do it as long as they enjoy playing Elite this way ? I thought that people could play the game like they want it when I bought it, but seems like I was wrong.

Because....it is harassment? by any standard I know, and not allowed?

There are so many possible in game reasons that make for perfect fine killing of people, however yes, most of them do require some sort of interaction with others.....which you'd think is why people play in open.
So yeah, the play methods described in EULA/TOS are not allowed, removing a very select few playstyles, but still allowing a ton of others....?