How to reduce toxic behaviour

[Blechhaube]

This post is rather dedicated to the WoWs developement team. But some of you captains out there might see it enlightening as well.
Hopefully this gives the developement team some anchors to work with to improve the online gaming behaviour of their playerbase.

 

I'd like to introduce you to a very interesting blog in matters of psychology of video games:

https://platinumparagon.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/the-psychology-of-improving-online-gaming-behaviour/

 

Based on studies in League of Legends they came up with a simple low cost solution that will decrease the cases of harrasement about 10 %. What did they do?
"Messages such as ‘Teammates perform worse if you harass them after a mistake’ in red, and ‘Players who cooperate with their teammates win more games’ in blue reduced the number of in-game reports compared to the control group."

Messages in blue and red it is to make a change? That simple? Well, yes accordingly to The Optimus Experiment thats all it takes to make a change to some people.

The solution by the author platinumparagon is quite straight forward:

"Evidence suggests that the likelihood of winning an online game where harassment is taking place is reduced. While at Riot Games, Dr Lin conducted a study within over 10 million League of Legends games where information stating this was included. Equipping players with this knowledge led to a reduction in negative online gaming behaviour. "

Than she goes deeper to the core: " A key intervention for reducing negative online behaviour is framing harassment as a cost-benefit analysis. Players should be made aware that if they engage in negative behaviour, they are more likely to lose and will then receive fewer in-game rewards. This is a cost-effective strategy for game developers as it simply involves displaying text in-game or during loading screens."

 

I will definetly look into the blog more often now. I find it very encouraging the issue of peoples behaviour in video games is adressed so seriously. Platinumparagon already wrote more articles to the topic in her series. Feel free to have a look there .

In this regard I keep faith in the developement team of WoWs they will improve their game in this matter, if you take in account the recent changes in Update 0.7.4 .

 

Have a good day

Blechhaube

 

PS: I know for granted wargaming staff cares! As @MrConway and @Crysantos proved so often :D  (Sorry guys for tagging you here, but people rather argue about wether you take it in to account or not. )

 

---

Edit:

1)

I recently found another approach to adress toxic behaviour by Jeff Kaplan.  Overwatch introduces the Avoid as Teammate Update to give the player the control of his game experience. It means you can block up to 2 players for 7 days off your matchmaker. They limited the number of players due to concerns of matchmaking queues.  Thats a very interesting approach, but the limtis of players you can block makes it almost too much of an effort to be implemented. I guess they want to test it first before they raise the limit. This might become more valuable in the future.

Spoiler

 

2) 16.07.2018

New endoresment system in overwatch seems to work
What is this? https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/2/17527694/overwatch-endorsements-how-to-level-up-explainer 

Prove by statistics here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/our-progress-so-far/159046

[robihr]

20 minutes ago, Blechhaube said:

This post is rather dedicated to the WoWs developement team.

 

you know that development team doesnt read EU forums...

 

[ColonelPete]

But they do...

[FishDogFoodShack]

Alternatively, WG needs to stop pandering to the lowest common denominator. I guarantee I would be less salty if the population of this game was better at using their brain than a small rodent, and ultimately more useful than a light breakfast. The degradation of skill here over time is appalling.

[robihr]

42 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

But they do...

if by development you mean mods then yes.

but production team doesnt. you see sub_octavian every leap year and that is that. he is much more active on reddit.

mrconway is closest link to production team, but he isnt in production team

[Exocet6951]

Alle 4/25/2018 alle 17:19, Blechhaube ha scritto:

"Messages such as ‘Teammates perform worse if you harass them after a mistake’ in red, and ‘Players who cooperate with their teammates win more games’ in blue reduced the number of in-game reports compared to the control group."

 

So red = bad, blue = good?

No *edited* wonder why bad players are drawn to the borders and stay as far away from enemies as they can, they're blue lines and red dots  !
 

[El2aZeR]

Well, if this is about ingame reports then it's worthless for WoWs as only the chat report function actually does anything.

[ColonelPete]

39 minutes ago, robihr said:

if by development you mean mods then yes.

but production team doesnt. you see sub_octavian every leap year and that is that. he is much more active on reddit.

mrconway is closest link to production team, but he isnt in production team

Nope...

Your leap years seem to be short:

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/538977351-sub_octavian/

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/500153698-tuccy/

 

And that does not register their reading...

[Shaka_D]

58 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

Nope...

Your leap years seem to be short:

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/538977351-sub_octavian/

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/500153698-tuccy/

 

And that does not register their reading...

He was using hyperbole to make a point, you linking two posts doesn't prove him wrong in an overall sense, and you have no idea what they read so your last sentence is misleading and baseless. Tell us, why is it you're so obviously holding up a banner for everything our game sponsors do?

[robihr]

1 hour ago, ColonelPete said:

Nope...

Your leap years seem to be short:

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/538977351-sub_octavian/

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/profile/500153698-tuccy/

 

And that does not register their reading...

they are mostly reading/posting in announcements and PTS section of the forum. and usually they come to specific topics if they are mentioned with @. very rarely they are reading/replying to random threads cause 90% of them are usually just whine threads.

[Butterdoll]

2 hours ago, FishDogFoodShack said:

Alternatively, WG needs to stop pandering to the lowest common denominator. I guarantee I would be less salty if the population of this game was better at using their brain than a small rodent, and ultimately more useful than a light breakfast. The degradation of skill here over time is appalling.

 

You know what?

pandering, catering, to the low denominator is catering to the masses.

the population of this game it's what we got. For better or for the worst.

you saw what happen very recently when WG turned up the heat (ultimate frontier op) and what a wipe out that was. Even for the specials ones

the degradation of skill over time perhaps it's not a bad thing, maybe it means the community it's growing.

I don't have stats numbers and stuff but I see the numbers of on-line players it's higher than when I started.

WG announced several measures taken and yet to take to address the issue, let's see.

Meanwhile I saw a thread a few days ago, and one of the things in there was clans should not accept people under 50% WR.

And we are as strong as our weakest link...

so...

 

 

[ColonelPete]

1 hour ago, robihr said:

they are mostly reading/posting in announcements and PTS section of the forum. and usually they come to specific topics if they are mentioned with @. very rarely they are reading/replying to random threads cause 90% of them are usually just whine threads.

That sounds a lot different than " you know that development team doesnt read EU forums... "

 

And yes, they read other stuff too. Sometimes you can see them browsing a topic or voting on posts.

[Exocet6951]

11 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

That sounds a lot different than " you know that development team doesnt read EU forums... "

 

Exageration can be humor, und humor ist sehr verboten !

[Blechhaube]

Did anybody of you actually read the mentioned blog?

[ColonelPete]

I did. It was very interesting. I agree with you that WG could learn something from the blog.

[Jethro_Grey]

My suggestion to reduce toxicity in chat is for Wg to find a way to increase player skill and to punish bad play by whatever means necessary.

This alone would decrease toxicity by a fair amount.

[Culiacan_Mexico]

On 4/25/2018 at 7:19 AM, Blechhaube said:

...Evidence suggests that the likelihood of winning an online game where harassment is taking place is reduced...

So in other words, those individuals ranting in chat, no matter how well they played, are actually a liability to their teams performance?

 

 

[Namuras]

2 hours ago, Blechhaube said:

Did anybody of you actually read the mentioned blog?

I did read it, but i am not sure how much of it can be applied to WoWs and reproduce the same results. 

 

As far as i am aware: the MM in LoL is different than the one we have. Players are more closely matched by their skill. Also there are only 5 Players per Team. 

So making 1/5th of the team potentionally play worse by telling them they are windowlickers will have a greater effect on the overall outcome. 

 

While i personally don't mind WG putting messages like that into the loading screen, but i know they wouldn't change my behaviour. 

 

I enjoy the rage and the salt in these games. My own almost as much as other peoples and can't for the life of me understand how players can take it seriously.

[_LordLucan]

 

1 hour ago, Culiacan_Mexico said:

...Evidence suggests that the likelihood of winning an online game where harassment is taking place is reduced...

 

Evidence suggests that teams that are winning don't have much to harass about, unlike the the loosing side...

[Culiacan_Mexico]

1 hour ago, _LordLucan said:

 

 

Evidence suggests that teams that are winning don't have much to harass about, unlike the the loosing side...

It might just be me, but I see 'comments' from some players fairly early in games; often within the first five minutes of the game. 

 

During the game I rarely have time to check chat, but afterwards the battle is decided, I sometimes see these bizarre rants about things I don't understand.  It sometimes surprises me to find someone is ranting about me in chat for reasons unknown... even more so they text me after the battle to cuss and scream.

 

I have been told more than once "Learn to play DDs!". 

 

In most case, the ranters in chat would be better off using their energy to play their ships better.

[Deckeru_Maiku]

Easiest solution?

 

Remove chat and let players only communicate by F-Key commands

 

[MrConway]

On 4/25/2018 at 4:19 PM, Blechhaube said:

This post is rather dedicated to the WoWs developement team. But some of you captains out there find it enlightening as well.
Hopefully this gives the developement team some anchors to work with to improve the online gaming behaviour of their playerbase.

 

I'd like to introduce you to a very interesting blog in matters of psychology of video games:

https://platinumparagon.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/the-psychology-of-improving-online-gaming-behaviour/

 

Based on studies in League of Legends they came up with a simple low cost solution that will decrease the cases of harrasement about 10 %. What did they do?
"Messages such as ‘Teammates perform worse if you harass them after a mistake’ in red, and ‘Players who cooperate with their teammates win more games’ in blue reduced the number of in-game reports compared to the control group."

Messages in blue it is to make a change? That simple? Well, yes accordingly to the The Optimus Experiment thats all it takes to make a change to some people.

The solution by the author platinumparagon is quite straight forward:

"Evidence suggests that the likelihood of winning an online game where harassment is taking place is reduced. While at Riot Games, Dr Lin conducted a study within over 10 million League of Legends games where information stating this was included. Equipping players with this knowledge led to a reduction in negative online gaming behaviour. "

Than she goes deeper to the core: " A key intervention for reducing negative online behaviour is framing harassment as a cost-benefit analysis. Players should be made aware that if they engage in negative behaviour, they are more likely to lose and will then receive fewer in-game rewards. This is a cost-effective strategy for game developers as it simply involves displaying text in-game or during loading screens."

 

I will definetly look into the blog more often now. I find it very encouraging the issue of peoples behaviour in video games is adressed so seriously. Platinumparagon already wrote more articles to the topic in her series. Feel free to have a look there .

In this regard I keep faith in the developement team of WoWs they will improve their game in this matter, if you take in account the recent changes in Update 0.7.4 .

 

Have a good day

Blechhaube

 

PS: I know for granted wargaming staff cares! As @MrConway and @Crysantos proved so often :D  (Sorry guys for tagging you here, but people rather argue about wether you take it in to account or not. )

 

Interesting, thanks for that!

[morgoroth]

HAHAHAHAHA ... bullcrap ... you can't change ppl behaviour just by being nice.

 

First WoWs is not LoL ... different play styles different speeds.

 

Second it won't change the mentality of majority of the players.

 

Nothing will change.

 

A good start would be for WG to determine what is really causing the "toxicity".

[eliastion]

1 hour ago, morgoroth said:

HAHAHAHAHA ... bullcrap ... you can't change ppl behaviour just by being nice.

 

First WoWs is not LoL ... different play styles different speeds.

 

Second it won't change the mentality of majority of the players.

 

Nothing will change.

 

A good start would be for WG to determine what is really causing the "toxicity".

You're extremely sure of yourself, considering that OP's mentions a bit of actual research while you're just going with your gut feeling.

 

Behavior and thought process of people is a complicated thing - and, at times, an easily influenced one. Sometimes in bizzare ways. My favourite example is the anchoring heuristics. It works roughly like this:

Quote

In another study by Tversky and Kahneman, participants observed a roulette wheel that was predetermined to stop on either 10 or 65. Participants were then asked to guess the percentage of the United Nations that were African nations. Participants whose wheel stopped on 10 guessed lower values (25% on average) than participants whose wheel stopped at 65 (45% on average).

So yeah. If the (supposedly random) number shown on the spinning wheel can change peoples' estimate of things related to UN membership in Africa, I'm pretty sure it doesn't sound all that outlandish that a bunch of "don't be a [edited], it doesn't help" tips on the match-loading screen might end up having a measurable impact on how often and how severely people end up being a [edited] in the game. Will something like this eliminate people raging in chat? Of course not. But an improvement doesn't stop being an improvement just because it's not a reduction by 100%.

They might just as well try this and test if it has any effect - it's not like coding a couple lines of text to appear in places where text already does appear is something that would take lots of precious resources anyway.

[xXx_Blogis_xXx]

On 4/26/2018 at 5:43 PM, Jethro_Grey said:

My suggestion to reduce toxicity in chat is for Wg to find a way to increase player skill and to punish bad play by whatever means necessary.

This alone would decrease toxicity by a fair amount.

Epic told mate :) gg totally agree ;)