Lessons for Improving Community Health from Other Competitive Games
Hello!
I wanted to briefly share my insights regarding a few successful systems that other competitive games (namely Dota 2 - since I was exclusively immersed in that game for over 3k hours across a few years) leverage to combat toxicity. I think both would be valuable for Dead by Daylight as it continues to find its identity as a competitive game.
* A Low-Priority Queue - In Dota 2, players who frequently disconnect from matches or rack up a high number of reports for unsporting play are automatically sentenced to play a certain number of matches in a special, separate queue that is populated exclusively by similar players. The quality of these matches are, as a result, punitively low-quality. The benefits are numerous:
1) Players who consistently demonstrate bad behavior will become accustomed to perpetually occupying the low-priority queue, making them less likely to ruin the play experience of "good behavior" players. It also gives them permission to play in the manner they prefer, which will simultaneously keep them satisfied as players while simultaneously setting the standard for what low-priority matches feel like for others.
2) Players who only occasionally demonstrate bad behavior will generally feel pressure to avoid indulging in behaviors that are understood to risk placement in the low-priority queue. Alternatively, they will become accustomed to "low prio tax". The players who are habitually 'on the fence' will self-sort between improving behavior or fluctuating between both queues. In Dota 2 those behaviors included: Intentionally giving up or throwing the game, intentionally griefing teammates, hate speech, and frequently abandoning matches. Since DBD already has its own list of forbidden activities (Holding games hostage, etc) we're hardly starting from square 1 on defining what could merit placement in Low-Priority.
3) "Good behavior" players will feel passive validation for their choices if they never/rarely get placed in low priority queue. The low priority queue's existence becomes a de facto standard for what is considered appropriate.
4) "Bad behavior" players are still allowed access to the game in cases where a less nuanced penalty system can only be used to forbid those players from playing in cases where they aren't outright exploiting or hacking the game. Essentially, there would be a punitive, but less drastic step for actioning players than an outright ban (temporary or otherwise)
* Report Feedback - In Dota 2 as well as Overwatch, the report systems will alert players who report others whenever someone they've previously reported is actioned. This provides positive feedback to the reporting players, improving their confidence that the system is working and making them more likely to leverage the system in the future.
* Chat Muting - Players who are frequently reported for chat abuse simply lose the ability to chat in postgame for a duration. Some kind of accompanying icon or notification to indicate this to other players would make this even more effective, as a means to both suggest that they're unable to contribute to the conversation as well as to further shame them into better behavior.
Of course, I know that none of these things are simple additions, but I strongly believe that they have all had a fairly positive impact on games that are intensely competitive (and in turn, bring out the worst in people!) In my 3,000 hours of Dota 2 matches I was never placed in Low Priority as a product of malicious teams of players attempting to misuse the system, though I know that abuse is definitely a risk - since I'm not a Valve developer, I don't know what measures they took to insulate their systems against that kind of thing, but I can at least vouch for their ability to successfully do so.
Thanks for the consideration!
Comments
Every killer ever would immediately land in the low priority queue because salty survivors would spam reports. If you don't believe me, just go back a few months and look at all the comments regarding the automatic report system. You will find that literally everything a killer does will earn them a report. Just an example: the official rules state camping and tunneling are NOT reportable offenses, yet a lot of people in said comments blatantly said they would report it anyway.
I understand that as a pretty straightforward and understandable concern!
All said, I've been playing DBD as a killer main since before the automatic report system was announced and now, and despite encountering more than a fair few SWF bully teams and ttvs accusing my rancor builds of wallhacking, I've never been improperly actioned for what I'm sure are a healthy number of frivolous reports on my own account. Anecdotally, I do recall some folks using exploits to get some streamers automatically banned by the system, but I assume that those vulnerabilities have been addressed since that hasn't happened in quite some time.
In short, it's less "a reason to not do it" and more like "a risk" you'd want to address at the outset of putting any of these systems into place.