Ravius over at Kill Ten Rats
ruminates on the importance of reputation in these very social games that we're playing with each other, and it resonated with me in terms of a few different things going on in
World of Warcraft right now. We've talked lots before
about ninjas and how that back-and-forth works -- in that case, karma is directly driven by what other people think of you, and of course that's seen more weakly in lots of other places around the game,
including guild recruitment, your friends list, and
just the general server at large.
Ravius talks mostly about the negative reputations we earn, and certainly that's a powerful motivator for a lot of people. But positive reputation is also a strong force in this game -- I'm interested to see how we deal with earning and keeping positive reputation in
the new Dungeon Finder and eventually
the Battle.net system. Gone may be the days when you build up a good reputation by saying "remember me if you need a good DPS" at the end of a run. It'll be interesting to see what methods we replace that one with.
Tags: battle-net, dungeon-finder, earning, game, games, groups, kill-ten-rats, negative, negative-reputation, ninjas, positive, positive-reputation, reputation, social, society, virtual-selves, world-of-warcraf
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Guilds, Instances, Raiding
Dec 11th 2009 at 4:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Masarah Dec 11th 2009 4:09PM
The problem with reputation is it can so easily go bad for reasons which are misunderstood.
I have come to realise with the new cross-realm instances that some realms Need roll for Frozen Orbs while my own realm Greeds for them.
This created the appearance that those players from other realms are ninjas and a number of threads went up to this effect on the realm forums. Although those realms were aware of the issue, it still has a negative effect on that persons rep to be called a ninja.
rtm_mike Dec 11th 2009 4:34PM
I wonder if selecting need is something that's a norm on other servers, or if people just figure they'll pick need to get a higher chance to win the orb, knowing that you'll probably never see them again.
It's like the old axiom: anonymity+audience=fuckwit. The new cross-realm LFG provides even MORE anonymity than normal.
Jose Sanchez Dec 11th 2009 4:46PM
Easy solution... wait to see what others roll (need or greed) and do the same?
or all need and no one can ninja an item that everybody uses...
simple as that
Jeff Dec 11th 2009 5:56PM
@rtm_mike, there are indeed some servers where it's accepted that you roll Need on Frozen Orbs.
I play on Stormreaver-US. My guild transferred there a few months ago, and it was initially jarring because we were used to Greeding Frozen Orbs, but this server is evidently one of the ones where Needing them is the norm. It's definitely been a source of confusion in PuG heroics since the patch came out.
mattarin Dec 11th 2009 4:11PM
What they should do is let us add a battle group wide chat like the lfg channel but again that may turn into a huge barrens chat. They could at least let us add people to our friends list in our battlegroup so we can group with that awesome dps/tank/healer again and again.
Gemini Dec 11th 2009 4:19PM
That will be coming when they unroll the new Battle.net, because you'll be able to friend players based on their b.net ID, not their character name, and talk to them even if they're playing a different Blizzard game (IE, SC2 players will be able to talk to WoW players, and you'll be able to talk to another WoW player regardless of what server or faction they're on).
MightyMuffin Dec 11th 2009 4:48PM
And what's wrong with Barren's Chat? If you really have a problem with it, just leave the channel. If you want to laugh and have a good time, making jokes and forming raids for to attack alliance players, then join the party!
marco Dec 14th 2009 1:58PM
Eh, battlegroup wide would be ridiculous for chatting I think...I don't know about your server, but mine has channels named heroiccrisis hordeside, and hdcc (heroic dungeon crawlers channel) alliance side...even those confined to the server are quite spammy, nevermind battlegroup-wide!
slish2512007 Dec 11th 2009 4:14PM
lol negative...idiot
devilsei Dec 11th 2009 4:13PM
Well I bet we know the reputation of this guy's server now... =P
Delshay Dethecus US Dec 11th 2009 4:14PM
I hate to agree with the first poster, it's something I noticed a few times myself when I first used the Finder. I just made a macro stating "If you need something please need on it, click DE if its avail. & roll greed for Orbs" Seems to work if I remember right I also had room for "Is this ok with everyone?"
Sarakin Dec 11th 2009 4:25PM
just curious why bother telling them to DE if available? they could greed as well if they'd rather sell it. Greed and DE are equally weighted so it wouldn't matter which.
My realm needs and most of the ones i group with greed on the orbs so i always check to see what the first person does. There have been times where i just reacted and hit need like I used to but I felt kind of bad.
Malfural Dec 11th 2009 4:15PM
A perfect example of negative reputation.
nwoods13 Dec 11th 2009 4:16PM
be a mage. make some food. Rep ---> Exalted
Vaijin Dec 11th 2009 4:17PM
It's an easy thing to do now that random heroics are in place. All you need is a system similar to Xbox Live where you can Prefer or Avoid a player. Throw in a third 'Neutral' option, and a dialogue box that pops up at the end of your heroic with 3 radio buttons for each member, and bam, instant ratings system: Prefer is +1, Neutral is 0, Avoid is -1. Divide it by total random heroics run and you're golden. It'd take 10 seconds at the end of the run to rate your fellow party-members.
Naturally it can be manipulated, but any ratings system can, and there's much less incentive to downrate random people that you'll probably never see again.
Vitos Dec 11th 2009 10:26PM
Yeah, I played Maplestory for a short while and they have a 'fame' thing. You can add or subtract 1 point of fame per day from another character. That means you couldn't be an ass and defame everyone- just one person a day. This would (hopefully) keep people from defaming those that don't really deserve it, they just screwed up once or twice, and defame those that were awful and fame those that were amazing.
Delshay Dethecus US Dec 11th 2009 4:17PM
I think this would be a great idea!! Good thinking! I would also like to see a cross server ignore list, if I remember reading right "You will not be put in groups with players on your ignore list"
P.S. In my post below this one I know I put "First person that posted above" I in no way was implying to being the "First" Poster :D
Delshay Dethecus US Dec 11th 2009 4:18PM
Have to / not Hate to lol
Gimmlette Dec 11th 2009 4:21PM
I don't think there will ever be a time when "Hey, if ever you need a (insert class), call me" will be gone. The need for good players of all stripes is always there.
Perhaps, eventually, there will be the ability to put X from X server on your friends list and then look them up when you need their class. But until that happens, what I've heard from those using the new matching system is that guild members have met others on the server they never had met before. It's been a boon to seeing more people and more styles of play.
Ringo Flinthammer Dec 11th 2009 4:49PM
I'm guessing we'll eventually see mods that auto-vote to kick people from given servers, since tracking the names of all the idiots will eventually be too cumbersome.