Blocking players won't hide you

[Alphonse Constant.2394]

As the title says, if you block players for whatever reason, they can:

* see your online status,

* see what area you are currently in,

* join your party if you are advertising in LFG

* stand next to you and wave at you

 

The *only* thing they cannot do is communicate with you.

 

I think it's completely reasonable to not wish to share any sort of information with people you have blocked. If you go invisible, it'd limit *your* options, you cannot whisper people, communicate with your guild, start LFG.

 

Not to mention this "glitch" is how enemy players can follow commanders in WvW.

[Belishine.7493]

I might be rong here but i thought the reson for the block was so you dont get the communication from them if they toxic or just herassing you for one reson or another. I can see if it shows thare location that is a issue that couses wvw abuse but to see if they online is not mutch of a issue for me it just means they cant talk to you.

[Nokomis.5076]

> see your online status,

Yes, but nothing bad because they can't message you anyway.

 

> see what area you are currently in,

Pnly if you have them on your friend list as well. Try it with a friend. He should have you as friend, you blocked him. He shouldn't see the map you're currently in. If your friend does, file a bug ticket.

 

> join your party if you are advertising in LFG

Just kick him. If he continues joining, report him for harassing.

 

> stand next to you and wave at you

Uh... and? If he just waves, let him. If he spams skills to flash your screen, report him for harassing.

 

[Meviken.2054]

They're in the game world. You're part of the game world when you're online, and so are they. It makes perfect sense to me that they can see you just the same as they can see any other player or part of the game world.

 

I do think that in WvW, members of the opposing teams should not be able to see the location of an opposing commander is except by direct view.

 

If they're doing other things, visual things, to harass you, you can report them. Wonderful recording technology is available to record what they're doing (I use OBS) so you have evidence.

[Alphonse Constant.2394]

Well, in my previous thread I mentioned why I wanted to stay hidden (without names ofc), but it was removed, so I won't share any details this time.

In other games when you block someone, they cannot see any info about you, and I think that's the reasonable option. I just wish we could do the same here.

 

> @"Nokomis.5076" said:

> Pnly if you have them on your friend list as well. Try it with a friend. He should have you as friend, you blocked him. He shouldn't see the map you're currently in. If your friend does, file a bug ticket.

 

"Blocking another player does not prevent that player from seeing your online status or your map location, though the blocked player will receive a "network error" when they try to send a message to the blocker."

-from the Wiki

 

> > stand next to you and wave at you

> Uh... and? If he just waves, let him. If he spams skills to flash your screen, report him for harassing.

 

I just had a long chat with support about how harassment reports are evaluated and what happens after, so I would feel much safer if blocking worked properly.

 

 

 

[Linken.6345]

You do know why they would be valued low right?

Some people feel harrassed when people look or wave at them.

[Lottie.5370]

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> You do know why they would be valued low right?

> Some people feel harrassed when people look or wave at them.

 

THIS.

 

It is one example, however: I had an abusive ex-boyfriend that I played the game with. Whenever I tried to get away from him I would block him, however he could still see which map I was in and he would go there and follow me around whilst spamming emotes (/cry, /wave) on me. I felt like I could not get away from him. The only way for me to play the game was to play as invisible and not be able to access guild chat, or talk to anyone. And the point of GW2 for me has always been to play socially. I ended up having to buy another account just to be able to play without being harassed. I even contacted support about it and there was NOTHING they could do other than tell me to block him and ignore him, essentially.

 

There is NO down side to you showing your status as invisible to people you have blocked. If you have blocked them, you don't want to communicate with them and you probably don't want them to see where you are, it leaves you open to being trolled and harassed further. This doesn't mean they can't still see you if you happen to be in the same place at the same time, but it means you can freely play and communicate with other people and your actual friends without having to worry about that one person trying to ruin your experience.

[Lottie.5370]

> @"Nokomis.5076" said:

> > see your online status,

> Yes, but nothing bad because they can't message you anyway.

>

> > see what area you are currently in,

> Pnly if you have them on your friend list as well. Try it with a friend. He should have you as friend, you blocked him. He shouldn't see the map you're currently in. If your friend does, file a bug ticket.

>

> > join your party if you are advertising in LFG

> Just kick him. If he continues joining, report him for harassing.

>

> > stand next to you and wave at you

> Uh... and? If he just waves, let him. If he spams skills to flash your screen, report him for harassing.

>

 

You are forgetting the impact that this has on a person's mental state. They can see what area you are in REGARDLESS of them being on a friends list or not. When someone is added to your block list they are removed from your friend's list. Try blocking a friend and unblocking them: they are added to followers after.

 

Reporting for harassment does not solve the immediate issue, and these things ruin the player experience especially if this is a long term thing.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

> @"Lottie.5370" said:

> There is NO down side to you showing your status as invisible to people you have blocked. If you have blocked them, you don't want to communicate with them and you probably don't want them to see where you are, it leaves you open to being trolled and harassed further. This doesn't mean they can't still see you if you happen to be in the same place at the same time, but it means you can freely play and communicate with other people and your actual friends without having to worry about that one person trying to ruin your experience.

Unfortunately it won't solve a thing. All they need to do is to create a new free account and use it to track you. So there hardly is a solution, except for you to ignore them and wait until they'll get bored. At least, with current implementation. If there would be a setting which would prevent anybody to freely add you to their friendlist, or there would be set of properties you could use to fine-tune to whom you want your location to be shown, and to whom it shouldn't be shown (like, show it to mutual friends (may be even only specific friends), don't show it to those who simply added you to their list, without you adding them etc) - that would be a solution you need. But that implies re-work of the current thing, and Anet is very unwilling of any deep QoL reworks.

[Lottie.5370]

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > @"Lottie.5370" said:

> > There is NO down side to you showing your status as invisible to people you have blocked. If you have blocked them, you don't want to communicate with them and you probably don't want them to see where you are, it leaves you open to being trolled and harassed further. This doesn't mean they can't still see you if you happen to be in the same place at the same time, but it means you can freely play and communicate with other people and your actual friends without having to worry about that one person trying to ruin your experience.

> Unfortunately it won't solve a thing. All they need to do is to create a new free account and use it to track you. So there hardly is a solution, except for you to ignore them and wait until they'll get bored. At least, with current implementation. If there would be a setting which would prevent anybody to freely add you to their friendlist, or there would be set of properties you could use to fine-tune to whom you want your location to be shown, and to whom it shouldn't be shown (like, show it to mutual friends (may be even only specific friends), don't show it to those who simply added you to their list, without you adding them etc) - that would be a solution you need. But that implies re-work of the current thing, and Anet is very unwilling of any deep QoL reworks.

 

Then why even have a block system in place in the first place? Right? What even is this response? People are just asking for something to be put in place to help stop being harassed and you're shooting it down because... why? how does this negatively impact ANYONE?

 

Free accounts can't access half of the game.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

> @"Lottie.5370" said:

> Then why even have a block system in place in the first place? Right? What even is this response? People are just asking for something to be put in place to help stop being harassed and you're shooting it down because... why? how does this negatively impact ANYONE?

Can't you read? In this response the only actual solution to the issue you described is provided. What you proposed solves nothing.

 

> @"Lottie.5370" said:

> Free accounts can't access half of the game.

That's not the point. He can track you with his free account, then move his main there.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Block doesn't block you from them, it blocks _them_ (communication) from _you_. Thus, it works as intended.

Now, some players might wish for a different mechanic, but 'Block' does work as intended.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

Also, you are getting overly-fixated on the "free account" part. Assuming it's somebody who are ready to waste hours of their time to annoy you, you can't really expect they won't afford to buy a DLC and upgrade their account if any limitations will be placed on free ones. The only solution, again, lies in re-working the whole Contacts system, allowing you to fine-tune your visibility for different groups of players.

[Alphonse Constant.2394]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Block doesn't block you from them, it blocks _them_ (communication) from _you_. Thus, it works as intended.

> Now, some players might wish for a different mechanic, but 'Block' does work as intended.

 

It doesn't. They can follow you around, block your toon from view, emote at you endlessly, as they did with Lottie.5370 .

 

This gives ample opportunity for harassment. Something *needs* to be done.

[Blocki.4931]

> @"Alphonse Constant.2394" said:

> > @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > Block doesn't block you from them, it blocks _them_ (communication) from _you_. Thus, it works as intended.

> > Now, some players might wish for a different mechanic, but 'Block' does work as intended.

>

> It doesn't. They can follow you around, block your toon from view, emote at you endlessly, as they did with Lottie.5370 .

>

> This gives ample opportunity for harassment. Something *needs* to be done.

 

They can't enter your map instance unless they just so happen to get on the same one. They can't see you on the map, you can literally go anywhere else. If they go as far as to stalk you through squads you're in that's a childish thing to do and I highly doubt that happens more than once, maybe on accident.

 

That being said, you don't have to be in those squads either if they follow you doing that you can simply leave and either do something else or run around with the squad outside it, since it won't be easy to track you down in a mess of 50 other people.

 

So again. Why would it bother you that somebody who can in no way communicate with you exists? Or do anything that harms you in any way? They won't stop existing just because you want them to, why give them the light of day? Absolutely nothing needs to be done about this, because it works just fine.

 

Offline mode works too. They won't see the map you're in and you can still do whatever you want, minus guild chat.

[HardRider.2980]

The whole blocking system needs overhauling.

 

Sure it stops communications, but it does nothing to stop stalking and trolling.

[melandru.3876]

-you can disable emotes for showing in chat

-you can disable all uniqee player stuff like annoying legendary sound effects etc

 

using 30 different accounts, to chase you is just taking it to the exteme, if that is your claim as that the system currently in pace is not working as intended then you are paranoia as quaggan.

 

also, lucky for us we have different map ip's right, ever wanted to join a meta, and you are in the wrong version of the map?

ahhh now the very-determined stalker has to guess where you are

[Alphonse Constant.2394]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

 

> They can't enter your map instance unless they just so happen to get on the same one. They can't see you on the map, you can literally go anywhere else.

 

Wrong. Unless it is a new area recently released, or a world boss event, usually there is only one map instance. And you are wrong again. Yes, they can. Feel free to try it with a friend.

 

> If they go as far as to stalk you through squads you're in that's a childish thing to do and I highly doubt that happens more than once, maybe on accident.

 

Oh no, those people are definitely not childish. Maybe not bunny boilers, but they can be very angry with you.

 

> That being said, you don't have to be in those squads either if they follow you doing that you can simply leave and either do something else or run around with the squad outside it, since it won't be easy to track you down in a mess of 50 other people.

 

If you are almost finished with a fractal, but need more people, and that someone you want to avoid joins your LFG, and your party can't be bothered kicking them, or he acts all nice and friendly so they do not want to... yeeeah, you wouldn't throw out half an hour or an hour of your life, would you? You'd always leave right before getting the rewards you fought hard for? I mean where is the fun in that? Why play the game at all at that point?

 

> So again. Why would it bother you that somebody who can in no way communicate with you besides emoting do anything that harms you in any way?

 

Again, there are people who are so angry about you not wanting to interact with them, that they will follow you around. It's not fun when you have to ignore them any time you want to play.

 

> Absolutely nothing needs to be done about this, because it works just fine.

 

You mean "nobody did anything like this to me, this doesn't concern me, so it's not a problem"?

 

> Offline mode works too.

 

I can't talk with friends and guildmates this way. This would greatly limit my enjoyment of the game.

 

Why you are so adamant about this absolutely not being a concern?

 

 

[mercury ranique.2170]

Tyria is just like the real world. You can ignore (block) people, but if you want them to be taken of the street, you can not be victim, judge and executioner. If someone did you wrong, report them (using the in-game option or by contacting support).

[melandru.3876]

some people are also really sensitive, they are offended by anything just for the sake of it..or they speak in behalf of others they have never met, ebcause they think it's the right thing to do

 

no, it's not. you put yourself in issues with such discussions that no side ever wins.

 

 

 

some time ago, i got kicked out of my own fractal group that i pugged with a friend because i asked the necro reaper if he forgot his weapon in bank.

his dps was lower then a support mesmer, but instead of getting a decent answer i was called "toxic" and kicked out of my group.

 

if you play bad, you will be called out for it. if you fail to put in your weight in group-content, then the open world welcomes you where you can run your 4k toughness build and let the minions fight for you

 

p.s yes i probably ended up his/her blocklist for my super-offensive question, and he/she might approve your block-method solution

[Blocki.4931]

> @"Alphonse Constant.2394" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

>

> > They can't enter your map instance unless they just so happen to get on the same one. They can't see you on the map, you can literally go anywhere else.

>

> Wrong. Unless it is a new area recently released, or a world boss event, usually there is only one map instance. And you are wrong again. Yes, they can. Feel free to try it with a friend.

>

Unless you're playing a deserted map there are always several instances open and there is very little chance they just get on the same as you one every single time. Can't count the times I've entered a completely empty map, switched over into another mostly empty one. Again, maps are huge.

 

And no, they can't see you on the map at all. You can only see party, squad or guild mates on the map, nothing else. I won't see a friend on there randomly, or in this case specifically.

 

> > If they go as far as to stalk you through squads you're in that's a childish thing to do and I highly doubt that happens more than once, maybe on accident.

>

> Oh no, those people are definitely not childish. Maybe not bunny boilers, but they can be very angry with you.

 

Think I haven't dealt with this myself? Hell, I have people who regularly command in open world who troll me like that all the time. As with anybody being annoying, you don't give them any attention and it eventually stops. If they know you get mad (or post rant threads on the forums) they get exactly what they want. It's in your own hands to avoid paying attention to it. It comes with literally no cost or effort, because seeing pixels on a screen doesn't influence you in any way. They spam emotes? Disable emote messages in chat. They keep using spells on top of you? Great, what is that going to accomplish. Let them waste their time, eventually they realize they live a sad life.

 

>

> > That being said, you don't have to be in those squads either if they follow you doing that you can simply leave and either do something else or run around with the squad outside it, since it won't be easy to track you down in a mess of 50 other people.

>

> If you are almost finished with a fractal, but need more people, and that someone you want to avoid joins your LFG, and your party can't be bothered kicking them, or he acts all nice and friendly so they do not want to... yeeeah, you wouldn't throw out half an hour or an hour of your life, would you? You'd always leave right before getting the rewards you fought hard for? I mean where is the fun in that? Why play the game at all at that point?

>

So they see you're in Fractals. The thing they do is keep checking every single group in LFG just to find that one group that MIGHT be the one you're in? It's simply unlikely anybody is going that far unless they have serious mental issues with letting go or similar. Yes, they can see names in the groups but still. Even if they enter your groups and talk with the other people, does that mean they will mess up just to get at you? There's no need to react to that at all, especially because you still cannot read their messages and if the rest of your party talks to them well so be it, they can do whatever they like and as long as you all get a bouncy chest and some loot at the end there shouldn't be an issue?

 

> > So again. Why would it bother you that somebody who can in no way communicate with you besides emoting do anything that harms you in any way?

>

> Again, there are people who are so angry about you not wanting to interact with them, that they will follow you around. It's not fun when you have to ignore them any time you want to play.

>

Again, this implies that these people sit on their friendslist 24/7, checking if a particular person is online. They don't see your dot on the map, ever. They can take a lucky guess and switch between waypoints to find you, that's it.

 

> > Absolutely nothing needs to be done about this, because it works just fine.

>

> You mean "nobody did anything like this to me, this doesn't concern me, so it's not a problem"?

>

> > Offline mode works too.

>

> I can't talk with friends and guildmates this way. This would greatly limit my enjoyment of the game.

>

> Why you are so adamant about this absolutely not being a concern?

>

 

I can see how that would influence your enjoyment of the game and I empathize. I went through this too. I didn't want a few people to see what I was doing, they even were in my guild at the time. After a bit they left, because other people weren't really happy with them either. Never seen them again, after a few petty attemps to annoy me through lfg trolling (merging groups and the like).

 

I'm saying that this is a non-issue, because quite honestly even after all this, it is still highly unlikely that somebody is going through all that effort just to shoot their skills at you in an attempt to get you. It's like an annoying fly, but it actually wants you to swipe at it just to dodge your attempts at killing it over and over again. Eventually you just let it sit there because it can't hurt you, ever. They cannot harm you, they cannot interact with you outside of third parties and what little does get through (emotes) is dminished by... other people also existing around you. When is it an issue that somebody emotes at you? Are you roleplaying and it is of the utmost importence that your character isn't surrounded by 20 balls of 6x stacked auras? Because I don't have another situation where that might be an issue, help me here.

 

 

[IndigoSundown.5419]

There are a number of systems that are not in place in GW2 that could hinder the attempts of harassing players. To my mind, the two a the top of the list are:

 

+ Why, unlike _other_ social media platforms, are people able to add me to a "friends list" which gives them information about my account without my accepting a "friend request?" Other games do this, GW2 does not.

+ Why are people able to "follow" me without my choosing to activate the _ability_ for others to follow me? I can see why streamers might not want to have to accept a raft of "followers" one at a time, but why is that a default rather than a choice?

 

Over the years, at ANet, there has been _way_ too much disregard for how players can and will abuse systems.

[Glacial.9516]

Blocked players probably shouldn't be able to see your location (or online status) when they friend/follow you and at the same time the Block list probably shouldn't show the locations of blocked players either.

 

> @"Alphonse Constant.2394" said:

> If you are almost finished with a fractal, but need more people, and that someone you want to avoid joins your LFG, and your party can't be bothered kicking them, or he acts all nice and friendly so they do not want to... yeeeah, you wouldn't throw out half an hour or an hour of your life, would you? You'd always leave right before getting the rewards you fought hard for? I mean where is the fun in that? Why play the game at all at that point?

As far as I understand parties have no designated leader so it's not at all feasible for the block list to prevent you/others from joining a party (Squads can be a different matter by looking at the leader's block list but naturally not each and every member's list). What if they are on the friends list of one member and the block list of another? Should a block list trump a friends list? Or vice versa? It's messy and would be an absolute nightmare when squads of 30-50 are involved.

 

Additionally if the person you dislike is 'acting nice and friendly' and you're at the end of the fractal to boot, just grin and bear it. Hope that they are turning over a new leaf and move on after you get your rewards. By throwing a fit (I'm not suggesting that you are) when the group won't kick them you'd risk getting yourself kicked instead, especially if the other party is civil. It's also worth considering that you may have caught them on a bad day when you blocked them.

 

 

 

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Block doesn't block you from them, it blocks _them_ (communication) from _you_. Thus, it works as intended.

> Now, some players might wish for a different mechanic, but 'Block' does work as intended.

 

Exactly.

 

The game isn't overflowing with lots of useful chat features. Maybe it should be, maybe not.

I think it would be more useful to post about what you'd like to see rather than try to turn a "working as intended" into a bug report.

[Skotlex.7580]

There's not a good way from preventing somebody from knowing where you are. This may not seem like an issue for many here, but I guess most people commenting here haven't dealt with what I'd call "obsessive stalker ex".

 

Some people go to any length to stalk and bother their targets, and they don't need to talk to get their Goal, just the nagging feeling that "you can't get rid of me" is sufficient to satisfy their egos.

 

Needless to say, players really need a way to avoid unwanted people from being able to follow, and the block feature is really where that should go.