Reputation system

Recently in MMORPG's, the sense of community and the standards of behavior have gone sinking down. Respect is nothing but an revenant of the past.

So I am proposing for the return of the reputation system, however before I throw the idea to the developers, I wish to see TESOF's opinion, if its even worth it, or liked.


The Reputation system is simple. You can either give positive reputation, or negative reputation. You may give out one reputation point every six hours, and you aren't capable of giving reputation points to the same person more than once a month.

What does this reputation do, then? Well massively negative reputation hinders the amount of AoE buffs and heals within your faction. It also grants slight bonuses if its highly positive that are purely cosmetic, such as titles or emotes. But mostly its used to check what others feel of the other player. This scan can be done by a simple chat command.

And then the question; Why? To promote respect. Especially with the megaserver, chances are people will never see each other again. This system is to be used as an incentive for people to promote good behavior. And naturally, decrease the incentive of bad behavior in fear of negative reputation.

"What about people attempting to exploit the system by reputation trading?" A game called Helbreath used similar system, and mostly, if someone wanted to trade reputation / begged for it, he would receive more negative reputation than positive. Perhaps developer's could promote that such action should be policed by players.

Edit: Example case is ninja looting. One wouldn't want to "steal" unnecessary low level items for cash, since its more than likely he'll be smacked with negative reputation.


Thoughts on the matter?

no. just no

This reputation system is based on the opinion the other players have of you. Obviously from your gameplay. But I think it's not a good idea, since you can always be misunderstood, since your channels of expression are (most common) text chat only. Sometimes you're trying to explain a fight and while you're writing the strategy, 2 other players reput you down because you "seem to be away" or "are slowing them too much". Not everyone who votes have good sense.

It's interesting. Respect is good. But I'm not sure that having any amount of positive rep is a good thing: it just serves to bloat your ego. It's difficult to arrive at something which punishes unhelpful and unfriendly players, without punishing those who just prefer to be on their own. What would be neat is if you have a reputation local to an area, similar to a hold bounty in Skyrim, that affects how friendly folks are to you (including prices and stuff) that can be affected by other players. But that sounds way too easy to exploit.

What I want most is a realistic system. A number next to your name that immediately tells everyone how good you are, even if they've never heard of you, is not realistic. I know this is an MMO and thus concessions have to be made in this area, but it does seem like a pointless boost that only does what it's built for a small amount of the time. That said, I have next to no experience in MMOs.

Another way would be to have a nonlinear rep scale. Once you have, say, 10 positive reputation, then it takes a lot more to get to 20. But if you do bad stuff, it will fall quickly. This stops it from getting in the way too much without losing its potential to point out scummy players.

Here's an interesting idea: the Rep system could be interwoven with the Megaserver technology. If you have a low rep, you usually get put with other low-rep players (although you'll still get to meet anybody you have already met or specifically want to meet). Of course, up to a point, this just results in a ghetto of unpopular players that can't ever redeem themselves because they don't like any of the other players they meet. A solution to that would be to have negative rep gradually recover.

This sounds like that SWTOR system where you got points for grouping with people (not tied to success, just .... hanging out).

I see what you're trying to encourage, but I don't think its appropriate for this game. People shouldn't control an in game reward structure.

Plus, a guild can tie itself to one campaign (if the leader has at least half of a neuron). Multiple guilds will likely do the same, on all sides. There really isn't a need to worry about losing friends in different parts of the megaserver.

While I like that it would make other feel more accountable for their actions, one of the concerns mentioned by Lippert is very valid. We can't expect that those voting are respectable. They may give - reputation simply because their ego was hurt when someone corrected them on how to fight a certain notorious enemy, or + rep a person may have called someone they didn't like a derogatory name. We'd basically be judging people by reviews left by others. Maybe someone is willing to learn, but got lots of - rep for being "noob" and asking questions to the wrong people who aren't helpful and impatient.

I do like the idea, but I'm not sure I'd want it implemented due to how -some- people will use it.

To me this is something I'd rather stay clear of. In the instance of player granting reputation, players would probably give negative rep faster than they would give someone a positive one. I know I've said I wouldn't play with a player after having a bad experience and turning around and played with them again and enjoyed it, the opposite of this is also true. This also creates a problem for player who was down-rated by trolls, or by an entire guild just because of one experience he may not be a bad player but seeing "player-20 karma" would put off most people, most would probably not even ask why his rep is so low.

Then with rewards for being good/bad just seems like something where you would be rewarding players for bad / good players. If there was a bad emote someone wanted should they just be jerks for the sake of getting some rewards?

It just seems like a system where players would have to be extremely mature and honest in order for it to work.

Interesting, but feels like rather old fashioned system

Myself Im quite intrigued by the Megaserver and ready to have my finger on the ignore feature. Annoying people who make it tru the Megaserver preferences should be filtered out that way and honestly looting shouldnt be a problem, I can hardly imagine some obsolete loot system based on rolls. More likely we shall see individual player drops as in GW2

No. It would turn TESO into a popularity contest and no one wants that.

I cannot agree on this. Most people are stupid. thats a fact. and what will happen is that people will downvote you for no good reason. people will downvote you for not agreeing with you, we see alot of that on youtube and any other shitty community.

Basically this will just empower stupid people, and will easily scare away people with a proper opinion.
In my opinion having majorities of stupid people outweigh the opinion of smart people is not a good idea. and also not having this as a popularity contest because at the end of the day,y oull have your friends vote you up.

and if you want to see a game where this already spectaculary failed, LoL.its just bad there. it doesnt work. Its a flamefest people with different opitions will destroy each other, for no reason. People will report people for beeing "bad" in their opinion.
Why is LoL a good example one might ask, its not even an MMORPG. true. but its popular. something your helbreath game probably isnt considering i have never heard of it.
and this is what happens if you hand over power to a community that is there to abuse it. The way MMORPGs work is that people want to use exploits. In Skyrim, most people dont it makes the game too easy. Not so much in an MMO that is heavily based on repetition and long winding tasks, not to mention the possibility of overpowering others.
People WILL exploit ANYTHING they get.

and this is a big one. please, have a post it, pin it on your screen that says this sentance. because so many ideas are based on the idea of consumer goodwill. something that NEVER works in an online community.

(December 12th 2012, 09:29 AM)Sordak Wrote: I cannot agree on this. Most people are stupid. thats a fact. and what will happen is that people will downvote you for no good reason. people will downvote you for not agreeing with you, we see alot of that on youtube and any other shitty community.

Basically this will just empower stupid people, and will easily scare away people with a proper opinion.
In my opinion having majorities of stupid people outweigh the opinion of smart people is not a good idea. and also not having this as a popularity contest because at the end of the day,y oull have your friends vote you up.

and if you want to see a game where this already spectaculary failed, LoL.its just bad there. it doesnt work. Its a flamefest people with different opitions will destroy each other, for no reason. People will report people for beeing "bad" in their opinion.
Why is LoL a good example one might ask, its not even an MMORPG. true. but its popular. something your helbreath game probably isnt considering i have never heard of it.
and this is what happens if you hand over power to a community that is there to abuse it. The way MMORPGs work is that people want to use exploits. In Skyrim, most people dont it makes the game too easy. Not so much in an MMO that is heavily based on repetition and long winding tasks, not to mention the possibility of overpowering others.
People WILL exploit ANYTHING they get.

and this is a big one. please, have a post it, pin it on your screen that says this sentance. because so many ideas are based on the idea of consumer goodwill. something that NEVER works in an online community.

Going with that, I think it also adds an extra, and unneccesary, layer to the group mechanics.

I also feel like its a waste of time, since I will undoubtedly be able to tell who sucks and who doesn't pretty quickly based on performance. When I find good people, I add them to friends, make a note, and hit them up. That's all we really need.

(December 12th 2012, 09:29 AM)Sordak Wrote: I cannot agree on this. Most people are stupid. thats a fact. and what will happen is that people will downvote you for no good reason. people will downvote you for not agreeing with you, we see alot of that on youtube and any other shitty community.

Basically this will just empower stupid people, and will easily scare away people with a proper opinion.
In my opinion having majorities of stupid people outweigh the opinion of smart people is not a good idea. and also not having this as a popularity contest because at the end of the day,y oull have your friends vote you up.

and if you want to see a game where this already spectaculary failed, LoL.its just bad there. it doesnt work. Its a flamefest people with different opitions will destroy each other, for no reason. People will report people for beeing "bad" in their opinion.
Why is LoL a good example one might ask, its not even an MMORPG. true. but its popular. something your helbreath game probably isnt considering i have never heard of it.
and this is what happens if you hand over power to a community that is there to abuse it. The way MMORPGs work is that people want to use exploits. In Skyrim, most people dont it makes the game too easy. Not so much in an MMO that is heavily based on repetition and long winding tasks, not to mention the possibility of overpowering others.
People WILL exploit ANYTHING they get.

and this is a big one. please, have a post it, pin it on your screen that says this sentance. because so many ideas are based on the idea of consumer goodwill. something that NEVER works in an online community.

I agree completely as this idea additionally only sounds like a "popularity contest".

Additionally, if you like what someone said you +1 to their count under their avatar already, we can use our best judgement other than that.

well. heres the point.
I got +281 on this forum.


Does this indicate in any way how likeable i am?
no.

Beat me to it...

Sordak? Likeable? Impossibruuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

I think your own popularity is the "respect / fame" system. You can make your own reputation in MMO's helping people sorting out bugs, quests, etc. And agree with was already said: It can be exploited. So it will become like our "modern democracy": A lot of stupid people that silences the few smart ones.