Author Topic: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.  (Read 9635 times)

stabbs

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I have seen in other games a way to report a user that is cheating, abusing, or swearing while playing the game.  What it could do is that in the menu, you could choose to report someone, at which point it would list all the players in that game and you can choose which one to report and select the reason for the report (a drop down select box would be available to choose what the reason was). 

Then, after a user, or IP address, or something, has had something like 5 reports against them within a one month period, then they are banned for some amount of days with an explanation that they have received too many reports against them.  That way the players can somewhat help moderate the game, and it's not all on the shoulders of the admins and moderators.

Laged

  • 68 Carbine
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The reporting system would be abused. Many people would report others just for the lulz. -1. It might work if you had to provide proof (screenshot or it didn't happen) while reporting.

stabbs

  • Stingray
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I doesn't really get abused though.  Sometimes players abuse it, but most don't.  That's why you'd have to have 5 reports in a month, or something like that, to prove that the person really should be reported.  One or two people may put a false post against you, but if you are really playing honestly, then you won't get the 5 reports against you in a month.  If 5 isn't enough, then 10 could be used.

Garrett

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-1.  As Laged said, it will be abused.  Half the kids who play this game aren't even mature enough to wipe their own butts.

eMo

  • VM-68
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Well you would have to define "abusing" and as for the swearing, I believe that it would be a server admins decision and would be incredible hard to monitor unless an updating swear filter was implemented.

All in all  -1

Spook

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It would have to be a majority vote type thing, like a voteban or votekick. Those may or may not get abused depending on the players, and would HAVE to be removed from match servers. Too many people get kicked mid-match as is.

stabbs

  • Stingray
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Well, I have seen the option in two games, and it seems to work great.  You can try the games for yourself and see how they work.

Game number 1:  TrackMania Nations Forever / United  Forever.  They have millions of players, and they use a majority vote kick/ban system, and the game is played by the non "mature" as you stated, and it does work and is not abused.

Game number 2:  Runescape.  Runescape has a huge reporting system.  I don't know how many reports a person has to receive to get banned, but I have played the game a lot, and people don't get banned for no reason.  Also, if someone was banned for no reason, they can protest to get unbanned.

So two out of two games I've seen use this sort of thing, it does actually work and is not abused.  At least not to the point of make it a pointless feature.


Also, I just thought of a another feature to make it work better.   Only allow each player to report someone 5 times a week, or month.  That number would have to be discussed.  But anyway, that would make the player be more cautious about doing their reports, and only report those who should be reported.

Garrett

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I regret to admit it, but I played Runescape, for many years.  You can't say that the reporting system wasn't abused.  All you see in the chat is "Give me free gold or I report you."  Where ever you go on the internet, immaturity will be there.  Just use the /mute all command and your problem is solved.

stabbs

  • Stingray
  • Posts: 57
Well, I have used that, but then when I do want to talk to people, i get all the swearing with it. 

As for runescape, I played it for years, and I never saw anyone on my friends list, or myself, get banned, and I had many on my friends list.  I realize that people wrote that they'd report if you didn't give them free gold, but it wouldn't get you banned, because you'd have to have like 10 people report you, or something.

Also, I think runescape does send a screen shot to the moderators of the chat and screen when a report is sent.  But it would send automatically.  This game could do that too.

DrRickDaglessMD

  • 68 Carbine
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I'm not too worried about it being abused, and a screenshot or a capture or the log of the active game session would go a long way to helping decide in cases of the reporting system being abused, but there are more practical problems with such a system:

1) Who would administrate the abuse reports?
2) How would we quantify abuse? Cheating? Admin's viewgibbing? Swearing? Threats? Clan Trash Talk? Spawn camping? - Defining these issues is a hefty job for the volunteer committee/community.
3) A provision for warnings would have to be made, possibly integrated with the existing Global Login system, which would allow an offender to be warned about their behavior over email, before bans are enacted using the GLS. I don't know whether this kind of functionality would be easy to add to the GLS as it stands.

So the most important thing to recognise is that it would be a LOT of work, no-one in this community is paid for their contribution, and we don't already have the infrastructure to support such a system.

This is not to say it will never happen, it's just that there are a lot of considerations to take into account.

- Dag

stabbs

  • Stingray
  • Posts: 57
Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2009, 01:56:17 PM »
Very good points.  As a developer, (which I am) I can understand all of that.  The fact that the game exists in the first place surprises me, given the fact that it's free.

Anyway, I can see how it would be difficult.  I actually was suggesting it as an easier way for administrators to administrate misbehavior.  But it may be more work than it's worth. 

stabbs

  • Stingray
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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2009, 04:30:56 PM »
Just use the /mute all command and your problem is solved.

This doesn't exactly work.  Every new player that comes in is not muted, and everytime a new round starts, no one is muted anymore.  At least that's been my experience.  I go in a mute everyone, and next thing I know, after a few minutes of playing, I see people swearing again.  So I go mute all again.  Then, once the match is over and another one has started, I see it all again.  Is there anyway to just turn off the chat all together?  Or mute everyone and anyone new forever?

Also, how do you unmute all when you want to stop muting them?

Garrett

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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2009, 05:59:16 PM »
/ignore all is the correct command.

stabbs

  • Stingray
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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2009, 06:01:32 PM »
/ignore all is the correct command.

Thanks.  I'll try that next time I play.

jitspoe

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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2009, 03:42:21 AM »
I would suggest grabbing build 25 for now.  It includes a client-side word filter that will drop text containing words from a blocked list (or replace them with ***'s, depending on the setting).

I don't think an automated banning system would be the best idea, as a person could potentially get somebody he doesn't like banned simply by getting all of his friends, clanmates, etc. to report him.  Trying to police things like verbal abuse through the committee or other volunteer moderators isn't really feasible either, as they're already up to their eyeballs in resolving multiple accounts and other rule violations.  One thing I could see this being useful for is simply a log for reference.  For example, if somebody caught a player using a speed cheat, reported him, then posted a demo on the forum, the report could be used to determine the identity of the cheater if the server admin isn't available to look at the logs.


I've added a feature vote for it here: http://dplogin.com/dplogin/featurevote/feature.php?id=10187

stabbs

  • Stingray
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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #15 on: February 04, 2009, 09:39:01 AM »
How do you ever catch someone using a cheat?  When it appears that someone is using an aimbot, they just claim that it is lag.  So I'm just seeing them too late, and by the time I do, I'm already dead.  As for speed.  How do you know if someone is using a speed cheat.  I mean, there are a lot of good players that can get awesome speed without a cheat.  So it seems like it would be impossible to tell if they were using one.  Or maybe I don't know what the speed cheat does. 

Help me to understand how to catch people cheating, because I can't ever really prove it.

stabbs

  • Stingray
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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #16 on: February 04, 2009, 09:58:29 AM »
Also, where do you get build 25?

jitspoe

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stabbs

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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #18 on: February 05, 2009, 02:54:01 PM »
k, now that I have Build 25,  how do I turn on the word filter to block the swear words? 

Thanks for the info btw.

Justinph5

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Re: Can you add this: We need a way to report people for misuse while playing.
« Reply #19 on: February 05, 2009, 02:55:41 PM »
its in the same topic from where you got b25