Naughty or Nice? Microsoft Details Xbox One Reputation System
If you’re a naughty boy or girl on Xbox One, Microsoft will ground you.
With a post on the Xbox Wire, Microsoft provided details on its upcoming Xbox One reputation system. The new feature will pin one of three color-coded labels on all players: Good, Needs Work, and Avoid Me. Microsoft will use a carrot-and-stick approach to incentivize behavior, providing rewards for players with good reputations while penalizing those who earn the Avoid Me rep.
Here are the details from Microsoft:
- “Good Players” – The majority of gamers will fall into this level. As we’ve said before, we have plans to introduce rewards for good behavior and look forward to sharing more in the future!
- Warnings for “Needs Work” – Beginning this month, some players will start receiving reputation warnings as their reputations drop due to feedback from the community. The purpose of these communications is to remind players about their effect on the community and encourage them to have more positive interactions. These warnings are based on community feedback collected since Xbox One launched.
- Penalties for “Avoid Me” – If players do not heed warnings and continue to have a negative impact on other players and the Xbox Live community, they will begin to experience penalties. For example, people with an “Avoid Me” rating will have reduced matchmaking pairings and may be unable to use certain privileges such as Twitch broadcasting.
Microsoft notes its new system — which is an update of a similar rep system used on the Xbox 360 — “adjusts for false reports from people that might intentionally report someone of greater skill or for other griefing purposes.”
I’m all for improving the behavior of online gamers and weeding out trolls, but history suggests Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle… with a boulder on its back and the hill slicked with oil. I don’t think revoking Twitch broadcasting privileges will have any impact. However, “reduced matchmaking pairings” just might do the trick if MS means it will lump all the Avoid Me players together into one nasty, bubbling server of grief for online knuckleheads.
Microsoft says the Xbox One reputation system is “coming soon.”