Misbehaving Players

The following link :

http://www.newsoflegends.com/

Is a very available source for finding the best of the best ... or in the case the worst when it comes to league of legends tribunal cases as they have a section which is updated named "Tribunal case of the week" in which the worst case or most known case of the week is posted up here and has various examples of bad player attitude which is great for investigation but bad for the player involved :(.

Investigation Continued

Hello once again,

*Must remember to do more posts*


Back to the interesting stuff though, after performing my presentation for the module as well as completing my proposal my project has taken down the path of policing in games. This means in a basic sense how different games and services deal with issues in games which may lead to a "Toxic" game environment or game play experience.

For the innovative part of the project I intend to create a system that allows a efficient way of dealing with complaints then discovers them quicker, such as when a player received a number of complaints of a certain severity early on rather than the moderators scanning through their systems and picking up on a person who has had numerous complaints over many games. In a nutshell a way to find out trouble makers early on in game when they act negatively toward a player in say two games rather than a wave of offenses over many games.



So we are trying to catch the bad guys early on so they can be dealt with and not upset other players thus making their game experience a negative one.

Experiment

As for the experiment itself I intend to do further research into the different games chosen by me which are:

1. Riot Games "League of Legends"
2. Microsoft's Xbox Live service
3. Blizzard's "World of Warcraft"

These titles were chosen because not only do i have knowledge of each game in depth they are all easy to access for personal analysis. Each deal with multiple user environments in different ways. Some allow the user to kick an offensive player from game with a majority decision, this can be troublesome if there are 3 out of 5 players friendly with each other meaning they will always have majority.

One thing in common is all games/services chosen allow player to have the ability to report offensive players which may lead to them being banned for repeat offenses which conflict with each of the chosen areas "Code of Conduct"

Code of Conduct:

"a set of conventional principles and expectations that are considered binding on any person who is a member of a particular group"

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Back to the experiment...

Back to the experiment, I intend to create a system which breaks each complaint down into three categories, this will be defined using colors RED, GREEN and ORANGE. Each will refer to the severity of the issue raised in the complaint.

To test the system I will analyse different issues raised in each of the online games/services to create some realistic scenarios which can be tested by participants which have not had experience with these games as well as players who have sunk hours into each.

They will be asked a series of questions in initial interviews to allow me to distinguish how they feel the effectiveness of each system is and if they have had any experience with TROLLS or offensive players and how the reacted and felt about the situation.

This will then allow me to build upon each scenario to create the 6 reporting sentences...

These will be the options the participants will be allowed to take to solve their issue, similar to the options the may face when reporting a player. There will be two for each rating of severity and will be analysed to see if its a viable system for reporting players and at the same time collaborating responses to allow a more efficient way to moderate reports received.

MORE TO COME LATER ... STAY TUNED!

Investigation

Hello again ! :)

Well I finally settled on the topic of "Strangers in Games"...

Slightly strange title! However after a meeting with Suzanne Prior I finalized that i was going to review different game communities and see if they had  a positive or negative effect on players new and existing to the game.

Such observation would be:

• Does a negative or bullying community make the player want to leave and never return, or does it in fact spur them on to become better to "Rub it in the face" of those who once put them down for their playstyle or... "Being a noob"
• Does a helpful and powerful guild with many "Perks" make the player want to play as more of a team or are they only in it for the "Perks" and when they get what they need they will quickly run away into the sunset.
• How does a player see insults/praise from friends in comparison to that of a complete stranger?
• Are players more confident to insult a player in an online game rather than to say it in a rel world environment (This on the outset can be seen as a simple yes depending on the player however why is this ?)

I will look into various games which I have had a strong experience with from different genres but mianly focussing on a team built game play.

Such as:

• World of Warcraft
• League of Legends
• Smite
• An FPS game ( such as call of duty ) I wont have access to this game so I will interview a group of gamers who would classify this as "Their type of game"

Well that's all for now... 

Next I will read into more literature around guilds, team speak or chat; the various ways people communicate in games and finally a bit more into each games rules and legislation based on in game conduct such as praise/insults.

Introduction

Hello...

My Name is Charlie Reilly and have as of November 2013 graduated with a Bsc Computer Games Design Degree with Honours. As of the summer I recently worked in a special needs camp in Long Island, New York. This resulted in working from June 15 2013 up until August 31 2013. It led me to working with the disabled community, ages ranging from 12  until 18+.

As part of my four years at university I completed my honours project entitled "An investigation into the effect of narrative on the performance and experience of adults over the age of 50 in games".  I have always had a keen interest in games with a strong narrative which strongly pulls me towards rpgs and mmorpgs.

I have recently been accepted into further study by means of the Mprof Games Development at Abertay Univeristy, hoping to put the skills I have learnt throughout my time studying games design to good use !!!


Thanks for reading ....



Charlie