Microsoft’s plan for a better Xbox Live
Under the Xbox One’s new reputation system, players will be marked “good player,” “needs work,” or “avoid me,” and the consequences of online behavior will be stricter. Whereas the Xbox 360’s approach was “was more of a soft barrier,” according to Microsoft SmartMatch senior program manager Micheal Dunn, here the goal is to “make sure you’re playing with people you can have a conversation with.” And that means segregation in some instances.
For random matchmaking in online games, the “avoid me” crowd will be blocked off from the other two player segments, reports Ars Technica. Before it gets to that point, though, Microsoft will send cautionary messages in an attempt to get players to change their behavior. For specifics on how the system will work — most of you needn’t be worried about your reputation — Dunn gives some approximate numbers and examples of how it’ll play out.
“The theme is it really takes hundreds or thousands of people across the community to affect your rep as a new player,” he said. “One or two pieces of bad feedback from a week’s worth of play or something — that’s not really going to affect you very much. Everyone has an accident, everyone has a bad match, someone they didn’t get along with. But if you’re consistently, across the community, a person people say they don’t like, that’s what’s going to affect you.”
Certain types of games on Xbox Live have become notorious for their communities and one can only hope that this initiative will help turn that sentiment around. Sectioning off the worst of the worst has worked on a per-game basis; here’s hoping we see a sweeping change on a platform-wide level with public matchmaking.
Microsoft gives a damn ’bout your bad reputation on Xbox One [Ars Technica]
