In a continuation from yesterday’s news about the Xbox One’ Smart Match system, Microsoft today released information on how the new Reputation system will work on Xbox One.
Categorising players into 3 easily defined groups, the new system will mean that players will be able to rate other players based on there performance, allowing you to note if a player is good, needs improvement or should just be avoided where possible. This will be symbolised by a traffic light system, with green being a good player and red being an avoided player.
These categorisations will be added straight to a player’s gamer card, with the default setting being every player Green and only players who play in a unwanted way will be seen to deviate from that rating.
The changes to your account won’t be hidden from you however, if you are slipping into the next band of players you will receive alerts to your account to warn you to improve as a player. Also, if you have slipped into the lower tiers of player then any feedback you submit will be held in lower regards to feedback from players with a higher reputation. This will help to prevent those who have sunk into a red reputation from other members accounts grief by submitting poor feedback.
“The new model will take all of the feedback from a player’s online flow, put it in the system with a crazy algorithm we created and validated with an MSR PhD to make sure things are fair for everyone,” Xbox Live program manager Michael Dunn explained.
“The algorithm is sophisticated and won’t penalize you for a few bad reports. Even good players might receive a few player feedback reports each month and that is OK. The algorithm weighs the data collected so if a dozen people suddenly reporting a single user, the system will look at a variety of factors before docking their reputation.”
“We’ll verify if those people actually played in an online game with the person reported – if not, all of those player’s feedback won’t matter as much as a single person who spent 15 minutes playing with the reported person. The system also looks at the reputation of the person reporting and the alleged offender, frequency of reports from a single user and a number of other factors.”
“This system will continue to evolve and get better as we track the feedback we get from players and titles, plus add more consequences for the jerks. It also helps us match you with other gamers like you. Of course, the system will be as good as you make it, so all you need to do is report the players that are abusive, cheating or causing mayhem and their reputation will reflect that.”
Let us know what you think of the updated reputation system on Xbox One, do you think it’ll help improve the Xbox Live gameplay experience?