Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by Bladestrom
Put it this way, if you read a great post, wouldn't it be nice to tick a box to say great post, I would.

Or put it this way. If you read a post opposite to your opinion, wouldn't it be nice to tick a box to say "bad" post, to take a down a notch?

Or put it this way, someone could log in 20 alt accounts to take it down 20 notches.

Or take it up 20 notches.

Or use 10 to vote down and 10 to vote up, cancelling each other out.

Pandamonium!!!!!1111!!!

Originally posted by Bladestrom
I was talking about a good post, I've got better things to do in my life than being negative. In real life the most pleasant and well adjusts people compliment the good that people do, and try to ignore the bad, or maybe this is a culture thing.

Have you actually read forums here? Most stuff is negative. So may be you are not .. but that does not change the nature of the bitter ranting here.

Originally posted by LadyEuphei

So, there has been a large amount of talk about the gaming community being toxic. It is fine and well to dwell in the negative, but how can we fix it? We are all smart people here, so lets put our brains together and maybe we can accomplish something. What do you think we can do?

Example 1:

I know as a female gamer I have seen several "support" groups/communities for female gamers open up over the years. They emphasize girl gamers being normal players and deserve the same respect of any male gamer. Do you think a anti-being-an-a-hat community would work to fix our problem? 

Example 2:

League of legends has started banning pro gamers that are toxic to show that they will not take it and that it is not ok on any level of skill. They have also implemented the honor system to try and make people think about the positive and not only the negative (reporting). I personally think it has worked wonders on the community and given it a fighting chance at maybe recovering from its a-hat infection.

We get blamed for alot of violence and problems. Maybe it is true since our community is so mean, racist, sexist, and generally evil (except for a few) If we were to try to activally pursue change and growth of our community out of being 4-6 year olds into being 21/25+ people maybe we could lose a bit of the media heat that we get. So, think. Think hard and lets come together and figure out how we can make a better community!

tl;dr

How do you think we can fix the gaming community?

Honestly, there's no simple way to solve this problem. Banning people may work well enough in certain cases, but it's a VERY fine line to tread across. It's far too easy to start banning people unjustly under such a banner.

That said, I think the gaming community gets blamed for a lot of things it has no right to be judged by. Given the latest talks about 'violent media', a lot of it is frankly political BS. Anyone w/ half a brain knows there is no significant correlation (as a whole) between violent entertainment & violent actions. If that was to be even remotely true, then the US as a whole would be predominately homocidal maniacs.

However, when it comes to racism, trolling, flaming, etc. It's very easy for that to get out of hand over the internet. There's no real way to get rid of it. There's so much anonymity over the internet that some people get off on abusing that to create trouble. The only real solution is for the community to start policing itself. Push community leaders to start taking more of the right kinds of action against these things. Or, if you feel they aren't doing a good enough job, become a community leader yourself. If you want something done right...

ROFL....rofl rofl rofl... if you actually think anyone can improve a game's online community you are nuts. 

communities are built by the end users.. the only way to have the "best" community is to ban everyone who is differant to the ideal person... which basicly means. ban everyone but your self.  BUT then 1 person is hardly a community now are they..

Originally posted by Bladestrom
Hence you only allow +1s ;). Lol what's so horrible and terrifying about tucking a box to say you liked something, giving compliments is what being part of a community is all about. Shotty community if everyone is hyper critical and nit- picky eh.

Really? Isn't this community about ranting about MMOs 90% of the time?

Originally posted by emperorwings
Get those who used to play EQ and UO and put them into the same game.

So they can rip out each others' throat arguing if open world PvP should be in a game?

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by emperorwings
Get those who used to play EQ and UO and put them into the same game.

So they can rip out each others' throat arguing if open world PvP should be in a game?

should make that a new MMO.... im sure many would pay to watch that. though i forsee popcorn prices to skyrocket :(

Originally posted by Ichmen

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by emperorwings
Get those who used to play EQ and UO and put them into the same game.

So they can rip out each others' throat arguing if open world PvP should be in a game?

should make that a new MMO.... im sure many would pay to watch that. though i forsee popcorn prices to skyrocket :(

LOL ... yeah .... give a new meaning to "e-sports".

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by emperorwings
Get those who used to play EQ and UO and put them into the same game.

So they can rip out each others' throat arguing if open world PvP should be in a game?

Now that made me laugh out loud... ^^  Thats all too likely to happen.  Way too many people can't understand that people can disagree, without being disagreable.

Originally posted by Bladestrom
You start simply by rewarding positive behaviour and not rewarding negative behaviour. A really basic example is resource nodes in a game. Games that enforce and implicitly reward negative behaviour alloys you to selfishly tag a node, games that allow sharing promote positive behaviour, do just that. Same in a community, you can't just punish, you have to positively reinforce as well. We do it with our kids, why would we not do the same with our peers.

You really should've seen when they tried that in League of Legends. I think the only way to prevent the community to devolve into a cesspool is to make the game as "socially light" as possible. Don't force people to endure one another any more than they want to.

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Bladestrom
You start simply by rewarding positive behaviour and not rewarding negative behaviour. A really basic example is resource nodes in a game. Games that enforce and implicitly reward negative behaviour alloys you to selfishly tag a node, games that allow sharing promote positive behaviour, do just that. Same in a community, you can't just punish, you have to positively reinforce as well. We do it with our kids, why would we not do the same with our peers.

You really should've seen when they tried that in League of Legends. I think the only way to prevent the community to devolve into a cesspool is to make the game as "socially light" as possible. Don't force people to endure one another any more than they want to.

PvP brings out the worse in people, and the worse types. Trying to add some kind of system to cut down on douchebaggery in a PvP game is like trying to keep a sex addict out of a brothel.

It affects all Online communities and it is tied to people being anonymous online and thus not caring about their action.

I think Blizzard made the best attempt out of all Online Gaming companies to try and combat 'toxic' behavior by having the first iteration of Real ID be mandatory and showcase people's real names on the forums.  Of course there was a huge backlash because people want to remain anonymous on the internet..

Personally, I think removing the anonymous factor will help a lot in making people act more civil, but is that ever going to happen?  Probably not.

I'd like to mention one more thing: The worst or most 'toxi' behavior I see I hacking. Hacking in many online video games is a rampant problem around the world...except in South Korea.  The reason being: Korean players are required to provide their social security number when making a game account.  Hacking in korea is illegal and you will be fined if caught.

Koreans take their gaming seriously!

This is why people want to remain anonymous on the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1_8wefR7c

It's anonymity. If there's anything I think will improve people's online behavior is when a Real ID is finally enacted. Not just by one company, but a legal online official identity (like youre online drivers license). Then when someone decides to be a jerk for no reason or say something completely out of line, then they have to face consequences such as job loss, public humiliation and so on.

As long as people are anonymous, they'll behave terribly.

Originally posted by TheHavok

It affects all Online communities and it is tied to people being anonymous online and thus not caring about their action.

I think Blizzard made the best attempt out of all Online Gaming companies to try and combat 'toxic' behavior by having the first iteration of Real ID be mandatory and showcase people's real names on the forums.  Of course there was a huge backlash because people want to remain anonymous on the internet..

Personally, I think removing the anonymous factor will help a lot in making people act more civil, but is that ever going to happen?  Probably not.

I'd like to mention one more thing: The worst or most 'toxi' behavior I see I hacking. Hacking in many online video games is a rampant problem around the world...except in South Korea.  The reason being: Korean players are required to provide their social security number when making a game account.  Hacking in korea is illegal and you will be fined if caught.

Koreans take their gaming seriously!

They are also collectivists, and their government is quite authoritarian.  Neither of which recommend their system for wider application.   Some of the worst Goonies I'm familiar with are Korean and Russian, so it doesn't have much of an impact in that regard.

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by LadyEuphei
 

Honestly, there's no simple way to solve this problem. Banning people may work well enough in certain cases, but it's a VERY fine line to tread across. It's far too easy to start banning people unjustly under such a banner.

That said, I think the gaming community gets blamed for a lot of things it has no right to be judged by. Given the latest talks about 'violent media', a lot of it is frankly political BS. Anyone w/ half a brain knows there is no significant correlation (as a whole) between violent entertainment & violent actions. If that was to be even remotely true, then the US as a whole would be predominately homocidal maniacs.

However, when it comes to racism, trolling, flaming, etc. It's very easy for that to get out of hand over the internet. There's no real way to get rid of it. There's so much anonymity over the internet that some people get off on abusing that to create trouble. The only real solution is for the community to start policing itself. Push community leaders to start taking more of the right kinds of action against these things. Or, if you feel they aren't doing a good enough job, become a community leader yourself. If you want something done right...

Your point of view isn't unreasonable. Thinking about what you said, I have some things to say. Not sure if I'm disagreeing with you or just exploring reality.

Banning people. You are right, it would be easy. But then, how many paying customers are you willing to ban? If you banned every single paying customer that had political or social views different than yours, how many people will be left? Will it be enough to make money? Is it worth the cost to your company? Not just money, buy also a bad reputation for being heavily moderated.

I agree with your view on violent games and their supposed correlation with RL violent crimes. To blame an inanimate object for criminal actions that have been taking place since the start of time is nonsense and tells me nobody is serious about addressing the issues.

Commiting resources to hunt down trolls and people who use naughty words doesn't really interest me. I would rather have those resources and community leader hunting down "youth" mobs, murderers, gangbangers, rapist, and assailants. They pose more danger to you and I than any troll and hater. Trolls and haters are not the ones commiting these violent crimes. So why are we making them a priority?

Moreover, when my wife goes for a run or shopping alone, I don't worry about some internet troll jumping out of the bushes and yelling "make me a sammich". I'm more worried about the murder, rape, and assault that is going on everyday in this country.