Stop calling it greifing, that word doesn't mean what you think it means.
When you leech you know that it is making things harder for other people. When you leech you know that it will annoy people. What would you call someone who knows that and does it anyways?
The problem is, that it is not your definition, nor anyone else's, outside of Cryptic/PWE's, definition that makes a difference. They don't see it as a terribly important issue tbh.
If it makes you feel better, then by all means go ahead and report them. As others have suggested, the only way to avoid this problem is going to channel/private matches.
If you dont belong to these channels, consider asking the other people in the mission with you if they want to team... you already know they aren't going to leech on you. If the next random player you pick up is decent, add him to the team when you reform... and you are all set.
2 days in a row doing Mirror Universe Incursion to level up a Romulan character their was 1 person who kept leeching the mission. Something needs to be done to stop leeching.
If you dont belong to these channels, consider asking the other people in the mission with you if they want to team... you already know they aren't going to leech on you. If the next random player you pick up is decent, add him to the team when you reform... and you are all set.
That is not reality I had played multiple games with someone they sent me a friend invite I accepted and at a later time that person leeched a entire match.
I just really really want to see just one AFK or leecher! really I have not seen 1 single AFK player during any queue event and i am doing the grind on 2 toons so i am running them pretty much exclusivly.
I started playing shortly after the game went F2P because I'm a Trekkie. I've seen about 4 leechers in STFs since then. It's unfair to get free rewards like that but fortunately it is not a frequent problem.
Tyr shall give me strength! For the glory of Tempus! I am the hands of Shar! Flames of Kossuth, protect me! Oghma, grant me knowledge! Lolth commands, and I obey!
That is not reality I had played multiple games with someone they sent me a friend invite I accepted and at a later time that person leeched a entire match.
u... then add them to your ignore list, and dont accept team invites from them in the future.
u... then add them to your ignore list, and dont accept team invites from them in the future.
When I see someone leech I add them to ignore but my point was even in private matches their is sometimes leeching going on.
Things to help stop leeching.
When something is kill/destroyed only people that attacked and damaged it will get experience/expertise points and will have a chance at getting any loot drops.
Allow players to flag someone as a leecher and if the person who was flagged a leecher does not engage in combat after a few min they are booted from the mission.
PWE may take any actions and impose any penalties we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct, all without prior notice or warning. The determination as to whether a violation has occurred and who is responsible for such act is solely within PWE's discretion, and is based on what we deem best for the community and the Website. By using the Website, you agree you will be bound by PWE's determination as to whether a violation has occurred and any penalty we choose to implement.
Leeching doesn't HAVE to be against the TOS for PWE or Cryptic (as a subsidiary) to take action. As a prime example, look at the STF early leave penalty. Leaving early was not, and is not, a violation of the TOS, and yet, they took action.
Arguing against action being taken simply because it is not covered in the EULA doesn't mean anything. They have proven that.
I for one would like to see something done about people that are leeching. What exactly that may be, I'm not sure. Account banning is excessive for this offense. Loss of marks or other rewards, however, I feel would be appropriate. How it would be determined that someone is leeching (in the code, mind you, it isn't as easy to see as it is for you and I) is another issue.
I would, for one, like to see what Cryptic has to say to the community regarding this issue. I have yet to see a response from even the community manager, and this, I fear, tells me everything I need to know about their stance on it.
well a few of us are frankly sick of afkers and leechers and we are choosing not to play it as much , its rather frustrating that Cryptic have totally buried their heads in the sand they don't care.
THey say its "not against the spirit of the game" well if leeching isn't against the spirit of the game what they don't realise is that THESE players must be using automatic parsing programs to join missions then need on all drops then reflag for the next mission.
BUt you cant prove it because they arnt moving,
Like I say and have said a lot before Crytpic doenst care they only care that people are playing when the game is flooded with auto bot players then the players who still buy zen will depart.
I for one would like to see something done about people that are leeching. What exactly that may be, I'm not sure.
This is the whole problem, nobody is really actively condoning leeching in this thread. It needs to be fixed, but nobody can agree on a sensible way of doing it.
PWE may take any actions and impose any penalties we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct, all without prior notice or warning. The determination as to whether a violation has occurred and who is responsible for such act is solely within PWE's discretion, and is based on what we deem best for the community and the Website. By using the Website, you agree you will be bound by PWE's determination as to whether a violation has occurred and any penalty we choose to implement.
Leeching doesn't HAVE to be against the TOS for PWE or Cryptic (as a subsidiary) to take action. As a prime example, look at the STF early leave penalty. Leaving early was not, and is not, a violation of the TOS, and yet, they took action.
Arguing against action being taken simply because it is not covered in the EULA doesn't mean anything. They have proven that.
I for one would like to see something done about people that are leeching. What exactly that may be, I'm not sure. Account banning is excessive for this offense. Loss of marks or other rewards, however, I feel would be appropriate. How it would be determined that someone is leeching (in the code, mind you, it isn't as easy to see as it is for you and I) is another issue.
I would, for one, like to see what Cryptic has to say to the community regarding this issue. I have yet to see a response from even the community manager, and this, I fear, tells me everything I need to know about their stance on it.
Subsection 10.n
(n) Take any action that disrupts the Service or that negatively affects or may prohibit other users from enjoying the Website, the Games or any other aspect of the Service.
Covers pretty much anything that Cryptic and PWE want it to cover. It's pretty much a slam-dunk that leeching "negatively affects other users ... enjoying the Game(s)."
So it's not like they need cover if they choose to act, the problem is that they seem to feel that this isn't a particularly urgent issue.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
They should. Even from a simple income issue. Less marks (due to failed optionals) means less pressing need for dilithium, as the requisition projects take longer (they add up pretty quickly). Less pressing need for dilithium means a few less people buying Zen to convert.
That aside, it should be enough for them that a portion of their player base is irritated with this, and they should, at the very least, communicate with the player base on an issue such as this. Poor customer relations never turns out well in the end, no matter how small the issue.
This is the whole problem, nobody is really actively condoning leeching in this thread. It needs to be fixed, but nobody can agree on a sensible way of doing it.
Simple....if AFK for 10 consequtive min during event, boot them from task. Base it on doing some dmg to event targets , ie borg ships, ground forces, etc. If leechers no longer get marks for leeching missions they will stop trying to leach. And either not join. Or may actually try to participate.
Simple....if AFK for 10 consequtive min during event, boot them from task. Base it on doing some dmg to event targets , ie borg ships, ground forces, etc. If leechers no longer get marks for leeching missions they will stop trying to leach. And either not join. Or may actually try to participate.
The problem here is specifics. How much damage, how little? What about tanks and science officers? If it's only a token amount I could just play for 90 seconds then AFK and still get the rewards. Or if it's just buffing, set a simple keyboard macro to mash a hotkey.
Details would be good...
Frankly most STFs are done within 10 minutes anyway.
This wouldn't totally solve the problem, but if they incorporated that all players must move a set distance from start and must rack up (not necessarily kill) a small, but set damage amount on a total of no less than 10 encountered enemies might be a push in the right direction. This way even if they incorporate a macro/bot it would still have to accomplish some means to fulfill its requirements, and would therefor be contributing in some way.
Report them (It does fall under a TOS violation) and if possible leave. But not before alerting the rest of the team and offering your apologies.
I've had a full team minus the leech follow my lead twice now. We all reported the leech after three minutes of him/her sitting at spawn and doing nothing and left.
We all immediately re-queued (Colony invasion) and got a fresh run (Three of the four of us ended up together again) with people who actually contributed to the mission and we swept through it in less tie than normal.
Best temporary solution? Leech yourself. When everybody starts leeching, the game will become unplayable. This forum will only contain complaints about this issue. Cryptic will be forced to accelerate efforts to do something.
Another thing is the motivation for leeching. This game has become an endless, mindless grind. For Romulan marks etc. you do not really need to "win". The more difficult stfs are hardly played by pug teams anymore, cause they are hard and do not generate more rewards. And you need to play a lot to equip all ur ships and Boffs with the best there is. Thus, the motivation for afk-grind is tremendous. Do you still remember the days when you would play CGE everyday? Was a real pain, but the motivation was there and I personally never met someone who was AFK-grinding throughout the game.
Another thing is the motivation for leeching. This game has become an endless, mindless grind. For Romulan marks etc. you do not really need to "win". The more difficult stfs are hardly played by pug teams anymore, cause they are hard and do not generate more rewards. And you need to play a lot to equip all ur ships and Boffs with the best there is. Thus, the motivation for afk-grind is tremendous. Do you still remember the days when you would play CGE everyday? Was a real pain, but the motivation was there and I personally never met someone who was AFK-grinding throughout the game.
Hes right, the rep system demands you fill buckets , its a lazy system and of course it has causes a lazy response from some players
personally speaking i got bored of STF a long long time ago , why? Because it felt like i was running on auto pilot
These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
I call player that do not Participate, AFkers, and I call Leeches, players who join Elite STFs and run wild agroing everything and have no clue as to how the mission works and spends more time dying than playing.
i really dont think the leeching would be that bad if they removed CDs and leavers penalties.
by having a 1 hr CD they are forcing is to play missions we dont want to play.
in doing so, people just queue up and let others do the work.
when you cant leave, you have no choice but to finish the mission for them..
yes you can fail it, but in the end everyone loses.
[12:35] Vessel Two of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 225232 (271723) Plasma Damage to you with Plasma Lance.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Hes right, the rep system demands you fill buckets , its a lazy system and of course it has causes a lazy response from some players
personally speaking i got bored of STF a long long time ago , why? Because it felt like i was running on auto pilot
Indeed.
1. They need to scale mission rewards accoding to difficulty. People have different nightmares, but statistics should show which are more difficult. Hive and Ground Stfs are probably hardest.
2. Make all missions possible to fail.
3. Introduce serious PvP. I would not mind if they stealt from Perfect World or Battlefield, like e.g. Capture strategic points or create galaxy instances where the galaxy can be conquered by Fed or KDF.
Bundled with a proper AFK handling system, it should do the trick.
Am I the only one who gets the feeling that anyone here talking in the lines of "Its not against the TOS/EULA" or using some other way to defend/suggest just dealing with it is just another Leecher afraid their effort-free marks might be going away?
Because why else would you defend something that irritates and diminishes the playing experience of others?
Oh and I'm still saying that Vote kicking ability that requires 3 team members to agree on would solve this problem once and for all.
And it has been proven to work over at WoW since the day the dungeon finder was established, so don't bring the "but it would be abusez!!!!111oneoneoneelelven" argument here.
Oh and I'm still saying that Vote kicking ability that requires 3 team members to agree on would solve this problem once and for all.
And it has been proven to work over at WoW since the day the dungeon finder was established, so don't bring the "but it would be abusez!!!!111oneoneoneelelven" argument here.
It is abused there. When it was being tested the players proved this, which was their intention, and so a cooldown was introduced. Effectively if someone has been kicked a certain amount of times they are immune from it. Now imagine if you get them in your group, we are back to the situation we are at now.
Know in that go and see the forums of why people are being kicked and the complaint of it. Some of the reasons I have seen:
they weren't in the same guild as the rest of the group
they spoke a different language to the main group
they asked questions about the instance, and this applies even at low levels when it is meant to teach people about working in group in dungeons
they tried to give helpful advice
To say it won't be abused is naive to say the least. I would rather see 99 leachers get their reward than one innocent player being punished. don't hold it up as soe shinging example of how it should be dealt with.
I do prefer the report afk feature of the BGs because even if it is done for no reason atlast you have the chance to remove the debuff. Yes it can be abused I have seen people be reported afk while gaurding nodes in AB for example however as I said you atleast have the chance to show you are not afk. A sort of compromise system.
It is abused there. When it was being tested the players proved this, which was their intention, and so a cooldown was introduced. Effectively if someone has been kicked a certain amount of times they are immune from it. Now imagine if you get them in your group, we are back to the situation we are at now.
Know in that go and see the forums of why people are being kicked and the complaint of it. Some of the reasons I have seen:
they weren't in the same guild as the rest of the group
they spoke a different language to the main group
they asked questions about the instance, and this applies even at low levels when it is meant to teach people about working in group in dungeons
they tried to give helpful advice
To say it won't be abused is naive to say the least. I would rather see 99 leachers get their reward than one innocent player being punished. don't hold it up as soe shinging example of how it should be dealt with.
I do prefer the report afk feature of the BGs because even if it is done for no reason atlast you have the chance to remove the debuff. Yes it can be abused I have seen people be reported afk while gaurding nodes in AB for example however as I said you atleast have the chance to show you are not afk. A sort of compromise system.
Alright. Let's say it does get abused. (Funnily me nor any of my guild ever got wrongfully kicked over a period of several years nor did we see anyone get wrongfully kicked. *Shrug*)
May I quote Spock here. "Good of the many outweigh the good of the few. Or the one man."
If 99 leechers get kicked for one innocent suffering, then it is a fair price. I would guarantee you that if Vote kick is introduced, leeching drops down to minimum quite fast when leechers realize they can't get away with it.
At the same time we'd get rid of the people who intentionally troll STF's by flying injury-ridden ships, blowing optionals intentionally or in other ways intentionally inhibiting the group (That is griefing, but there is nothing the group can do about it)
So even if it would get abused, the number of proper uses would outweigh the amount it'd be abused. Fair trade I'd say.
Alright. Let's say it does get abused. (Funnily me nor any of my guild ever got wrongfully kicked over a period of several years nor did we see anyone get wrongfully kicked. *Shrug*)
May I quote Spock here. "Good of the many outweigh the good of the few. Or the one man."
If 99 leechers get kicked for one innocent suffering, then it is a fair price. I would guarantee you that if Vote kick is introduced, leeching drops down to minimum quite fast when leechers realize they can't get away with it.
At the same time we'd get rid of the people who intentionally troll STF's by flying injury-ridden ships, blowing optionals intentionally or in other ways intentionally inhibiting the group (That is griefing, but there is nothing the group can do about it)
So even if it would get abused, the number of proper uses would outweigh the amount it'd be abused. Fair trade I'd say.
Your tone would be different if you were that one. The "I didn't see it happen" argument doesn't wash given how many players there are in the game as a whole and it is split acroos the globe by localisations.
An optional is called that for a reason. It is not needed for the STF to be completed. If it gets blown it gets blown. Add to that how do you know it was done intentionally? The only way is if the person states clearly that is what they are going to do or have done, otherwise it is an assumption.
Your tone would be different if you were that one. The "I didn't see it happen" argument doesn't wash given how many players there are in the game as a whole and it is split acroos the globe by localisations.
An optional is called that for a reason. It is not needed for the STF to be completed. If it gets blown it gets blown. Add to that how do you know it was done intentionally? The only way is if the person states clearly that is what they are going to do or have done, otherwise it is an assumption.
How nice of you to ignore the meat of my argument.
Point is, there are people out there who are intentionally griefing others. And yes, some people even state that they are doing it. (Yes, I've used report every time I've seen it. Doesn't seem to stop em though) and others who just HAVE to be doing it intentionally because nobody can be that stupid. (taking a ship with a dozen injuries into an STF and giving responses like "yeah, i'll fix it afterwards etc when asked about them) or by flying ships like Connies or NX'es or Mirandas "For s**t's and giggles" or by leeching.
Also, I don't mind if the optional is blown due to lack of dps or lower gear levels, that's life. But when someone intentionally blows it (Like by going over an blowing one gen on the right while everyone else is killing the right one or by TBR'ing the spheres TOWARDS ISE, or by intentionally letting probes though or... well ,you get my gist) I get really annoyed.
My main point being, and I'll underline and bold it so even you can get it is: The good of the many (the four fifths of the team with a leecher) outweight the good of the few (The unlucky fellow who got unfairly kicked, but can requeue). And I'd be more than willing to take a few kicks for no reason myself if it means I can get rid of those leechers and griefers.
.....nobody can be that stupid. (taking a ship with a dozen injuries into an STF and giving responses like "yeah, i'll fix it afterwards etc when asked about them) or by flying ships like Connies or NX'es or Mirandas "For s**t's and giggles" or by leeching. ......Like by going over an blowing one gen on the right while everyone else is killing the right one or by TBR'ing the spheres TOWARDS ISE, or by intentionally letting probes though or....[/u][/b]
sounds to me you want every single person to play the game "your way" , be geared exactly as 'you want', and to act exactly as 'you do' eh ?.
_______________________
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
Comments
When you leech you know that it is making things harder for other people. When you leech you know that it will annoy people. What would you call someone who knows that and does it anyways?
The problem is, that it is not your definition, nor anyone else's, outside of Cryptic/PWE's, definition that makes a difference. They don't see it as a terribly important issue tbh.
If it makes you feel better, then by all means go ahead and report them. As others have suggested, the only way to avoid this problem is going to channel/private matches.
If you dont belong to these channels, consider asking the other people in the mission with you if they want to team... you already know they aren't going to leech on you. If the next random player you pick up is decent, add him to the team when you reform... and you are all set.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
That is not reality I had played multiple games with someone they sent me a friend invite I accepted and at a later time that person leeched a entire match.
For the glory of Tempus!
I am the hands of Shar!
Flames of Kossuth, protect me!
Oghma, grant me knowledge!
Lolth commands, and I obey!
u... then add them to your ignore list, and dont accept team invites from them in the future.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
When I see someone leech I add them to ignore but my point was even in private matches their is sometimes leeching going on.
Things to help stop leeching.
When something is kill/destroyed only people that attacked and damaged it will get experience/expertise points and will have a chance at getting any loot drops.
Allow players to flag someone as a leecher and if the person who was flagged a leecher does not engage in combat after a few min they are booted from the mission.
Section 10, User Conduct.
PWE may take any actions and impose any penalties we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct, all without prior notice or warning. The determination as to whether a violation has occurred and who is responsible for such act is solely within PWE's discretion, and is based on what we deem best for the community and the Website. By using the Website, you agree you will be bound by PWE's determination as to whether a violation has occurred and any penalty we choose to implement.
Leeching doesn't HAVE to be against the TOS for PWE or Cryptic (as a subsidiary) to take action. As a prime example, look at the STF early leave penalty. Leaving early was not, and is not, a violation of the TOS, and yet, they took action.
Arguing against action being taken simply because it is not covered in the EULA doesn't mean anything. They have proven that.
I for one would like to see something done about people that are leeching. What exactly that may be, I'm not sure. Account banning is excessive for this offense. Loss of marks or other rewards, however, I feel would be appropriate. How it would be determined that someone is leeching (in the code, mind you, it isn't as easy to see as it is for you and I) is another issue.
I would, for one, like to see what Cryptic has to say to the community regarding this issue. I have yet to see a response from even the community manager, and this, I fear, tells me everything I need to know about their stance on it.
THey say its "not against the spirit of the game" well if leeching isn't against the spirit of the game what they don't realise is that THESE players must be using automatic parsing programs to join missions then need on all drops then reflag for the next mission.
BUt you cant prove it because they arnt moving,
Like I say and have said a lot before Crytpic doenst care they only care that people are playing when the game is flooded with auto bot players then the players who still buy zen will depart.
there's your problem....a 'few' of you arent going to change anyones' mind.
'working as intended'.
.
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
This is the whole problem, nobody is really actively condoning leeching in this thread. It needs to be fixed, but nobody can agree on a sensible way of doing it.
Kirk's Protege.
Subsection 10.n
Covers pretty much anything that Cryptic and PWE want it to cover. It's pretty much a slam-dunk that leeching "negatively affects other users ... enjoying the Game(s)."
So it's not like they need cover if they choose to act, the problem is that they seem to feel that this isn't a particularly urgent issue.
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
That aside, it should be enough for them that a portion of their player base is irritated with this, and they should, at the very least, communicate with the player base on an issue such as this. Poor customer relations never turns out well in the end, no matter how small the issue.
Simple....if AFK for 10 consequtive min during event, boot them from task. Base it on doing some dmg to event targets , ie borg ships, ground forces, etc. If leechers no longer get marks for leeching missions they will stop trying to leach. And either not join. Or may actually try to participate.
The problem here is specifics. How much damage, how little? What about tanks and science officers? If it's only a token amount I could just play for 90 seconds then AFK and still get the rewards. Or if it's just buffing, set a simple keyboard macro to mash a hotkey.
Details would be good...
Frankly most STFs are done within 10 minutes anyway.
Kirk's Protege.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I've had a full team minus the leech follow my lead twice now. We all reported the leech after three minutes of him/her sitting at spawn and doing nothing and left.
We all immediately re-queued (Colony invasion) and got a fresh run (Three of the four of us ended up together again) with people who actually contributed to the mission and we swept through it in less tie than normal.
Another thing is the motivation for leeching. This game has become an endless, mindless grind. For Romulan marks etc. you do not really need to "win". The more difficult stfs are hardly played by pug teams anymore, cause they are hard and do not generate more rewards. And you need to play a lot to equip all ur ships and Boffs with the best there is. Thus, the motivation for afk-grind is tremendous. Do you still remember the days when you would play CGE everyday? Was a real pain, but the motivation was there and I personally never met someone who was AFK-grinding throughout the game.
Hes right, the rep system demands you fill buckets , its a lazy system and of course it has causes a lazy response from some players
personally speaking i got bored of STF a long long time ago , why? Because it felt like i was running on auto pilot
by having a 1 hr CD they are forcing is to play missions we dont want to play.
in doing so, people just queue up and let others do the work.
when you cant leave, you have no choice but to finish the mission for them..
yes you can fail it, but in the end everyone loses.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Indeed.
1. They need to scale mission rewards accoding to difficulty. People have different nightmares, but statistics should show which are more difficult. Hive and Ground Stfs are probably hardest.
2. Make all missions possible to fail.
3. Introduce serious PvP. I would not mind if they stealt from Perfect World or Battlefield, like e.g. Capture strategic points or create galaxy instances where the galaxy can be conquered by Fed or KDF.
Bundled with a proper AFK handling system, it should do the trick.
Because why else would you defend something that irritates and diminishes the playing experience of others?
Oh and I'm still saying that Vote kicking ability that requires 3 team members to agree on would solve this problem once and for all.
And it has been proven to work over at WoW since the day the dungeon finder was established, so don't bring the "but it would be abusez!!!!111oneoneoneelelven" argument here.
It is abused there. When it was being tested the players proved this, which was their intention, and so a cooldown was introduced. Effectively if someone has been kicked a certain amount of times they are immune from it. Now imagine if you get them in your group, we are back to the situation we are at now.
Know in that go and see the forums of why people are being kicked and the complaint of it. Some of the reasons I have seen:
they weren't in the same guild as the rest of the group
they spoke a different language to the main group
they asked questions about the instance, and this applies even at low levels when it is meant to teach people about working in group in dungeons
they tried to give helpful advice
To say it won't be abused is naive to say the least. I would rather see 99 leachers get their reward than one innocent player being punished. don't hold it up as soe shinging example of how it should be dealt with.
I do prefer the report afk feature of the BGs because even if it is done for no reason atlast you have the chance to remove the debuff. Yes it can be abused I have seen people be reported afk while gaurding nodes in AB for example however as I said you atleast have the chance to show you are not afk. A sort of compromise system.
Alright. Let's say it does get abused. (Funnily me nor any of my guild ever got wrongfully kicked over a period of several years nor did we see anyone get wrongfully kicked. *Shrug*)
May I quote Spock here. "Good of the many outweigh the good of the few. Or the one man."
If 99 leechers get kicked for one innocent suffering, then it is a fair price. I would guarantee you that if Vote kick is introduced, leeching drops down to minimum quite fast when leechers realize they can't get away with it.
At the same time we'd get rid of the people who intentionally troll STF's by flying injury-ridden ships, blowing optionals intentionally or in other ways intentionally inhibiting the group (That is griefing, but there is nothing the group can do about it)
So even if it would get abused, the number of proper uses would outweigh the amount it'd be abused. Fair trade I'd say.
Your tone would be different if you were that one. The "I didn't see it happen" argument doesn't wash given how many players there are in the game as a whole and it is split acroos the globe by localisations.
An optional is called that for a reason. It is not needed for the STF to be completed. If it gets blown it gets blown. Add to that how do you know it was done intentionally? The only way is if the person states clearly that is what they are going to do or have done, otherwise it is an assumption.
How nice of you to ignore the meat of my argument.
Point is, there are people out there who are intentionally griefing others. And yes, some people even state that they are doing it. (Yes, I've used report every time I've seen it. Doesn't seem to stop em though) and others who just HAVE to be doing it intentionally because nobody can be that stupid. (taking a ship with a dozen injuries into an STF and giving responses like "yeah, i'll fix it afterwards etc when asked about them) or by flying ships like Connies or NX'es or Mirandas "For s**t's and giggles" or by leeching.
Also, I don't mind if the optional is blown due to lack of dps or lower gear levels, that's life. But when someone intentionally blows it (Like by going over an blowing one gen on the right while everyone else is killing the right one or by TBR'ing the spheres TOWARDS ISE, or by intentionally letting probes though or... well ,you get my gist) I get really annoyed.
My main point being, and I'll underline and bold it so even you can get it is: The good of the many (the four fifths of the team with a leecher) outweight the good of the few (The unlucky fellow who got unfairly kicked, but can requeue). And I'd be more than willing to take a few kicks for no reason myself if it means I can get rid of those leechers and griefers.
sounds to me you want every single person to play the game "your way" , be geared exactly as 'you want', and to act exactly as 'you do' eh ?.
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----