I’m on record as being against mobs. I was not sufficiently warned about mobs before I chose Agitator as my profession. The second I learned what mobs were, I changed to Campaigner, despite the fact that Agitator was the only choice that made sense for my character, in RP terms. Fine–my enjoyment of the game was harmed temporarily so that other people could troll one another. I don’t expect a perfect experience from FL, and accept that there are times I will disagree with FB’s decisions.[li]
Except now they’re following me home. I logged in today to find, basically, a message saying "Oh, that part of the game you hated, that you ran away from? Now it’s mandatory!" Because apparently it’s a fun social experiment.
I took specific actions to avoid mobs. I don’t want mobs even for 24 hours. I don’t want a single mob. The one I had to dig my out from under was bad enough, thank you.
The way I enjoy the game is largely solitary. I enjoy occasionally checking out social actions, but for the vast majority of my time in FL I just want to be left alone to read the nice text. I even got through SMEN without bothering anyone else, because I didn’t want that kind of interaction.
FB, I would appreciate being given an option to opt-out of things like this. Barring that I’ll just choose not to participate in content.
I mean, if you’re going to get yourself involved in a big election with hard feelings all around, you should probably expect not to live a comfortable quiet life.
Then again, it does feel a little mean to say “don’t want mobs? Don’t play the election.” Even if it does make sense.
I play the game to see new content. I’ve played for years, and have seen everything, so the only reason to keep playing is to see new text. In order to see this week’s new text, I am required to subject myself to random people clicking my name and harassing me.
“Not playing” is my only option. Not playing a game I’m paying for.
I understand that a lot of people like this addition. Fine for them. I stopped playing video games when they all started requiring multiplayer–the online crowd was unbearable. I started playing FL (and indie games in general) to get away from that nonsense. FB has made it clear that this is an “experiment” which mayl lead to more and more of this kind of content. I came here to voice my objection to this trend. If I’m in the minority here (which is apparently the case), and this is the wave of the future, fine, I’ll just stop playing (and paying for) FL altogether. I posted here in hopes of finding some way that I can keep playing, but I recognize it’s probably a forlorn hope.
I appreciate your thoughtful response, Isaac, but I’m not interested in other peoples’ “hard feelings” when I log on to play FL. That’s a function of the forums, not the actual game.
You sound a little more personally put-out than I think this warrants. I get that it can be frustrating, but try not to take it quite so hard.
FB is still very much experimenting with new mechanics, as you said. Also, it’s only a single day, a very isolated experiment to see how it’s taken. It’s also something unlikely to pop up except as a single day during the Elections, and so once a year. I doubt this indicates a lasting transition toward a more PvP incarnation of the game. Because you’re right that if it did indicate such, that would be a turnoff for a good chunk of players. edited by Isaac Zienfried on 7/3/2017
I’m probably a little more annoyed with this than usual, because it’s the very worst part of real life intruding on my escape hatch. But I really, really didn’t like the one time I was mobbed, and don’t want to do that again.
I guess I should state for the record–this is my opinion. If other people like mobs, I’m happy for them, sincerely. It’s just not to my taste. If I come across as overly dramatic, I apologize.
Not a bad idea - there are other areas where a mob can’t touch you if you haven’t got a ship. Menace areas, Flute Street (if you have opened it), as you say you are a paying player you could spend a bit of Fate and go shroom racing for a day.
Or just take one mob and don’t do any more Flash lays or investigations during the day of agitation (my plan at the moment if someone does target me as I don’t really need any more campaign resources and am just playing them to see the new text and get a head start on next year)
You could also kill yourself or go to the R.B. via the Mirrors at Miss Plenty’s Carnival. That seems a tad extreme though…but then, some people really don’t like crowds.
I agree with naroia. I personally don’t mind the Day of Agitation that much, but I really wish I could opt out of being asked to debate. What is fun, what is too annoying, and what is too much like real life are highly subjective things that should be left for each player to decide. I am strongly considering not playing the election next year, but as it’s too late to opt out of this one, I may simply have to stay away from the game this week. And as naroia said, if this is an indication of how the game will develop in the future, I may have to stop playing altogether. I understand a lot of people are having fun, and if they are indeed the majority, I understand if that’s the direction in which the developers decide to take the game. But in case enough people are finding themselves annoyed by these new actions to justify the implementation of an opt-out system, I think it’s more productive for us to voice that opinion than to just give up and quietly stop playing without letting Failbetter know why.
By the way you can get rid of a mob in 5 actions if you are willing to gain menaces. A modish bonnet and scarlet stockings take you to the 3 scandal for example and I’m sure any fixer who backs your candidate will be happy to remove that for you.
I dislike mobs either, so that’s why I didn’t do any Flash Lays or Investigations today. As far as I understood, that keeps me safe from them. There’s enough other things to do for me.
Didn’t Knife and Candle allow practically random people to get stabbed? At least that’s what I read, I joined several years too late to experience that myself.
My point, provided that was indeed the case, is that this isn’t some totally new direction FL will now be inexorably heading towards. Also, being able to randomly PvP players just sounds like a very bad idea in general. If the game does become more social - which I, personally, wouldn’t mind at all, thought I understand and respect that you would - it would likely be far more optional than this (at least, I hope so, as I’m sure many - including me - would object to a situation where anyone can randomly inflict menaces or other annoyances on you at will).
K&C only let you stab people on your contacts who were also part of K&C. The entire thing was almost completely mechanically separate from the rest of the game and joining was full of opt-in warnings. And even that caused issues for newer players and those who just forgot about it.
The issue here is of course that there’s no specific opt-in for mobs. Now that there’s this Day of Agitation, you can’t even change professions anymore. If you’re a PoSI and want to participate in the election content you’re just out of luck.
There’s always the option of just packing up and leaving for a day - with a single memory of light, and some focused sanity eroding, you can go to a pretty harmless place. If you have fate content (Flute Street, for instance), a ship, or other resources you have even more options.
Still, I can definitely see why people would be unhappy (even though personally I love the atmosphere it adds - but even I would definitely prefer it to be limited to seasonal events, and would loathe such a mechanic in the core gameplay). edited by Dudebro Pyro on 7/3/2017
Another option, though too late if you’ve been playing today and already gained "Notoriety: Election" would be simply to avoid flash lays and investigations until Thursday. If you’ve been busy already last week then you probably will still be able to get to an election career score of 20 if you pick up again on Thursday, and for the three days in between you could do debates or election career activities instead.
Not ideal, but you will totally avoid mobs that way.
I’m pointing out the inherent flaw in giving agitators yet another advantage, and further making fixers suffer. If a fixer wants to advance, now they become twice as vulnerable, while campaigners circumvent the risk entirely through short stories. Why would anyone play a fixer at this rate?