Comments on: Peer rewards for good behavior take a bite out of trolling and griefing in MMO

By: mgatch

mgatch — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:35:00 +0000

Reminds me of an experiment I did years ago when teaching. Students had to turn in 6 or 7 abstracts of scientific articles. The first quarter the abstracts were worth a maximum of 15 points, but untyped abstracts lost 5 points (OK, so you know how long ago this was . . .). the next term, the abstracts were worth 10 points and typed abstracts got a 5 pt bonus.
Exact same net: 10 pt untyped; 15 pt typed.
I got way more abstracts turned in typed the second term and had far fewer complaints about finding typewriters or having going up to campus to the new computer center and trying out those word processor things.

By: Geno Martinez

Geno Martinez — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Including that feature in LoL would make me feel a lot better. Some players don’t know where to stop at the trash-talk line, and it’s incredibly disruptive to gameplay. In LoL Philippines, cross-team chat is disabled by default, and while I have noticed that trash-talk has considerably lessened, it’s a shame that such a heavy-handed measure had to be used simply because certain people are douchebags.

By: Zyr

Zyr — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:16:00 +0000

I’m not sure about LoL, but in Dota 2, you can report players for negative behaviour, and they will be put in a low priority queue for match making after the reports are investigated.

It is immensely satisfying to log in, and receive a prompt advising “We’ve recently taken action against one or more of the players you’ve filed reports against. Thanks for making the Dota 2 community a better place!”

By: Zyr

Zyr — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Valve’s Dota 2, while not technically released yet (it’s currently a closed beta you can pay to get into) also has this feature, which was included from the start.

I’m glad to see more companies providing a way to give positive feedback.

In the game like LoL or Dota, where you are required to play with other players, any way you can encourage positive behaviour is a good thing.

By: Ryan_T_H

Ryan_T_H — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:58:00 +0000

As a former player, I found LoL to be one of the most vicious and trollish communities I have ever been exposed to.

And that isn’t a commentary on the players in general. The percentage of trolls was no higher than any other game. The problems are more structural. Due to the way the game is designed and implemented there are a large numbers of behavious open to trolls that not only allow for harassment but actively interfere with other players ability to play the game.

It’s like a ten-way game of prisoner’s dilemma where everyone has a button that instantly screws the other players. With that kind of setup it doesn’t take a large population of trolls to have a disproportionate impact.

By: Florian Braun

Florian Braun — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:31:00 +0000

I was going to suggest that LoL is about as much of an MMORPG as Starcraft, but aside from that, good article.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:31:00 +0000

ORLY? GTFO!

(needed more cowbell)

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:09:00 +0000

I can see that there may be good reasons not to have social networking features like Friending in discussion systems like reddit and disqus. Voting works quite there as well but anonymity helps as well.

By: Nate Spears

Nate Spears — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:09:00 +0000

LoL is not an MMORPG – it’s a MOBA :P

By: Lord Television

Lord Television — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:08:00 +0000

As an avid League of Legends player, I feel compelled to point out that League is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), not an MMORPG. The difference is comparable to the difference between a banana and an orange.