@FtXCommando said in Why would you have left FAF?:
Frankly I disagree with the notion this is going to create any sort of cultural impact. At higher levels, there is no room to curate players based on behavior. You basically play with the dudes you get and barring absurd toxicity that gets you banned, that's what it comes down to. Then the people slightly below the top level that regularly watch streams are going to see the high level players disregard the karma system or consider it a joke and mimic the exact same behavior.
Some people will always ape what the pros are doing, for sure, but I don't think that can be generalized.
Especially for the FAF playerbase, where a lot of people are fully grown adults with fully developed personalities, it seems unlikely to me that people would change their entire behavior just because "a pro did it" during a stream
I sure wouldn't look at it. If I want to curate a player, I look at their replay vault for what kind of games they play.
That is what I would have expected. A karma system just doesn't make sense at your level.
If there's no negative "warning this guy is mad toxic don't join this game" then what's the point of the system for new players.
I tried to explain that in my reply above.
The small stuff does matter, both the negative, as well as the positive. Culture change can be influenced by methods less extreme than the banhammer, and a karma system is such a proposed method.
Problem is FAF is self selecting so it's entirely up to the community to proactively create a culture around caring about karma rating, and we aren't big enough at higher levels of play to ever care about it.
Again, I'm not sure why all culture change has to come from the top. The Pros are essentially ambassadors for FAF, so they certainly have more of an impact on the culture than the average player, but even non pros are part of and can influence the culture.
And yes, it is up to the community to create a culture that cares about being more welcoming. In fact, that is what I am trying to do right now
Best case scenario you have some "elo hell" where karma matters at <1000 or whatever rating and then suddenly no one ever gives a single care in the world about it.
That would be great! If karma mattered below 1k, and the system actually works as intended, that would be a huge success. Once somebody has a rank of 1k or above, he is already invested enough, that a couple bad experiences wont immediately turn him off the game altogether.
Another thing I just recalled, I really enjoy seeing Gyle casts where a guy quits because the game is over and then I go into the comment section and see a bunch of dudes mad because a guy didn't play a game to conclusion and consider it "poor sportsmanship in FAF." If we allow "experienced players" to go and rate players, I'm assuming it's possible to adjust karma without being in a game. In which case, I eagerly await the Gyle Audience Good Behavior (tm) witchhunts.
II would only allow the rating of a player after a game you yourself just took part in, just like it is implemented in most other games.
All in all, if the entrenched FAF playerbase is so toxic it drives away players, I fail to see how creating a system which in turn allows this toxic playerbase to go and rate players is the solution.
I don't think the entire FAF playerbase is toxic. It seems to me, we mostly have problems at the lower levels, and there it's only a problem because that's where people quit before becoming invested.
But even at those lower levels, it's mostly a couple of bad apples that cause the majority of problems. In extreme cases, a single player can ruin the game for 11 others, but most of those 11 are polite, or at least neutral, people.
If the entire playerbase were so toxic that a karma system could effectively be "inverted" i.e. the toxic players rank themselves positively and downrank everyone else, it would of course stand no chance.
If that were the case though, I would have left a long time ago.