Reform Lux?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 9:56 am
Lux is a great game that has not grown much, indeed has declined, over the past 5+ years. Any fix will require more new players and better a capacity to retain the ones that come. We have tended to emphasize the voices of those who stay and not bothered to record or attend to the feedback of those who leave. Reform is complicated by the incredibly small player pool remaining.
I'll focus the start of this thread on verbal abuse as a possible factor in driving new players away and so as a possible target for reform and/or shifts in moderation style. Please contribute your own ideas about reforms or targets for reform.
Verbal Abuse. With its popularity, it's no surprise that many claim something about Bio Deux caused Lux's declining player pool. In fact, for some segments that may be true. It certainly almost drove me away, and only recently have I come to the opinion there are structural abuse-generating features in the game as a whole that make it hard to keep new players. The rankings restructuring is not going to be a magic bullet recruitment-wise because verbal abuse is not map specific. Verbal abuse is endemic and awful in this and other online games.
If verbal abuse in Bio Deux hadn't nearly driven me away, it would have been in some other map. With shorter games, sure Bio Deux increases the possible instances of abuse (since abuse derives from disappointed expectations in EACH game), but that's not as important as the fact that verbal abuse and harassment are tolerated and little design work has gone into short circuiting it.
My moderation philosophy in this context is to go hardline on our Rule #1 and more softline on Rule #2. See: http://sillysoft.net/lux/rules.php. In short, I feel verbal abuse should corrected quickly and vigorously whereas asshattery should be corrected in a more normal way (e.g. warnings, discussion, reminders about what is not against the rules). However, I don't like hardline policing as a practice, so I advocate on the side for changes that indirectly reduce verbal abuse (e.g. small nudges in the incentive system).
One example I sort of like: use permanent megamute for players who can't seem to shut up with the whining and abuse when their expectations are not met by their naturally antagonistic opponents. Step 1: "hey there, please stop with the whining and abuse." Step 2 (if not compliance): Megamute.
Another enforcement idea: use more detailed offense descriptions in the moderation log. If a person is quoted there, perhaps they have room to see their error and a path to contrition. If not, then we all know there is a deeper psychological/moral failure that the person can work on outside the game and mods or others won't have step in speech code debates about who is qualified to say things about mental illness etc. Much better to say, "so and so violated rule #1 persistently, example, example, example, so is no longer welcome."
I'll focus the start of this thread on verbal abuse as a possible factor in driving new players away and so as a possible target for reform and/or shifts in moderation style. Please contribute your own ideas about reforms or targets for reform.
Verbal Abuse. With its popularity, it's no surprise that many claim something about Bio Deux caused Lux's declining player pool. In fact, for some segments that may be true. It certainly almost drove me away, and only recently have I come to the opinion there are structural abuse-generating features in the game as a whole that make it hard to keep new players. The rankings restructuring is not going to be a magic bullet recruitment-wise because verbal abuse is not map specific. Verbal abuse is endemic and awful in this and other online games.
If verbal abuse in Bio Deux hadn't nearly driven me away, it would have been in some other map. With shorter games, sure Bio Deux increases the possible instances of abuse (since abuse derives from disappointed expectations in EACH game), but that's not as important as the fact that verbal abuse and harassment are tolerated and little design work has gone into short circuiting it.
My moderation philosophy in this context is to go hardline on our Rule #1 and more softline on Rule #2. See: http://sillysoft.net/lux/rules.php. In short, I feel verbal abuse should corrected quickly and vigorously whereas asshattery should be corrected in a more normal way (e.g. warnings, discussion, reminders about what is not against the rules). However, I don't like hardline policing as a practice, so I advocate on the side for changes that indirectly reduce verbal abuse (e.g. small nudges in the incentive system).
One example I sort of like: use permanent megamute for players who can't seem to shut up with the whining and abuse when their expectations are not met by their naturally antagonistic opponents. Step 1: "hey there, please stop with the whining and abuse." Step 2 (if not compliance): Megamute.
Another enforcement idea: use more detailed offense descriptions in the moderation log. If a person is quoted there, perhaps they have room to see their error and a path to contrition. If not, then we all know there is a deeper psychological/moral failure that the person can work on outside the game and mods or others won't have step in speech code debates about who is qualified to say things about mental illness etc. Much better to say, "so and so violated rule #1 persistently, example, example, example, so is no longer welcome."