End-of-Game Karma

By Nucleus Accumbens on September 3, 2009 9:06:59 AM from

So I think everyone can agree that there's a certain online player element that periodically makes DG a less than stellar gaming environment. And I understand that this happens in virtually every online game. However, in DG it is unsettling since players seem to get particularly incensed about bad players on their team. Rudeness and bad sportsmanship are rampant.

How about having a Karma system, like the one in the forums, in the actual game? This way, helpful/fun/respectful players can be recognized by having a high (average) karma rating and rude/disrespectful/obnoxious players can be quickly identified. This information would be available in the in-game lobby, alongside win/loss ratio and other valuable statistics (stuff they're maybe going to incorporate into 1.2).

Here's how it could work: after a game is over, every player can grant karma to any/all other players.

+2 great player (helpful, respectful - has NOTHING to do with quality of play)

+1 nice player, good teammate

-1 somewhat obnoxious

-2 very obnoxious

Players who disconnect early could automatically be given -3 (or -5) karma. So this system has the added benefit of punishing quitters who abandon their teammates.

The biggest problem I see with this is that "bad" players will simply game the system. For example, two obnoxious friends paired with a random noob on their team could berate him the entire game, be completely obnoxious, and then give each other +2 karma - so that even if the noob gives them -2 each, they break even. The noob could get -4, if the pair decide to "punish" his bad play.

I'm wondering if other people have ideas about how a system like this could be improved and actually work. I'm not really thinking this is seriously going to be added to DG at any point, but figured I'd put the idea out there.

-- NAc

+15 Karma | 9 Replies

well, one way to get around the specific abuse that you mentioned would be to take away the privelege of giving karma if your karma is negative; and/or you could record karma-giving stats just like all the other ones, so you could see how much karma (positive or negative) a person has been giving.

Wasn't stardock talking about some sort of karma rating system at some point? It was near the beginning of the summer, maybe.

you could also deal with karma abuse by giving the power to bestow karma out at random (and only at the end of the game). players wouldn't be able to tell who had karma to burn nor would they be able to bully other players by threatening their karma score.

think of how it works with sky marshalls on airplanes

it wouldn't be hard to make it semi-random so that players with higher karma get it more often than less karmalized players.

This was discussed in dev journals ad naseum. In the end, the idea of negative karma and its abuses led to a new type of matchmaking, "Ready 2 Play". Ready 2 Play will link players based on similarities and allow matchmaking and game scheduling via impulse. With this, hopefulluy there will be some sort of refinement that allows input from the user as to the truthfulness of those they match with, but since it is in the best interest of the person playing to be honest, this system could really work out well. Expect to see that and other impulse enhancements on Sept. 9th.

Oh.. make this karma system and everyone in top 200 get -100 in a week) Nobody likes to be a loser

If they incorporate such a mechanic, they should to not allow players to give invinite positive and negative Karma points. Sadly (but surely), some players would be so immature as to give negative Karma to everyone who beats them, or just "for fun". On the other hand, teams of players who know each other would give themselves only positive Karma.

This could be solved by giving each player 1 Karma point to spend per game played (until the end). Furthermore it should not be allowed to accumulate more than 3 points to spend. The player would now have to choose more thoughtfully.

I really like this idea. It would be abused if you could give the same user karma every time you played with them - premades that use the unstable gamestate, for instance, could give positive karma for all of their 100 wins. What if you rated each player you played with 1-10 based on friendliness? If you added that with the ability to see both your rating for someone and their average rating in the lobby, you would both know if you've had a bad experience with them, and what the community thinks of them.

I would, however, hold off on instituting it until we get some sort of consensus on how premades should find matches, as their isn't a good solution and it just leads to premades getting grief.

I like this idea, maybe make an easy way to identify decent players by linking game karma points to their nick display, the better the karma the brighter the username, whereas bad players usernames would appear as fading, or not so bright. Mostly I like this idea because it would give people a good reason to be nice, tho people being too nice just to get karma would also be an annoyance...

What if you could only give someone karma once a month?

Or once a week. One less karma or one +karma.

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End-of-Game Karma