This past week has seen a substantive debate in the media and in-house over the sabotage/success of the Salome event, plus related discussions about the griefing of pilots in starter systems and community events.
Sandro Sarmmarco's (comments on a potential karma system)[https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/698b36/sandro_sammarco_lead_designer_talks_about/] to address crime and punishment in Elite is therefore interestingly timed. His thoughts on longitudinally tracking the behaviour of all pilots, scaling the consequences for anti-social behaviour, and perhaps incentivizing pro-social behaviour and self-policing are the core of what he is considering. So too is finding ways to address karma without shutting down pvp.
The wisdom of these ideas lays in focusing on behaviour that impacts others, and not the (un)stated intentions of those involved. Intentions are extremely difficult to pin down online. Since intentions and actions go hand-in-hand when trying to understand culpability, however, this also makes a behaviour based karma system difficult to implement. Especially so in a sandbox universe like Elite. Kudos to Frontier for grappling with these complexities up front.
As we debate the utility of a karma system for crime and punishment, lets remember what real-life research says about those who engage in griefing. This may give us a better sense of whether a karma system would be good for Elite.
For the purpose of this note, a griefer is (a person who harasses or deliberately provokes other players or members in order to spoil their enjoyment)[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/griefer]. Activities pertaining to Elite include targeting new players for destruction, interfering with community events, using combat zones to score easy kills of cmdrs, and the like. Griefers claim theirs is a valid play-style, introduces 'emergent content', and 'educates' players on proper preparation and game-play.
This does not match up with what the research tells us about griefers.
Decades of research shows no causal effect between virtual and real world violence per se. The research is increasingly clear, however, that folks with anti-social traits are drawn to griefing in online, multi-player games. The traits that characterize griefers are the dark tetrad of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathology, and sadism. Basically a subset of players engage in griefing for malicious reasons. The anonymity of online interaction also provides them safety from consequences, unless anti-griefing policies and practices are implemented.
Does this mean everyone who griefs is an everyday sadist? No. There are personality tests for the dark tetrad, and one cannot say a priori that all griefers are anti-social or ill. But it does mean that a good proportion of griefers are malevolent, and likely drawn to the current mechanics of Elite because it allows them to grief without consequence.
It is also important to distinguish pvpers from griefers. Pvpers enjoy the combat side of things, and often the role-play of activities like "piracy". The overarching narrative of a game defines the roles that players might adopt. Griefers are motivated by anti-social urges irrespective of narrative framing, and introduce an unhealthy element in-game.
As someone who enjoys pvp and has led a largish organization dedicated to it, I do not want to see the end of pvp in Elite. At the same time, the research suggests there is good reason to worry about the impact of griefers on the Elite community, particularly those new to us.
Whatever karma system that Frontier designs should keep the above elements in mind, and do what it can to discourage griefing.
Update: Obsidian Ant has a nice discussion of the Karma mechanic on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpL4t02eLy0&list=TLGGVViFGYM8nWoxNDA1MjAxNw
Sandro Sarmmarco's (comments on a potential karma system)[https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/698b36/sandro_sammarco_lead_designer_talks_about/] to address crime and punishment in Elite is therefore interestingly timed. His thoughts on longitudinally tracking the behaviour of all pilots, scaling the consequences for anti-social behaviour, and perhaps incentivizing pro-social behaviour and self-policing are the core of what he is considering. So too is finding ways to address karma without shutting down pvp.
The wisdom of these ideas lays in focusing on behaviour that impacts others, and not the (un)stated intentions of those involved. Intentions are extremely difficult to pin down online. Since intentions and actions go hand-in-hand when trying to understand culpability, however, this also makes a behaviour based karma system difficult to implement. Especially so in a sandbox universe like Elite. Kudos to Frontier for grappling with these complexities up front.
As we debate the utility of a karma system for crime and punishment, lets remember what real-life research says about those who engage in griefing. This may give us a better sense of whether a karma system would be good for Elite.
For the purpose of this note, a griefer is (a person who harasses or deliberately provokes other players or members in order to spoil their enjoyment)[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/griefer]. Activities pertaining to Elite include targeting new players for destruction, interfering with community events, using combat zones to score easy kills of cmdrs, and the like. Griefers claim theirs is a valid play-style, introduces 'emergent content', and 'educates' players on proper preparation and game-play.
This does not match up with what the research tells us about griefers.
Decades of research shows no causal effect between virtual and real world violence per se. The research is increasingly clear, however, that folks with anti-social traits are drawn to griefing in online, multi-player games. The traits that characterize griefers are the dark tetrad of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathology, and sadism. Basically a subset of players engage in griefing for malicious reasons. The anonymity of online interaction also provides them safety from consequences, unless anti-griefing policies and practices are implemented.
Does this mean everyone who griefs is an everyday sadist? No. There are personality tests for the dark tetrad, and one cannot say a priori that all griefers are anti-social or ill. But it does mean that a good proportion of griefers are malevolent, and likely drawn to the current mechanics of Elite because it allows them to grief without consequence.
It is also important to distinguish pvpers from griefers. Pvpers enjoy the combat side of things, and often the role-play of activities like "piracy". The overarching narrative of a game defines the roles that players might adopt. Griefers are motivated by anti-social urges irrespective of narrative framing, and introduce an unhealthy element in-game.
As someone who enjoys pvp and has led a largish organization dedicated to it, I do not want to see the end of pvp in Elite. At the same time, the research suggests there is good reason to worry about the impact of griefers on the Elite community, particularly those new to us.
Whatever karma system that Frontier designs should keep the above elements in mind, and do what it can to discourage griefing.
Update: Obsidian Ant has a nice discussion of the Karma mechanic on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpL4t02eLy0&list=TLGGVViFGYM8nWoxNDA1MjAxNw
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