Something to consider (Destiny)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Monday, February 16, 2015, 22:40 (3363 days ago) @ Morpheus

Occasionally on XBone I've had an issue where notifications get jammed up - people are sending me invites, or messages, or achievements are popping, etc., but I don't see the notifications. Then, some time later (might be seconds minutes, whatever) all those stuck notifications come through. It's possible (I'd say even likely) that these players' supposed ability to invite you despite a block was actually just delayed notifications.

Also, I think this sort of thing (where randos send you repeated invites after seeing you in the tower) tends to happen a lot on XBone because players don't understand the XBone's way of adding friends, and it's not entirely their fault. Most players are used to the old 360 system, where there was a clear "request sent" indicator while waiting for a response, and people didn't appear in your friends list until they'd accepted. The problem with transitioning to XBone right now is that if I select someone and say "add friend," from my point of view they immediately appear in my friends list. I can see if they're online and send them invites, and unless I actually view their profile and then hit "change friendship" there's not much indication for me that they have NOT added me back. This state of things is actually called following, and like following someone on Twitter, they don't necessarily have to follow back. There is a small indicator when someone adds you back (at which point you are actually "friends"), but I think a significant number of players don't yet understand that. So, they add you, see you in their list, and believe that you've accepted their friend request. So naturally, they invite you, and send a few more invites when you don't show up (thinking that you must not have seen, or joining didn't work) - again, it hasn't occurred to them that you're not into it, because they believe you accepted their friend request.

Speaking of not understanding XBone systems, fireteam privacy does exist, however because of some bad decisions MS made on the party system, you have to be in an XBL party to do it. Start an XBL party (even if you're the only one in it), and set THAT to invite only. Job done. Not your fault for not picking up on that, BTW - it's an idiotic system (but not Bungie's doing).

Side note: When Destiny launched, the XBone version did not have the "invite to fireteam" option when selecting another player in your roster. This was, no doubt, also a result of Microsoft's ridiculous party system. Thankfully, for whatever reason Bungie was able to add that in later.