Guild Wars 2

A long time ago on the internet some of us were very happy to read the following… (because we know that people can be kittens (and not the cuddly sort))

Eric: A few things need to be said about the event system here. One of the primary goals when we design each and every event is ensuring that the event is not griefable. The entire point of the event system is that players work together to succeed at events, therefore the only way to manipulate the system in a negative way would be to cause an event to fail.

“Events never encourage player conflict, and never have fail conditions that can be actively triggered by players.”Events never encourage player conflict, and never have fail conditions that can be actively triggered by players. For example, you won’t see any events that require players to be “stealthy” by say, sneaking by some sleeping guards. A player in this situation could quite easily choose to wake the guards up and ruin the fun for everyone. In the case where a player or group of players have figured out how to cause an event to fail, we have been very careful to not make any one particular event more desirable than another.

However a players opportunity to get the No Free Lunch can be sabotaged by someone running in early and getting themselves cocooned and eaten. I have seen people (on Desolation) doing this obviously on purpose…. (which was confirmed by their map chat as their intention)

Another example is during phase two of the Defeat Scarlet’s Prime Hologram… event. A clever/coordinated group can kill the Dynamic, Static and Synergetic holograms at around the same time. Their "reward " for this is that the rest of the event is much easier and therefore they are more likely to succeed. However it’s possible to “fail” the easy approach by prematurely killing one before the others are close to dying. This means that the event will involve a larger number of foes and be more difficult. Again the “power” to do this lies with anyone who cares to do so, either by deliberate action or just failing to read the update notes or map chat.

I believe that unfortunately these two events all too readily provide griefing opportunity so please please please consider how to make future events more robust against the actions of a malicious (or clueless) few!

Kind regards

Shin

true words.
biggest BS is that the spider queen can eat ppl while walking near by and screw the achievement for the whole spawn

I saw someone doing this the other day. He justified it by claiming because of the leader board, it’s a competition to get achievement points so it was by design to prevent other players from getting more points then you. The guy was a jerk, but unfortunately is “argument” did make some sense.

It brings to mind the Tequatl turrets, back when that event first was released. Clearly, somebody over there needs to have the specific job of investigating whether events/achievements are griefable before they get released.

In case of the spider queen it would have been enough to make it a personal achievement, so that only the person who wants it must not be cocooned and eaten afterwards. Of course that would be a (too) easy to get achievement. But then again they could have changed it to even require beeing cocooned and then being freed in time so the queen can’t eat you.

About griefing the queen event: It happened to me once on my way between two heirlooms that the spider queen spawned just when I was passing by… Of course I got cocooned and eaten and could watch the chat with all its name calling and people ranting about the noob who has “deliberately” ruined the achievement for others – in other words: me.

Of course the game also has people who get cocooned on purpose but the sad thing is: this event doesn’t even require those but only people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Since my little incident there, I just try to avoid that area. But you can’t expect anyone who already has the achievement and/or doesn’t care about the event to do that.

I hope these scenarios are taken into consideration when designing future events. I was lucky enough to get the achievement on the first day of the LS patch, but I understand the frustration of all those who didn’t…

Also an issue with players purposefully dragging menders towards the blue knight to have it heal mid-fight. Again a player admitted he was doing this in map chat.

It absolutely amazes me what some people will do just to get their jollies off.

“I’m going to get an entire map full of people angry at me! Hur hur! This is going to be fun!”

Truly sad and pathetic, if you ask me.

Two days ago someone pulled the atherblade cannonneer towards the green watchknight, it kinda sucked, since it took a little longer that way to get greeny killed

In MMO’s alas there will always be ppl that somehow find it funny to intentionally grief other players.

All we need is a reporting option for this, and then ANet needs to make it clear that intentionally trolling encounters will always result in a 4 weeks ban first time, permaban second time.

Because really, I don’t think they should cut down on encounter behaviour for this. Don’t try to fix human stupidity, it won’t work.

Carighan.6758:

All we need is a reporting option for this, and then ANet needs to make it clear that intentionally trolling encounters will always result in a 4 weeks ban first time, permaban second time.

Because really, I don’t think they should cut down on encounter behaviour for this. Don’t try to fix human stupidity, it won’t work.

Yeah, I just noticed yesterday that there’s not an option to report someone who tryies to make an event fail intentionally.

Lolindir.3518:

Yeah, I just noticed yesterday that there’s not an option to report someone who tryies to make an event fail intentionally.

Well hello there, fellow TxSer?

Everyone who griefs should be perma banned.

Rayti.6531:

In case of the spider queen it would have been enough to make it a personal achievement, so that only the person who wants it must not be cocooned and eaten afterwards. Of course that would be a (too) easy to get achievement.

There are already three achievements to be gained just by beating specific champions and a further two (ignoring the knights) to be gained by beating specific champions whilst avoiding a particular attack or mechanic. This suggestion would therefore be on a par with the latter so I’d say reasonably “fair” compared to other events. Crucially it would be close enough to troll proof.

enlightened.5396:

Also an issue with players purposefully dragging menders towards the blue knight to have it heal mid-fight. Again a player admitted he was doing this in map chat.

Personally I’ve been fortunate enough to have not knowingly encountered this but I did see blue’s health spike back up a couple of times so who knows whether that was a chance encounter or deliberately “dragged” mender(s)? The good news is they have removed the menders now.

There are already threads around that allude to people taking up a calibration “slot” at a knight and not participating in the event which is a problem if it “locks out” someone who wanted to actively take part.

Shin

Carighan.6758:

All we need is a reporting option for this, and then ANet needs to make it clear that intentionally trolling encounters will always result in a 4 weeks ban first time, permaban second time.

Because really, I don’t think they should cut down on encounter behaviour for this. Don’t try to fix human stupidity, it won’t work.

But how can they tell if someone actually ran up and intentionally got eaten by the spider (unless they bragged in chat about ruining it for everyone else)?

I’m not sure they record that much data. Sure they can probably see that someone was eaten by a spider, but what if it was a lag issue?

I agree, there should be a punishment for ruining everyone else’s fun. (And general hostility and animosity shouldn’t be tolerated either.)

I think having a report feature for trolling is a good idea, but probably wouldn’t accomplish anything because the only way to get flagged for trolling would be to state your intent in map chat.

Unless someone has specifically typed something incriminating in the chat box, it would be almost impossible for the person (or computer) checking the reports to judge another player’s motives. There are too many variables – lack of skill/understanding of the event, lag and disconnects or even language barrier. To avoid banning innocent people, Anet would probably not ban without evidence. The trolls would continue being jerks, but they wouldn’t say it out loud? I don’t think anything would improve.

Besides, the report feature would give the trolls another way to mess with other players.

CoffeeMakesMeSmile.8172:

I think having a report feature for trolling is a good idea, but probably wouldn’t accomplish anything because the only way to get flagged for trolling would be to state your intent in map chat.

Unless someone has specifically typed something incriminating in the chat box, it would be almost impossible for the person (or computer) checking the reports to judge another player’s motives. There are too many variables – lack of skill/understanding of the event, lag and disconnects or even language barrier. To avoid banning innocent people, Anet would probably not ban without evidence. The trolls would continue being jerks, but they wouldn’t say it out loud? I don’t think anything would improve.

Besides, the report feature would give the trolls another way to mess with other players.

Right, well, for anything that’s reported in chat… I suppose you could always select “verbal abuse” as that logs chat.

Perhaps if someone admits to trolling via chat, try that next time.

Just remove achievements that rely on other people’s efforts and i will be fine. I did not finished marionette achievements, and i can not finish “No Free Lunch”. I am tired of this. I don’t want to wait for another hour just to see how some people ruin my efforts.

Minos.5168:

I’m not sure they record that much data. Sure they can probably see that someone was eaten by a spider, but what if it was a lag issue?

Oh, spider wouldn’t work. Not possible to tell intentional behaviour from accidental one.
But for example on Marionette you had groups go in and immediately log out. Record that 5-6 times over two weeks, ban, without any warning.

The basic issue here is that the updates pace do not allow them to really think about how someone can troll during the events. They had years to study and restudy the open world and dungeons by comparison, and so there are a vastly reduced opportunity to troll there (most have been introduced during post-launch updates).