Player Reputation, Fighting against toxicity!

Hello all, In many games not just MMO's we have seen a large increase over the years of internet rambo's and just plain trolls. These people can seriously take the fun out of the game for me and I'm sure some other people. Archeage is a great example of how toxic players can be, and I'm sure Steven had that game in mind when he wanted to kill some of his own faction.

So what can we do to help slow it down in the nodes we will call our home?

I would like to have a player reputation system established by our players, now this will have to be limited to 1 player per account to prevent alt spamming, and I would suggest maybe letting a player use it only once a week so they're not tempted to boost buddies, and actually save it for a reason to use it.

Things that could earn reputation would be being helpful and answering questions in chat for people, players could have a small button next to the chat to give rep and or lose rep.

Helping someone survive if you see them about to die.

Organizing a group or raid.

any positive action that stands out for the best interest of you Node.

Now Bad Rep would work the opposite obviously, players doing the exact opposite of this.

Being a asshat in chat, purposely trolling people, and many other reason I'm sure these people will find to grief and annoy players.

Now I would suggest a title system for both good and bad, and I know some people would relish the bad titles.

However I would like to add a twist. For players that continue to be a plague on our nodes, as a Merchant myself and running a player stall. I would like the following options on my merchant:

*Give a discount to high rep players
*Charge extra for bad rep players
*Have the right to refuse service to a bad rep player by entering his name on a block list, and when he tries to buy have a message for him saying he is being refused service.

Now some people will say money is money, and they have every right to feel that way, for me personally I would rather stick to my principles then help enable these people. Even if just a handful of merchants did it, I'm sure players would not only appreciate the discounts but would be dismayed if a item they really wanted was for sale and they could not get it due to being a weenie!

Please let me know any other suggestions you might have to improve on a system like this if you like this idea thanks for reading.

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Comments

Medrash1

@Sandman

Saying that a good game with a good balance doesn't have toxicity problems.. it can always happen .. but a good game will never let the toxic player ruin your game.

Anyway your solution isn't a bad idea for me

, a reputation system is awesome ... but i think that it can cause some problems. if a certain player have a way to play that makes other people mad that's fine ... it's part f the game, and it build factions. So this can led a good player to be voted negatively by other players .. or just becouse they are enemies..
I don't get how the merchant works .. do you intend the npc? Or you? I think that a major of a node can ban someone from the city ... with a report to the autority or the "police" , and then give your name to other nodes or players ... but then a player can also hide himself and his face, making harder or impossible to be detected my the guards and merchants...
of course if a player is toxic nobody (players) will give stuff or help him , there is no need for a reputation system.

BaSkA_9x2

A block feature which will make that person's nameplate a different color that completely removes that guy from my chat/chat bubbles and help me boycott him as much as I possibly can is more than enough.

Also, whatever Ashes ToS regarding "toxicity" are, if people break them I hope I'll be able to report them and hopefully get them IP/HWID chat banned for weeks if not more - which can't be based on poor AI, or else false positives/report abusing will be a problem.

HiddenDaggerInn

Medrash wrote: »

@Sandman

Saying that a good game with a good balance doesn't have toxicity problems.. it can always happen .. but a good game will never let the toxic player ruin your game.

Anyway your solution isn't a bad idea for me , a reputation system is awesome ... but i think that it can cause some problems. if a certain player have a way to play that makes other people mad that's fine ... it's part f the game, and it build factions. So this can led a good player to be voted negatively by other players .. or just becouse they are enemies..
I don't get how the merchant works .. do you intend the npc? Or you? I think that a major of a node can ban someone from the city ... with a report to the autority or the "police" , and then give your name to other nodes or players ... but then a player can also hide himself and his face, making harder or impossible to be detected my the guards and merchants...
of course if a player is toxic nobody (players) will give stuff or help him , there is no need for a reputation system.

I mean me personally, if I'm not mistaken we will be allowed to run player stalls to sell our wares, that is where I would grant a discount to valuable society members or charge more to those less helpful, or outright deny them.

Warth

BaSkA13 wrote: »

A block feature which will make that person's nameplate a different color that completely removes that guy from my chat/chat bubbles and help me boycott him as much as I possibly can is more than enough.

Also, whatever Ashes ToS regarding "toxicity" are, if people break them I hope I'll be able to report them and hopefully get them IP/HWID chat banned for weeks if not more - which can't be based on poor AI, or else false positives/report abusing will be a problem.

Provide players with a chat channel where being toxic is allowed. A channel, which you have to join on purpose.
That would reduce the amount of toxicity in the general channels. That's already the tactic they have employed on the discord as well with the Guild Chat.

HiddenDaggerInn

Warth wrote: »

BaSkA13 wrote: »

A block feature which will make that person's nameplate a different color that completely removes that guy from my chat/chat bubbles and help me boycott him as much as I possibly can is more than enough.

Also, whatever Ashes ToS regarding "toxicity" are, if people break them I hope I'll be able to report them and hopefully get them IP/HWID chat banned for weeks if not more - which can't be based on poor AI, or else false positives/report abusing will be a problem.

Provide players with a chat channel where being toxic is allowed. A channel, which you have to join on purpose.
That would reduce the amount of toxicity in the general channels. That's already the tactic they have employed on the discord as well with the Guild Chat.

That's a fair idea, for players that like it a bit more spicy.

BaSkA_9x2

Warth wrote: »

Provide players with a chat channel where being toxic is allowed. A channel, which you have to join on purpose.
That would reduce the amount of toxicity in the general channels. That's already the tactic they have employed on the discord as well with the Guild Chat.

I agree that's a great idea, but I'm not sure allowing for a channel where breaking their ToS is going to be acceptable by Intrepid.

Let's say calling me fat is against ToS. I don't mind it and I won't report people who do that. However if there's a channel where people call others fat, nothing will stop someone from going there only to report these people, because Intrepid wouldn't say "ToS is not enforced in the following channels: x, y, z". I'm using a dumb example, but things can quickly escalate if people start saying nazi propaganda, racial slurs, doxxing, sharing scammer links, pedophilia etc, which could even get them in legal trouble.

Simply make rules which are not subjective, give players a block option (and a way to identify blocked people easily), give players a report button and don't issue suspensions/bans based on AI only.

Atama

BaSkA13 wrote: »

A block feature which will make that person's nameplate a different color that completely removes that guy from my chat/chat bubbles and help me boycott him as much as I possibly can is more than enough.

Also, whatever Ashes ToS regarding "toxicity" are, if people break them I hope I'll be able to report them and hopefully get them IP/HWID chat banned for weeks if not more - which can't be based on poor AI, or else false positives/report abusing will be a problem.

We have already seen multiple people banned from the forum and Discord so clearly Intrepid is willing to police toxicity. I can’t imagine it’ll be any different in the game.

H8edHero

I would like to be able to add a note to a person I ignore. That note should be account bound as well in case they have multiple toons. So that way months later if some interaction pops up I can see why. Choose to give them a second chance or do some of the above mentioned ideas.

Great Brae

I was just thinking of having player history as an option, like an open record of how much players killed in the open world vs non-comabatants, or initiated with non-combatants, kills of them, kills of open non-pvp world comabatants, and how many times/highest level of curruption they had.

This can go with stats from instanced pvp/pve as well like how many times they died in pve content or pvp/world pvp content, and other statistic stats.

In the end it can tell the player if they are a greiver (if they spent allot of time/had high curruption) and you would know instinctly if that player is toxic. You can have the system give the player that did wrong negative node reputation for wrong-doings like pking a player to steal there resources, robbing caravan's etc. Even bigger loss if you attack a non-combatant even.

Grihm

PeggysuegotParried wrote: »

However I would like to add a twist. For players that continue to be a plague on our nodes, as a Merchant myself and running a player stall. I would like the following options on my merchant:

*Give a discount to high rep players
*Charge extra for bad rep players
*Have the right to refuse service to a bad rep player by entering his name on a block list, and when he tries to buy have a message for him saying he is being refused service.

Now some people will say money is money, and they have every right to feel that way, for me personally I would rather stick to my principles then help enable these people. Even if just a handful of merchants did it, I'm sure players would not only appreciate the discounts but would be dismayed if a item they really wanted was for sale and they could not get it due to being a weenie!

Please let me know any other suggestions you might have to improve on a system like this if you like this idea thanks for reading.

Fully supported, and i will do this myself with my armors and materials from hunts.
Having the " security " as well as a system that bases a reputation on prices i feel would also remove the possible blackmail or threats that could arise from a massive abusive guild.

If a player has a stall, he o she could become forced to sell at any price, but a system of reputation could be a safety net for many, because many could be mic shy etc. With that system in play overall, no one would be threatened or blackmailed, because we as players have no say over the games code and rule set.

Arukoru

I think trolling has a place to an extent, I've personally never liked any system that relies on voting. Ever been booted from a WoW dungeon because someone was an a-hole to you and you gave them the same treatment back but it turns out they are a premade? Welcome to deserter penalty and why I hate any kind of system like this. Yes it has a place in theory but it holds you hostage in certain situations.

> *Have the right to refuse service to a bad rep player by entering his name on a block list, and when he tries to buy have a message for him saying he is being refused service.

I think this is the best thing on your post personally, I love the idea of refusing service to someone you hate and vice versa. This would have to have some kind of cooldown though because it would be incredibly awful if you had a house someplace and got banned from purchasing stuff because you voted against the current mayor or something.

As a general aside, I grew up on the old internet where abuse and trolling was an art form. I don't expect everyone else to be able to put up with that, but I've been in a couple games that tried to tackle the issue and it always makes the game so much worse. League of Legends is a prime example, reporting people is a form of trolling itself. If you use a curse word and someone else notices, they can report you afterwards and it adds to your likelihood of getting banned. I don't think this is the biggest issue ever, it just seems to cultivate a weird vigilantism and toxicity in itself when you have too many systems in place. On the flipside, you can truly ruin someone's day and type positive things in chat while purposely destroying the game for everyone else involved and not get a ban or even warning.

Just a minor caution on my end but I like the spirit of the post.

fabula

Any active reputation system would not really add anything good. UO had bad/good reputation and the only difference between the "good" and "bad" titles was their color. You were just as likely to find a good or a bad player with either title.

An active system would be even be worse and it would be similar to bringing twitter into the game.

The only reputation system a game should have is the implicit one created by the players themselves. If you act like an ass towards others then you shouldn't be surprised when you are rejected by others when you need it.

Azherae

In-node newspapers, libel laws, bulletin boards, guardpost bounties...

Mwa-hahahaha.

Kaban

TL;dr but Lineage 2 had recommendation system. When player got recommended their nickname would slowly turn blue from white. I think max recommendations was 255 or so. every day however the recommendation value would deteriorate by i think 5% of its current value. It provided no perks what so ever but it distinguished you from other players. system wasn't perfect obviously but it'd give you a glimpse of which players to trust a bit more than others.

Dygz

I don't think we will need a reputation system.
We will be citizens of villages, towns, cities and metros.
We will know who people are and where they live. Individually and by guild.

Nerror

I like being able to blacklist specific players or perhaps even guilds from your shop/service.

But I don't like player-decided reputation systems. Some things the playerbase can handle by themselves, through regular gameplay. The really toxic people need to be dealt with by the live GMs they promised we'd have.

Arukoru

Nerror wrote: »

I like being able to blacklist specific players or perhaps even guilds from your shop/service.

But I don't like player-decided reputation systems. Some things the playerbase can handle by themselves, through regular gameplay. The really toxic people need to be dealt with by the live GMs they promised we'd have.

100% there's no replacement for a live GM

Yuyukoyay

I think a limited blacklist might be a good idea. It isn't a good idea unlimited because it's too much power and when it is abused can ruin the game and potentially make people who entered the game alone quit. If you could blacklist like 10 players though it would be a net positive. There are always those trolls you want to be rid of. This would be account wide as well since it would have no meaning if they make an alt and level it just to get revenge. This would limit the tools for trolling and gear them towards improving the player base over making it worse.

I often hate trolls. They always ruin the game and I've yet to see any situation where I was thankful they were in the game. I'm always of the opinion that if you aren't going to play a game seriously then don't play it at all. It's probably just a case of confusing trolling with pranks though. Pranks I can see as it's sacrificing quality game time to be funny and some people like doing that. It's similar to trolling but there is a fine line between that and trolling.

Cypher

Sounds way too much like cancel-culture. Blocking someone from communicating with you is fine and dandy. Being allowed to send a report to intrepid that they will review personally (not an AI) is fine. But potentially having a corrupt system where you can essentially cancel a player? Nah. You claim it’s only for toxic players. But what’s stopping the system from being used by a large guild or alliance to choke out competition or manipulate markets either for some nefarious master plan for control or wealth gain, or cancelling a player who isn’t actually being “toxic” but you don’t like their opinions or views (like our current IRL issues). No. Big fat no. I’m extremely polite in games when I do communicate to other players, and I’m not a player killer either. I’m just able to think with logic and reason and see how bad this is. Grow some thicker skin, use the block and report feature and be done.

Yuyukoyay

It's why when it's properly implemented it gives each player a limit of like 10 players. Also people can do it in real life too and I haven't seen too many instances of people with money going starving.

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