Valve talks about new ways to punish mean players online.

[Rydian]

[...] charging customers based on how much fun they are to play with. Some people, when they join a server, a ton of people will run with them. Other people, when they join a server, will cause others to leave. We should have a way of capturing that. We should have a way of rewarding the people who are good for our community.

So, in practice, a really likable person in our community should get Dota 2 for free, because of past behaviour in Team Fortress 2. Now, a real jerk that annoys everyone, they can still play, but a game is full price and they have to pay an extra hundred dollars if they want voice.[/p]

Source

Yeah it's from an interview back in May and it doesn't look like they'll do it, but it brings up some points I'd like to see discussed here.

Some people are just dicks online. There's a variety of reasons for this. While in some rare cases it's simple because the person in question is a sadist, for most encounters it's just younger or immature people who relish in the thought of not having to pay for their actions. People who have not yet learned to control themselves and only do so normally for fear of the repercussions, but see none online, and so feel free to act out however they want... Of course there are punishments online (which generally involve limiting or locking down the account used), but in the vast majority of these cases these punishments do little to stave off the flow of dicks because they don't actually affect the person behind it. You can always just register a new forum account or facebook and pick up where you left off... so modern punishments need to make sure that what's taken away has actual value.

Now this is not a new idea... some anti-cheat measures such as Punkbuster will in rare cases utilize hardware ID bans so that cheaters cannot reconnect with the banned PC hardware, and ideas like that have been implemented onto modern game consoles with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Is the wallet the best target? It certainly seems effective... it costs me much more to buy a 360 than it does to register a forum account, but is this the best route to go? Do you all have any other ideas?

 

[BORTZ]

No. The wallet is not the best. I mean its a working solution but its not punishing the crime.
If you were to block the player for a certain time or slow his/her connection for a certain time would be a better solution.

 

[Rydian]

No. The wallet is not the best. I mean its a working solution but its not punishing the crime.
If you were to block the player for a certain time or slow his/her connection for a certain time would be a better solution.

Block the player how? many types of bans and blocks can be easily evaded.

Slow their connection to just your service, or all-around?

 

[amptor]

It is hard to judge who really is mean or not in a source engine game. When I play, there's always those who like me but I like to game and be crazy and stuff so some people don't like that. So at some point I would maybe be paying that hundred dollars and then at that point, it may be Valve griefing me out of it. So I think it would be a bad idea.

I go in servers where eventually the admins get angry and start being mean. Those ones should be in the group who pays more but since they are admin they'd put me on the list to pay more.

This strategy does not work, especially for someone who can and knows how to pirate video games.

I mostly play games that I have bought now though, mind you..since not only do they drop prices on games constantly but also they drop prices on multi player games below the 10 dollar mark and even on popular titles. It makes it very desirable to purchase games opposed to copying them for free.

And now I test Starcraft II (blizzard) and it is a really fun game which I did not really expect so it could even be worth buying. But blizzard doesn't tend to have fire sales like valve does so Steam is always going to rule for online gaming and value experience.

Not to mention that their flagship title TF2 is FREE for everyone now which is entirely rediculous (as in fun, not a bad thing). I bought it but don't regret it since orange box only set me back $9.99 and I bought that for TF2. I have not had an unpleasant experience with that game on Steam. I've heard the talk about how there's too many new players and etc but it doesn't really seem to have any affect on my gaming experience with this game in particular.

now I am getting bored with steam but I found some new games that are fun. I would rather be out doing things and having a life than gaming though but unfortunately in this life of mine, that is not going to happen. at least not any year soon. oh well.

 

[jan777]

discounts (i mean getting games free) for good players sounds really nice.

 

[amptor]

discounts (i mean getting games free) for good players sounds really nice.

ya i know think of how many bad players they gave TF2 for free to lmfao.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Some people will PAY to be dicks.

Example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlQstQzb4A8[/youtube]

 

[deathking]

yeah this will no be scammed in any way shape or form
its not like a troll group could be freinds and give everyone high rankings , cop free games then troll and feed in dota
also this was back in may and about tf2 before that went free to play

 

[DarkShinigami]

so what is this exactly? yeah im easily confused

 

[Qtis]

An idea which could work in one way or another. Basically rating could become biased, but in the end something has to be done. Making a Steam-type accounting system could help, when an account being banned leads to a ban which couldn't be lifted and thus paying is the only option.


-Qtis

 

[Thesolcity]

so what is this exactly?

Bullshit.

 

[gokujr1000]

They have a similar system for Xbox Live but I don't think any rewards are involved. Now I know this is an Older piece of news or information but this is a terrible idea. If it's anything like Xbox Live people purposely give each other bad ratings just for the sake of something to do.

I have a large amount of reports of Trash Talking etc. on MY Xbox Live account and I don't even use a Microphone unless it's with my friends in a Party or Private chat. Unless they add some sort of proof system to go with this idea it will always be a terrible idea to suggest.

 

[FireGrey]

What!?
But the whole fun of FPS's is trolling people

 

[gokujr1000]

What!?
But the whole fun of FPS's is trolling people

Allot of people would disagree with you.

 

[TheDarkSeed]

So they're applying some of the aspects of kindergarten to online play?

 

[gokujr1000]

So they're applying some of the aspects of kindergarten to online play?

It's not confirmed that they are. And with the Original interview being in May I doubt they would actually put this feature in. Valve is a smart company and would probably think of every possible scenario before releasing something like this.

 

[TheDarkSeed]

I thought so, because an extra 100 for mic capabilities is nuts!

 

[gokujr1000]

I thought so, because an extra 100 for mic capabilities is nuts!

Yeah I'm sure he was using that as an Example, Valve and Steam would lose allot of supporters if they made you fork over 100 dollars just to talk to people over a mic.

 

[Foie]

I don't know if this has already been discussed, but I've always thought the best way to punish dicks is to match them up with other dicks. If someone disconnects a a ton in Mario Kart or whatnot, put them in servers with a bunch of disconnectors. If someone tends to make people leave servers, pair him with other players of his type. It'll just make the game less fun for the person ruining it for others.

 

[gokujr1000]

I don't know if this has already been discussed, but I've always thought the best way to punish dicks is to match them up with other dicks. If someone disconnects a a ton in Mario Kart or whatnot, put them in servers with a bunch of disconnectors. If someone tends to make people leave servers, pair him with other players of his type. It'll just make the game less fun for the person ruining it for others.

This is actually a really good idea o.o