Vote kick abuse and no way to properly report it

[Souljacker]

My point is, in order to kick me, the person had to decide to use the given options of afk, offline, harassment, or cheating to kick me and I wasn't doing any of those.

You weren't with the group, and you weren't talking in chat. AFK sounds plausible, but in the end, you were harassing the group by not playing with the team. Harassment is an all-encompassing reason. It doesn't just mean you are verbally abusing someone. It can also mean that you are inhibiting gameplay in other ways, such as MPK, willful afk (not participating, as in this case), monopolizing a spawn area so that another player cannot complete a quest... It's intentionally broad so that the players can make decisions that make sense.

[NorthernLadMSP]

AFK sounds plausible, but in the end, you were harassing the group by not playing with the team. Harassment is an all-encompassing reason.

LOL, this is one of the most dramatic statements I've read on this forum. Saying someone was harrassing the group because he/she decided to take another flag to try and earn her team more points, which happens in every single instance of Frontlines I've ever played. WOW.

[Souljacker]

LOL, this is one of the most dramatic, exaggerated statements I've read on this forum. Saying someone was harrassing the group because he/she decided to take another flag to try and earn her team more points, which happens in every single instance of Frontlines I've ever played. WOW.

Except in this case, the OP didn't communicate that to the rest of the team and refused to reply when someone addressed him by name. In the end, it's another situation where we just don't have enough information to determine whether or not it was intentional abuse, or a team getting rid of a non team player. Judging from the OP's comments, I don't think this was vote kick abuse. They weren't trying to keep him out of something; they clearly expected him to play with the rest of the team or at least communicate what he was doing, and he didn't.

[NorthernLadMSP]

It sounds like a simple case of someone with an over inflated ego. Kicker kicks because kickee isn't responding to orders or questions in their idea of a timely manner.

If you've ever played Frontlines, or know anything about it, sometimes it's extremely difficult to type. Why? Because enemies could catch sight of you and try beating you down, especially if you're alone. Not exactly the right time to stop and type a message.

[Doki]

In PVP there's plenty of times where it isn't convenient to type, there's also plenty who might be on console without a keyboard. If they thought I was afk they could have seen my dot moving around the map in enemy territory fairly easily. It's a real stretch to call it harassment, and by that arguement I could say that them kicking ME was harassment against MY play style.

I appreciate the repost of GM response on the issue. Can't say I'm too thrilled with the response, but I'm not surprised either. I'm not really trying to overly focus on my one instance of being kicked. I'm trying to point out flaws in the given options and how they are executed and can easily be abused.

I feel that for the person being kicked, there should be more information. I can kind of understand a hesitance towards naming the person that kicks you, as that would open the door for retaliatory harassment. I do not see any harm in telling the player the selected reason for the kick though.

There's little reason to even report my case. IF it went anywhere they'd say "We though he was afk so we kicked" which in frontlines is DUMB... if you're afk for 2 minutes you are AUTOKICKED. In the amount of action required to kick me, they could have looked at the map and saw me moving. This of course assumes that is the reason they chose for the kick as I have no idea which was chosen.

[Chihaya]

Again, it is not possible to encompass all reasons for a kick


A simple "different play style" can justify a kick. Yes, it is a dick move to kick people over this, but they can do it.

But really, you don't win frontlines solo, if you took the 10 seconds to just tell them what you are doing, you would probably not have been kicked.

[Souljacker]

Maybe not, but he said that a minute elapsed after that message before the kick happened. There's no stealth currently in this game, so he can see if there's enough of a lull to type out a quick "capping xyz". Another good reason to be with the team instead of running around the map alone - you are less likely to be sniped in the way you described.

Frontlines, like it or not, isn't 1v1 where you can do your own special thing and to heck with the rest of the group. It's a team sport, and should be treated as such. If you are playing any other team based content and decide that you are going to do your own thing instead of what the rest of the group is doing and no one knows what you are up to, the team may remove you.

[Finaltime101]

This happened to me just now. I got 90k'd from front lines and I was gone for 15 seconds.... The voted kick on me for being gone for 15 seconds.... wtf???? I understand why I would get voted it if I was gone for 2 minutes or if I was just plain terrible but kicking someone for being gone for 15 seconds because they were disconnected is just plain rude!

[ExKage]

Unfortunately 20 sec can sometimes be the tide to change the match. I've seen several hundreds lead in points even out in 20 seconds. It's unfortunate that you were dropped but that 20+ seconds costs the rest of your team and GC in the match possible points.

[WinterSolstice]

How odd. I see so many people go off and do their own thing to the detriment of the team, but I've never seen somebody get kicked from frontlines

That being said, I'm more of a casual PVPer, so I've only ran about 80-90 of them.