bad-behavior
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Two more League of Legends players banned for jerkiness
Riot has banned two more League of Legends pros for excessively adolescent behavior. Last December the company sent Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera packing, and now Illyas "enVision" Hartsema and Damien "Linak" Lorthios are joining him in exile. Both players will be banned from both this weekend's LCS Season 3 Qualifier and LCS play next year according to the ruling on Riot's forums. enVision has been reported in a whopping 29% of his matches, which PC Gamer says is six times more than the average EU LoL player. He has also been punished 18 times, including two account bans, throughout his LoL history. Linak boasts a 20% report rate and, like enVision, has a peak harassment score in the worst .06% of all EU accounts.
Breakfast Topic: Do you report problem behavior in game?
Nobody likes a snitch, but let's face it: Unless players are willing to report bad behavior and spammers, our virtual world is going to remain uglier than it has to be. True, filing a report isn't always simple or convenient. It's often simpler to ignore or /ignore bad behavior and move on. Ideally, we'd all shoulder some of the responsibility of keeping our online community balanced and clean. Even in the best of circumstances, though, being the squeaky wheel is no fun. Whiner, snitch, tattletale -- there seem to be plenty of labels for players who are simply letting Blizzard know that another player is breaking the rules. Thing is, it's up to us to get that job done. Blizzard can't be everywhere at once, but we can -- and are. Do you take the time to report problem behavior in game? If so, do you tend to stick to cases of personal harrassment? Do you bother to report spammers? What about problem players in the dungeon finder or raid finder -- do you let a kick "take care" of them, or do you follow up with a report?
Riot producer: Addressing bad League of Legends behavior is 'a major focus for us'
A couple of months ago we reported on Riot's decision to assemble a 30-man development team to address adolescent behavioral issues in League of Legends. Now, hot on the heels of a high-profile banning incident involving Team Dignitas pro Christian Rivera, Gamasutra has interviewed LoL lead producer Travis George about the Player Behavior and Justice team (known internally as PB&J), which includes both game designers and academic researchers. George and Riot are hopeful that incentivizing good behavior and throwing a couple of PhDs (in neuroscience and behavioral psychology) into the mix will enable the firm to get a handle on the MOBA title's nefarious community, which was described as a "worldwide problem" in recent player surveys. "You can apply really good research and science techniques to almost anything," George explains. "The trick is just finding what you want to actually spend the time on, and that's where the sentiment for players comes in as a huge guiding factor to that."
ArcheAge criminal system features jail time, player juries, and more
Bad behavior in free-form sandbox games is inevitable, but ArcheAge is adding an interesting wrinkle in the form of a criminal system which includes trials, prison time, and pirate status for repeat offenders. When you steal from protected property or kill a faction member, you leave behind clues in the form of blood or footprints. When a certain amount of said clues are turned in as evidence against you, you'll be faced with a choice of either a trial or immediate jail time upon your next death or login. Trials may increase or decrease your jail time depending on what the jurors (level 30 players who accept an invite) decide. If you end up doing time, you can kill rats, play soccer, or try to escape. While incarcerated, you lose access to your hotbars, and the penalty remains in effect for an unspecified time should you make a successful escape. While there are still several aspects of the criminal system that remain unclear, you can get a glimpse of it via the German-language video after the cut. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Riot killing bad League of Legends behavior with science
Riot's well aware of the fact that it has an awful community on its hands in League of Legends. Fortunately for all concerned, the company is killing the problem with science. Team Player Behavior is a group of 30 developers tasked with reducing negativity, abuse, and offensive language, and it includes PhDs in statistics, human factors psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. "We're never going to come to a place where there's no toxicity in League of Legends," says Jeffrey Lin, LoL's lead designer of social systems. "We're never going to get there. But we're finding different strategies [for situations where] if toxic behavior happens, how do we shield players from it? How do we reduce the frequency of it?" Riot is tinkering with solutions ranging from the recently released honor system to turning off chat by default. The company has also seen some success with its tribunal system, and Lin cites an instance where a 10-year-old LoL player responded positively to the disciplinary action handed down via a Riot reform card. "I showed [the boy's response] to the team and I said 'can you guys see the difference you're making in peoples' lives? This is not about games anymore, you guys are impacting these players,'" Lin explained.
Preparing for BlizzCon: Expect geeks behaving badly
BlizzCon approaches! Preparing for BlizzCon is your regular source for tips on how best to prepare for Blizzard's gaming extravaganza. These helpful hints are particularly suited for convention rookies. But if you are a con veteran, we'd love to hear your advice and wisdom in the comments as well.After BlizzCon 2007, I had to apologize for assuming that forum trolls and all around funsuckers were mostly teenage boys. But the ill-mannered clods I encountered at BlizzCon looked to be in their 20s. Regardless of their age and gender, there unfortunately will be plenty of inconsiderates harshing your Blizzard buzz while you are trying to enjoy the con. Here are some things to expect and some tips on how to handle them. Talking during the panels: Just like at the movies, people will talk loudly during the panels -- either to each other or on cellphones. You travel across country or around the world and pay all this money to hear the latest about expansions or your class and some jerk won't shut up. Advice: eHow suggests starting with a glare and moving onto a polite request to be quiet, should the glare fail.
Missing teen found after she ran away with her 27 year old WoW boyfriend
Morgon Douglas Jones, a 27 year old gamer, is going to find himself in a lot of trouble. He ran off with a 14 year old girl he met through WoW. They were found safe in a campground in Franklin County, Washington. We (and several of you commenters) have covered age related issues before: from age restricted servers to youths applying to raiding guilds.I am amazed at some of the creeps who play this game, and Morgon Jones definitely falls into that category. 27 years old and running off with a 14 year old girl he met through the game. It's time for him to get outside and enjoy life while he still can, since hopefully there'll be some good ol' prison time coming his way.Reader Basic sent us the tip for this story posted on the KTVB.com website, and you can read the full article over there. There is an error in the article however, where the author says WoW is a science fiction based game, when it is actually a fantasy game (unless the author was making a critique on Outlands being too SciFi for the game, but that's highly doubtful and not given at all in the context of the article).
