So-called "third faction" players: how to deal with them?
There are an unfortunate number of Ingress players who have created imaginary "third factions", despite having blue or green accounts, and set out to ruin things for the rest of us. In particular, they will heavily scud fielding areas that are popular with whichever color their account is, resulting in hours-long drives and heavy depletion of flip cards. "Thirdfac" players describe themselves as playing for "white", "yellow", "grey", or "red" (no relation to the Red Faction XFAC community).
My question is, what is the best way to deal with them? Do we destroy the farms they have built for themselves, despite the fact that this deprives us of farms as well, and requires even more flip cards? Do we set up an XFAC relationship to call in enemy airstrikes on their farms, desks, and couches?
Does Niantic have any interest in resolving the situation? While I recognize it's unreasonable to drop a banhammer on anyone who scuds something, these "thirdfac" players are not exactly quiet about what they're doing and why.
Comments
Try reaching out to them and bringing them into whatever local player group you have. In the cases where that doesn't work, they usually burn out playing by themselves, and will be gone soon enough.
In the rates cases where they keep playing like that, well, that's what they want to do. We can't really make them play how we would like.
@ArtilectZed There's a squad of half-a-dozen near me that have basically formed their own community. Two years and no sign of them burning out anytime soon.
At the very least, they should get their Osiris Victory medals rescinded, since they've said themselves that they're not RES 😆
That can happen! Have a cluster of green/blue players an hour or so away from me that are doing their own thing, but it's how they want to play, and they don't like being in our group ヽ( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)ノ
Win trading isn't in the TOS anymore, can't think of anything they've done to warrant reporting. Just have to work around them.
Well I'm hoping that these "grey" players you're referring to aren't members of Operation Essex, Project Isthmus or the Glyph journal.
We, members of of these groups, call ourselves grey so faction doesn't become a barrier in our investigations. We understand that faction comes first with regards to game play but investigating the lore should have no faction and remain grey.
There is a red faction xfac group? Here we all spoofers red faction
*call
so what makes you think your way of playing ingress is the only right way to play ingress?
what makes you think you have the authority to tell other people how they should play ingress? unless you have an administrator level gaming account that other player has just as much "authority" as you do.
as long as everything is compliant with terms of service, you are not their supervisor and have no claim to telling them how to play.
I'm not sure I understand the complaint at all because this seems like normal game play. How do they prevent you from farming? What is wrong with clearing out a frequently used fielding area? That seems beneficial because it allows more players to use a fielding area more frequently. And I have to laugh at the complaint about "hours-long drives" because, until the last few months, that was what I had to do in order get to the nearest cluster of portals to grind AP.
Not much you can do about people being less than stellar in the game, but play how you want to play, and ignore those who bother you.
I have never encountered such a griefer "third faction" in all my years, and I doubt it's as common as you think it is. There's a funny sort of confirmation bias in Ingress -- everybody thinks the thing that bothers them the most is the thing that's ruining Ingress for everybody.
Anyway, if all these people do is throw scuds, you're not going get Niantic to do anything, because it's impossible to prove the difference between malicious linking and incompetent linking. Niantic won't punish people for something that might be innocent stupidity.
Maybe if had them saying something incriminating in comms, you could get Niantic to scold them, but punish them? Unlikely.
I think you're looking at it the wrong way. In my opinion it's just another layer of the game which makes ingress the dynamic challenge it is.. it's the same thing as new players (and many old for that matter) getting stuck on ownership of "their" portals. Change the way you think, find a way to turn it to your advantage.
This is a war game. Rogue agents, traders, and espionage are going to be part of that dynamic. If it was simple and straight forward it wouldn’t be nearly as engaging. It’s been said a few times already... you can’t tell anyone else how to play.
I agree with @Digitalis and @AnimaIControI.
Unless these players are doing something against the rules they can do whatever they want. As an example, my faction (ENL) dominates my area, and their BAFs often stop me being able to field. I have no issues at all flipping my teams own portals just so I can play Ingress, and actions like this don't make me a "traitor" if my own team stops me playing a game I like.
If anything these "third faction" guys sound like content creators.
I don't encounter that in my area.
It would be weird to have two ENL and two RES factions because of player personalities, or RL drama having interjected itself into the game.
If it shows, it throws...onyx Connector badges don't grow on trees.
@Losanguinos If you are referring to players with multiple accounts, just ignore them and enjoy the fact that what you do with only one account they need several accounts for destroying it. Those who follow the rules are better players anyway. What kind of mature discussion can you have with ppl that cheat in games? Laugh it off, they are poor things...
I agree with @OneLastWish. I've had cats that are great at chess, they can knock every piece off the board easily. Being great at a game doesn't mean anything to people who are good at a game. Modern politics is a perfect example. #MakeIngressGoodAgain.
Dont see how they are breaking any rules? sure u can think its lame way of play but as long as they dont cheat, spoof multiacc etc... just deal with it.
Years ago there was a rule that if broken it led to the ban and that is the "game against faction".
The problem has always been to prove this. The problem is NIA does not ban those who fly in an obvious way, they do not block those who create portals with photos taken from the internet or those who report legit portals.
The only solution that i see is to organize with the other faction and hinder these groups or ignore them without playing on their portals.
World is full of sad and lonely people, ignoring them and leaving them in their useless solitude is the wisest choice instead of giving it attention and allowing it to ruin the game.
@Cybertherion Love this hashtag :)
I was watching a promo about a boardgame few days ago: it was an animation where one of the character doesn't follow the rules and keeps on complaining. Then he says: "These games are all so difficult, can't we play a simple one?". The other character answers: "A game for stupid people you mean?". I thought about Ingress situation instantly.
Ingress is strategy, determination and dedication. You may have 3000000000 accounts, make up all the fake portals you want, spoof and cheat: if you need them, you will always be a puny, low player. Do not even look at them, they make fool of themselves anyway.
@Digitalis Said everything.
By the way, a RES team in the last event of x1.7 AP for connector and mind controllers covered all cell doing an OP (all lost half time of event just capturing portals) and they destroyed L7 Portals of rural areas with Jarvis Virus and did not make It L7 again (they was 3 agents), affecting an RES agent from that area.
And OPs in the era of Guardian, they used Jarvis in rural areas without to question to the owner If was his Guardian (but I always ask others agents from RES before do that, and think It was obvious to do that).
I think "the original" faction in my cell does not have any Power of decision about others where are much disrespect around that team, because I saw many times bad behavior in the comm from "overseer" with new agents playing and linking in these areas that they "reserved" to do OPs.
It was some things that made me decided not to play in group, and I do not regret at all.
Sounds to me like you guys are getting Trolled by a handful of players who organized into a small band of AP Taders. They build and break each others stuff and they bounce the AP off each other. It's like a little self-centered xfac colony acting oblivious to the rest of the world. Or, they're Goon Squad Wannabes. Either exploit the resources they proffer or overwhelm them,
In short, do what they do... Play Ingress.
#MIGA
So there's a bunch of your faction agents that don't want to play the game the way you want them to? Some people just don't WANT to assimilate. They want to go do their own thing and play the game they want to.
They aren't breaking TOS. And no one else has any right to tell them where and how to play the game. Work with them or work around them. No one 'owns' anything, portals, fielding lines, farms whatever. Ita all fair game.
In many cities of Ukraine there are players of the third faction which neither resistance nor enlightenment accepted. Why? Because they opposed Key trade for chargeroom, or tyranny of some regional leaders. It is time for such agents to make a separate fraction.
Does anyone ever wonder what is the very root of this behavior?
Real solutions are only achieved when one start asking the right questions.
I think it is pretty obvious, just like any games. They see themselves as trolls and they are only doing it to see the AR world "burns" and wouldn't give a hoot about those who are affected by it.
They are griefers. Just like spoofers and multis but more dangerous. They might think theu're like the anonymous of ingress, but they aim to hurt. Could be in a team of seven peoples or more, or a lone ranger.
Just like RL, block them or ignore them. If it gets too much, a black and white report should have been made to NIA....just in case.
I'm always very skeptical of players claiming to know the 'right' way to play Ingress, it's also been around long enough that I imagine the social constructs around the two teams has either shifted or at least started to shift from the legacy player groups to new generations in places. With NIA pushing x-faction integration more and more, I think you will see more and more new communities spring up that are x-faction rooted. Sure it flies in the face of the 2013 Beta-Gress in which all players were 18+ and it was an all out war, but things change. There are just more ways to play the game now, x-fact friendly (FS), explorer (portal submitters), non-competitive (mission day etc), and of course the tradition "run you down with my car" super aggressive tailgating and swearing sort that can't bear losing one portal to the op-fact. Personally, I like a highly competitive, but asymmetrical game where I rarely encounter another player, but by no means do a assert that my way is the only way to play... it's just the best way : )
Why was this thread necromancied up from the dead anyways?