Suggestion against Toxicity
Warning: I'm long winded.
There are a lot of cool players out there. And there are a lot of those not so cool. Not that it should make a difference but I was out of the game for about two months from August to present. Just in that amount of time that I was away, I've noticed a change. Maybe I'm having bad luck.
I guess I should tell you my definition of a toxic player since everyone has their own. In my opinion, a toxic player is a player that griefs other players and acts unsportsmanlike. Acts that a player does specifically to ruin another players fun is toxic. It doesn't matter to me if the actions are allowed by the rules or not.
Before I was gone, the games I played were actually mostly good with some games being toxic. Now, after I've come back, most of the games are toxic with some being good. This is from both of my points of view, killer and survivor. I think part of this is the matchmaking system.
I'm an ash killer but I think I do fine, not competitive quality but I do fine. I think one of the reasons I'm still an ash killer that can't progress is because I keep getting matched with gold and iridescent survivors. And I'm noticing those are the most toxic at the moment. My rationalization is that there just aren't enough players in this game so when I play a killer (I'm guessing) the matchmaking system is trying to give me ash/bronze survivors but it can't because there are none. But what it can give me is silver/gold/iridescent survivors.
These highly competitive and experienced survivors tend to run circles around me. Even after they find out I'm not that great at the game. Then they top it off with EZ comments, tea bagging, chain-blinding/pallet stuns, and body blocking. I mean there is no leniency from these high-powered survivors. And there's no learning. It's like going to school on the first day and being given the final exam.
**Part of my suggestion is to show the level of the player in the lobby before the game starts. That way the survivors see that they may need to play really good or to take it a bit easy, maybe even do some teaching. I know this can cause a little toxicity since it can cause players to quit out of the lobby if they see powerful opponents or know which ones to tunnel or which ones are free kills. But this can be listed per category as I'll mention below.
** I'll admit I don't play consoles much but I've played them enough to see that X-Box has categories for players. I think it would be great to be able to select a category to play the game in and the matchmaking system would match us with similar types of players. For example, the 'Competitive category or the 'No Rules' category or the 'Play For Fun Game' category. Basically, you can put yourself into any of these categories but after playing enough games and getting voted on by the other players, you could be put into another category. Mostly this would only be the 'No Rules' category. So most of the toxic players could play with other toxic players and leave the rest of the community to their will. Of course after a certain amount of time, there would be a reset (not sure if once a month is long enough since it could take a month to vote someone into the 'No Rules' category) and the 'No Rules' players could mix into another category until voted out again, maybe even have this time period until they can reset extended each time a player is voted into the 'No Rules' category.
Sure it has ways that it can be abused, but it would be difficult. Trying to get a person voted out of your category because of one match or even a few matches would be difficult. Could you blog or stream to get your viewers to vote some player into another category? Sure you could but players in the good player categories aren't going to blindly vote if they had a fun game with that player (could happen but probably not). Obviously, the player voting has to have ended the game with the player they want to vote on... just like now with player reporting.
Now for adding in the first part to the second part, if players are in, for example the 'No Rules' category, the lobby screen does not show player level or progression, nor in the 'Competitive' category, but possibly in the 'Play For Fun' category. But honestly, if categories were implemented, knowing a players progression wouldn't matter at that point.
The biggest problem with this that I see is that this game does not have a large enough player base to do this. I can tell this because of 20 - 30 minute ques (Survivor queues in the evenings are this long, killer queues during the daytime are this long). I even think the rituals given out daily reflect this for prime time since I get maybe one survivor ritual for every ten or so killer rituals. I guess they are trying to give incentive to play killers more often. Obviously, the reset would reset the players progression for that season so mid-season (if even allowed) category switches could be done but from a fresh start.
The three categories I listed doesn't have to be all or even the actual categories implemented. I'm just suggesting a way for players that play competitively to play with other competitive players, toxic players to play with other toxic players and players who just want to play for fun, to do just that. And there could be cross-categories, like competitive players who just like to play for fun or toxic players who like to play competitively. As long as a player doesn't out -right get voted out of a category, they can select any and all categories.
This was just a suggestion I think would improve the players enjoyment of the game. The biggest question is, are there enough players to do it? Probably not but it could be tried. If it fails, it fails and changed back to what we have now.
Thanks
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