So, this has come up before in various threads, usually revolving the discussion about player toxicity in games. Now, I don't play a lot of multiplayer games, particularly competitive ones, BECAUSE I dislike the toxicity that is often in them. If I have to play with other people in some kind of matched game, I prefer ones like Payday 2 or L4D, where it's Humans vs AI. And while you can still have assholes who will berate you for not playing to their standards, I find it's FAR less common, compared to my stints in other games like Overwatch, and League of Legends, etc. It seems, from my personal observation at least, that the added factor of looking like a fool (in their minds anyway) in front of other people, BECAUSE of the actions of another person, is a huge driving factor in a person acting like an asshole in some online game. It's not the only factor of course, but it seems to be the digital straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back.
And I a lot of games seem to try and implement a form of punishment system for bad behavior, and that's good, but I personally think that the opposite might yield more fruit. I got this idea back when I was playing LoL, and they had implemented the award system for teammates, where you could give them a like, and indicate what it was for (helpful, funny, etc). And the scores were tallied on a regular basis. Now, when I played it, (this might have changed years later, I dunno), but when I played it, there was no reward for this. It was just a way for people to see that you weren't a douchebag. Which is fine, but I think if you provided some kind of incentive, it might actually yield more fruit. The proverbial carrot to go along with the stick.
Provide some kind of actual, tangible benefit, for having a positive community rating.
If you are consistently gaining positive reviews from the people who play with you, at the end of the month, you get some kind of reward. If the game has a currency system, you get a nice little chunk of of it in your game account, to buy some stuff. And I mean in the currency system that normally actually costs real cash. Don't make it huge, but make it enough that someone could get a free skin, or cosmetic, or emote, or whatever, every month. For free. "Thank you for not being an asshole, and doing your part to make this community fun and inviting. Have some free stuff."
Now, I remember, when I first expressed this idea back to the people I played LoL with, that they felt it would be too easy to exploit, and they specifically cited that people could tank your rating, just to be an asshole. Now, I think this is just fundamentally wrong, as evidenced by my own experience with that system. I got a few negative tags from people, sure, but the overwhelming ratings I got, were positive, and that's why you take the average. If only 20 people, out of 2000 people who voted you up that month, gave you negative tags, but everyone else was like "they were cool egg." Then nothing will happen, it will just be the random variance. Maybe they were just not having a good day, maybe YOU weren't having a good day, and annoyed a few people. But if it's an isolated incident....and not a pattern of behavior, then that's all it is...an isolated incident. The majority of people aren't going to go out of their way to be an asshole, so it's not anything you really have to worry about, if you are being a decent human being.
So, yeah I was curious what people thought. If any games have, in the years since I first ran across this rating system in LoL, have actually implemented it, and how well did it work? And if no games have done it, what are some ways that you would like to see this implemented? Aside from my very broad and general "Play Nice, Have a Cookie" example. Like examples of how to implement it in say, MMOs, or FPS arena team games like Overwatch. Games like Fortnite, etc. How would you like to see it play out? Because I do honestly think, that if you actually gave the people who might be inclined to lash out, because there is no reason NOT to, a reason to keep their cool, not spew bile, that it might actually help.
And I a lot of games seem to try and implement a form of punishment system for bad behavior, and that's good, but I personally think that the opposite might yield more fruit. I got this idea back when I was playing LoL, and they had implemented the award system for teammates, where you could give them a like, and indicate what it was for (helpful, funny, etc). And the scores were tallied on a regular basis. Now, when I played it, (this might have changed years later, I dunno), but when I played it, there was no reward for this. It was just a way for people to see that you weren't a douchebag. Which is fine, but I think if you provided some kind of incentive, it might actually yield more fruit. The proverbial carrot to go along with the stick.
Provide some kind of actual, tangible benefit, for having a positive community rating.
If you are consistently gaining positive reviews from the people who play with you, at the end of the month, you get some kind of reward. If the game has a currency system, you get a nice little chunk of of it in your game account, to buy some stuff. And I mean in the currency system that normally actually costs real cash. Don't make it huge, but make it enough that someone could get a free skin, or cosmetic, or emote, or whatever, every month. For free. "Thank you for not being an asshole, and doing your part to make this community fun and inviting. Have some free stuff."
Now, I remember, when I first expressed this idea back to the people I played LoL with, that they felt it would be too easy to exploit, and they specifically cited that people could tank your rating, just to be an asshole. Now, I think this is just fundamentally wrong, as evidenced by my own experience with that system. I got a few negative tags from people, sure, but the overwhelming ratings I got, were positive, and that's why you take the average. If only 20 people, out of 2000 people who voted you up that month, gave you negative tags, but everyone else was like "they were cool egg." Then nothing will happen, it will just be the random variance. Maybe they were just not having a good day, maybe YOU weren't having a good day, and annoyed a few people. But if it's an isolated incident....and not a pattern of behavior, then that's all it is...an isolated incident. The majority of people aren't going to go out of their way to be an asshole, so it's not anything you really have to worry about, if you are being a decent human being.
So, yeah I was curious what people thought. If any games have, in the years since I first ran across this rating system in LoL, have actually implemented it, and how well did it work? And if no games have done it, what are some ways that you would like to see this implemented? Aside from my very broad and general "Play Nice, Have a Cookie" example. Like examples of how to implement it in say, MMOs, or FPS arena team games like Overwatch. Games like Fortnite, etc. How would you like to see it play out? Because I do honestly think, that if you actually gave the people who might be inclined to lash out, because there is no reason NOT to, a reason to keep their cool, not spew bile, that it might actually help.
