Idea for meeting players: Let players advertise their presence
Keybounce
Posts: 474 ✭✭✭
So a simple idea: A player can be in one of three states:
- Default for child accounts: Do nothing, ignore others. Same as current.
- Default for adult accounts: Do not advertise yourself, but show others who are actively advertising location.
- Advertise yourself. This would last for a certain amount of time once turned on (such as 20 min), would only activate when you are "near" a PoI (close enough to interact) or in a public space (park, mall, etc). However, you would be visible to others at a larger distance (so they would know to go to you.) Not permitted for child accounts.
The intent is simple: Give people a way to find other players.
Searching turned up two threads where people were complaining about not being able to find others as well as threads complaining about "I need to play with others for this SOS assignment."
Nothing that I could find on something like this.
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I like it. It’s optional, so you’re not defaulted or forced into it. It’s temporary, so you don’t have to remember to turn it off each time. And you it is unavailable to child accounts. No harm in any of this.
It requires consent, is only temporary and isn't available to child accounts, therefore no danger of stalking. I like it.
Downsides , and I am only playing devil's advocate here because I like the thought, is anyone who lives next to a poi or otherwise has a stalker ("admirer") . Even with the option of turning off /on your location, consistent advertising of your name next to a location could be used against someone in very drastic outside of the game ways. Honestly I don't like keeping GPS on all the time on my phone due to a stalking incident when I lived in NYC. As a female who has been on the receiving end of very unwanted attention, I would rather have in game communication like ingress, but with the ability to block people if needed, than the ability to be known exactly where I am because I accidentally turned on my location.
Sorry to be the wet blanket for that. And considering how many kids can figure out how to get around child block settings, you can bet that it could be massively liable for niantic.
@Bormacska I'm sorry to hear what you went through. I heard of similar stories when I played Ingress because it was really easy to track someone by their in game actions.
As far as your concerns:
I think if the location feature included a really obvious (obnoxious, even) confirmation screen that it would be very difficult to turn it on accidentally.
I know what you mean about kids finding a way around security software, I used to teach a group of teens who couldn't solve an equation or write an essay, but if the school changed the internet filter/monitor software, one of the students would find the way around it before the end of first period. In this case, the child accounts actually don't have access to the "adult" features. It not that they're all there behind a flimsy digital gate, they just aren't available at all.
My experiences have been different from yours, but I think that this is an idea that if it could be implemented properly would be safe and could be game changing for some of those who haven't been able to find other players to help them in fortresses.
@MtPollux , my first sentence stands, I like the idea. I also felt the need to play devil's advocate.
The world I grew up in was far less innocent than for others. I'm not familiar with the child's settings for Niantic kids, but, I know that every kid thinks their parents are trying to take away their fun when , usually, they are trying to use reasonable actions to protect them. Kids don't have the mental faculties to really perceive the dangers that are out in the world. I don't think I have ever met an adult that didn't disobey their parent(s) in some way as a kid/teen. Pushing boundaries is actually part of the learning and growing process.
That said, what innocent people don't think about is that predators don't play the game for the sheer fun and joy of the game, they play to get closer to their prey. No, we can't protect from all of that, and yes I am aware that you can't make the world a safe place through a game. And yes, anyone not coming from my background would gumble over the confirmation screen, but I just felt the need to announce the elephant sitting in the corner that can plague anyone who creates something that can be a draw to a mass group of diverse people.
I would like some way to contact in-game peeps, but safety has to be a factor.
*senior buzzkill out*
@Bormacska
As was already discussed in another thread, some Notifications and Popups are obnoxious for a reason. And in most cases that reason is a legal reason. Examples for that are the Trespassing Popup, the "Be aware of your Surroundings"-Popup and most likely also the "Weather Warning" Notification.
Kids are to be protected, for their own good and for the good of humanity as they're the future generation. As you said, many don't appreciate or even understand how or why we treat them the way we do.
But in the end, we protect them out of love - like Lily Potter and like Molly Weasley.
Ergo:
Different versions of this idea have come up before. I dig your idea, @Keybounce. Another thread I remember reading included an improved fortress lobby that includes a button to state your desire to team up with more players, which would trigger a different color glow effect around the fortress that would be visible to anyone playing nearby. I like that one, too.
In the meantime, there are many FB Groups dedicated to help people find other players in their local cities. If you haven't found one near you, maybe do a search and see what you can find.
🙃👍