By Talin
Copyright 2002 by Talin. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of the author (www.sylvantech.com/~talin).
KEY TOPICS
What Are Some Kinds of Undesirable Behavior?
Why Undesirable Behavior Is a Complex Problem
Why Do People Engage in Abusive or Undesirable Behavior?
Establishing a Code of Conduct Detection
Verification
Corrective Action and Remedies Encouraging Desirable Behavior
AUTHOR NOTE
Talin is one of those interesting, highly educated thinkers of the gaming industry with many years of experience in both solo and persistent world (PW) games. Talin left the industry for greener pastures, much to our detriment. He sees the problems and solutions to "grief" players more clearly than many of us.
This article has been around for some time, but the points Talin makes are still applicable today. Handing this article to a community management team will probably save them a ton of time, heartache, and grief.
This article attempts to outline a number of strategies for managing "deviant" or undesirable behavior in massively multiplayer (MMP) online worlds.
What is "deviant" behavior?
Webster's dictionary defines the word "deviant" as "straying from the norm"—in other words, behavior that is outside the envelope of what is considered customary.
Unusual or idiosyncratic behavior is not in itself harmful and can sometimes be of great value. (The "good Samaritan," as described in the Bible, was certainly a "deviant" by this definition.) However, when we think of a person who is a "deviant," we typically connote a
more pejorative meaning: someone whose behavior is somehow perverted, twisted, corrupt, or destructive.
Such "deviant" behavior may not be rare or idiosyncratic at all! If the online environment is such that destructive and abusive acts are encouraged and rewarded, then such behavior all too quickly becomes the norm.
Thus, we can only speak of behavior being "deviant" in the context of an online world where there is a code of conduct, and in which the vast majority of players adhere to this code. In this case, "deviant" behavior is simply behavior that violates this code of conduct.
I think it's important to avoid pejorative language, and in particular, "moralistic" language when discussing undesirable behavior. The issues here can be both sensitive and emotionally charged. It's all too easy for us, as the creators and maintainers of the system, to feel
"besieged" by a deluge of abuse and to think of our less tractable customers as "bad" people. But the line between desirable and undesirable behavior is fuzzy and often crossed inadvertently and innocently. What may be "bad" in our view may be perfectly legitimate in the value system of the customer. Many of the violators of our codes of conduct are not "scum" but merely overzealous.
That is not to say that we do not have the right to take punitive action to protect the integrity of our world. But in my view, such action should be taken dispassionately and without moral condemnation.
I believe that the best policy is to always treat our customers with a high degree of respect, even when they have gone "astray."
[ Team LiB ]
This document was created by an unregistered ChmMagic, please go to http://www.bisenter.com to register it. Thanks .
What Are Some Kinds of Undesirable Behavior?
For an online world, undesirable behavior is behavior that damages or inhibits the proper functioning of the technical infrastructure, the game balance, or the social fabric. The following sections contain some examples of undesirable behavior, but they are by no means complete (human inventiveness will always outstrip attempts to classify it).
Attacks Against Technical Infrastructure
There are at least three types of attacks against technical infrastructure:
Denial of service— This could include crashing or locking up the servers, tying up the network bandwidth, corrupting the account database, or any other method of making the game unplayable for other players.
Unauthorized access— This could include access to internal parts of the system, or it could mean that the abuser is able to enjoy unpaid-for services. The most common type of unauthorized access is the use of another player's account by obtaining that login and password (typically via email scam).
Disclosure of private or sensitive information— This could include disclosure of credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal user data, or secure system data such as encryption keys and digital certificates.
Disruption of Game Balance
Game balance can be disrupted in a couple of ways:
Exploitation of design loopholes or bugs— In an ideal world, the gameplay would be perfectly balanced, and no player could gain an unfair advantage over any other or be able to advance their goals more rapidly than the designer of the system had intended. However, in complex systems like these, it is often the case that the design overlooks some subtle interaction between features of the environment. Players will inevitably find these loopholes and exploit them.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that players have a strong incentive not to report the loopholes when they are discovered. This is part of the paradox of challenge—we like challenge, but we also want it to go away (by overcoming it). As game designers, it is our goal to create challenges, to "disempower people in interesting ways." It is the goal of players to re-empower themselves, perhaps in ways that we designers did not anticipate. (Part of the joy of building these systems is seeing the clever and unanticipated strategies that players come up with.) Thus, although players and designers are set in opposition, at a higher level, we are all on the same team, and the behavior of both sides should reflect this. But it is sometimes hard for players to keep this in mind.
Denial of access to game resources— Many coveted game items (for example, special ingredients) can only be obtained at certain places or at certain times. Part of the "puzzle" of the game is figuring out where an item is available or completing a difficult journey to where the item is located. However, players who are powerful or adept at gameplay may monopolize the resource—not necessarily out of a desire to deny access to other players but out of a need to advance their own character's goals.
An example is the phenomena of "farming" seen in EverQuest (EQ). High-level players will enter a low-level dungeon,
seeking some rare item that is obtained by killing and looting a particular type of monster. Often the item will only "drop" a small fraction of the time, so many monsters of a particular type need to be killed in order to obtain the item. When the high-level players enter the scene, however, they quickly dispatch all of the monsters in the region, leaving none for the lower level players who are also trying to obtain the same item. In addition, the high-level players may decide to "camp" the area, rapidly harvesting each new monster as it spawns. The result is an effective denial of the resource to any but the most powerful players.
Disruption of the Social Fabric
Disruption of the social fabric can be seen in several forms:
Harassment— Harassment is a broad class of behavior, typically involving repeatedly directing unwanted attention, via speech or action, toward another player, despite clear signals from the other player that such attention is unacceptable. The line between what is harassment and what is legitimate gameplay is fuzzy, especially in an environment in which players are competing directly against one another.
Spamming— Online games benefit from having a wealth of communication options, but many kinds of communication are unwanted. In particular, flooding a communication channel with unwanted messages negates the benefit of that channel and makes it harder for users to receive "legitimate" messages.
Begging— One very popular form of annoyance is begging—asking random passersby for gifts of money, items, and so on.
Just as in the real world, beggars often take steps to ensure that they appear much worse off than they actually are, even going so far as to create a brand-new character (which then gives the received items to their primary character).
It should be noted, however, that while begging is annoying and undesirable, it is not technically speaking an abuse. Begging can be appropriate in some situations, although it should always be discouraged.
Frauds and scams— Various kinds of scams, particularly involving an exchange of material goods, are quite popular in game environments. Players may attempt to misrepresent the capabilities of an item, its rarity, or its monetary value. Players may attempt to substitute one item for another, in a classic "bait and switch" tactic. While most games provide for a
two-phase commit transaction system for the exchange of goods, in which both players must agree before the exchange can take place, many kinds of exchanges (such as "heal me and I'll pay you 100 gold") are not directly fungible and cannot be handled within the scope of a single transaction.
Identity scams— A particular type of scam is the attempt to pose as another player, especially if that player is well known and has a positive reputation. The perpetrator of the scam can then use the illicitly acquired reputation to gain advantages or favors from other players. Often the true character's reputation will suffer as a result of these actions.
Often this is done via ambiguities in the text font used for the display of character names—for example, in EQ, which uses a Helvetica-like font for the chat transcript, the number one, the lowercase "l," and the uppercase "I" all look identical.
Slander and libel— There are a number of reasons why a player might want to damage the reputation of another. The player may be angry at some real or imagined slight; the player may have been done real harm; the player might be enjoying the thrill of a practical joke; or the player might simply be engaged in a primate dominance game of some sort, stroking his own ego by undermining others. A popular pastime among adolescent males (who are often insecure about their own developing sexuality) is to advertise, "So-and-so is gay!"
False charges of abuse— One of the more difficult types of abuse to deal with is misuse of the system for reporting abuse.
This is a special kind of libel, in which one player attempts to file a false charge of abuse or unacceptable behavior against another. This is a type of abuse in which automated collection of corroborating evidence can be helpful.
Inappropriate language— In order to gain the widest possible customer base, we need to ensure that the "norm" of social behavior is one that would be approved of by the larger culture outside. Parents are unlikely to let their children play on a system that is reputed to teach them habits of which they disapprove. Unfortunately, online worlds allow a limited form of escape from those very parents, and may be perceived by those same children as a way of avoiding the parental restrictions.
Inflammatory language, especially racial or cultural slurs— In a similar vein, there are certain topics or utterances that can trigger the feeling of a hostile environment. Many people have "hot buttons," that is, highly charged issues that habitually
particular, the intersection of the community standards of, say, San Francisco, California, and Charlotte, North Carolina is smaller than you might think.)
Note that attacks against the technical infrastructure are, for the most part, "out of game" activities—that is, the attack is conducted not within the game itself, but against the technical infrastructure (servers and network) that supports the game. This document is primarily concerned with "in-game" countermeasures—that is, remedies that occur at the design level, rather than at the infrastructure level. For this reason, technical attacks and countermeasures will not be discussed further in this document.
This document will also not attempt to address the issue of "out of game" email scams or other actions that are disruptive to the larger community outside of the context of the game itself.
All of the behavior types listed can be divided into three categories of severity:
Violations— This category of behavior is always inappropriate and should always carry a negative consequence when detected. An example of this category is false charges of abuse.
Annoyances— This category of behavior is usually inappropriate, but done in moderation is acceptable. An example of this category is begging. These kinds of behaviors should be handled via in-game punishments or incentives, unless the behavior is extreme.
Too much of a good thing— There are some types of behavior that are actually positive, but if overused or used in the wrong context can be undesirable. This kind of behavior should also be handled at the design level by in-game punishments and rewards.
[ Team LiB ]
[ Team LiB ]
Why Undesirable Behavior Is a Complex Problem
If a particular behavior is undesirable, why not simply modify the program code to make that behavior impossible? The problem is that in many cases, undesirable behavior is very similar in outward form to permissible or even desirable behavior. Distinguishing between the two often requires a human value judgment. For example, a computer subroutine would have a hard time distinguishing between someone who was "stalking" another player, and someone who was merely following a player because he was lost and too shy to ask for help directly.
In addition, different people have different opinions about what is and is not desirable, and that may change with a given context.
Many kinds of undesirable behavior are easily identified by human perception and judgment. However, the supply of "trusted" humans is limited. Reports from untrusted humans (the vast majority) need to be accompanied by corroborating evidence; otherwise, the reporting facility itself can become a kind of systemic abuse.
[ Team LiB ]
Why Do People Engage in Abusive or Undesirable Behavior?
One of the most desirable things about being in an online world is the freedom it offers. Being in an imaginary world, one is freed from real-world consequence and real-world accountability. With any reduction in accountability, there is always a strong temptation to explore the limits of one's newfound freedom, in particular by pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
This is exactly what toddlers do during the "terrible twos"; having discovered a new world and a new perception that other peoples' feelings and judgments are not the same as their own, they attempt to discover the boundaries of this world—much to the consternation of parents whose job it is to set those boundaries.
[ Team LiB ]
[ Team LiB ]
Establishing a Code of Conduct
A code of conduct has multiple functions:
The primary purpose of the code of conduct is to inform the player population as to what kinds of behavior are considered permissible and to establish a social norm. Most players, if given a structure or set of boundaries, will willingly conform to them, especially if mild incentives are provided.
A few individuals will, of course, rebel against the restrictions in the code of conduct. Thus, the second function of the code of conduct is to establish a basis for taking corrective action against these recalcitrant users. The goal is to have users that conform to the code, with a minimum use of force or penalties.
Finally, a third function of the code is to assure parents or legal guardians that the environment we are creating is a
wholesome one for their children. (This also applies to individuals who are considering joining for themselves but are not sure that they will feel safe within the environment.)
In a real online game there will, in fact, be two codes of conduct: an explicit, written code that is imposed by the designers of the system, and an implicit code that will emerge from the social interactions within the game itself. This second code is an important component of a rich and diverse play experience, possessing a homegrown feeling of authenticity that may be lacking in the first, explicit code. Thus, the growth of this implicit code of conduct should be watched and nurtured.
However, the code of conduct is more than just a set of rules. It is an integral part of the game's social discourse. In an MMORPG, most conversations tend to be "about" the goals of the game—leveling, getting better weapons, and so on. In an ideal situation, the codes of conduct, both formal and informal, are an important part of these conversations. By establishing goals, the designers of the game define an omnipresent context in which all actions, and in particular all conversations, take place.
A Mild Tangent
I like to visualize this as a "gradient" in the mathematical sense—that is, at any given moment in a multi-dimensional realm, you can always tell which direction is "up" and which is "down" by the gradient—sort of like standing on the slope of a hill in the fog; you always know which direction will take you higher. Thus, applying this metaphor to a game experience, it means that no matter what situation you find yourself in, you can always determine which actions will lead you nearer or farther from a specified goal, at least locally. And you can converse with those near you about the nearness of the goal and the direction to it, since you are in a shared context. We can talk about "unipolar" worlds, in which there exists a single overarching goal to which all other goals are subsidiary [such as leveling in EQ], versus "poly-polar" worlds, in which there are multiple orthogonal goals, another time.
Of course, in order for a code of conduct to be effective, it has to be enforced. Two steps for doing that are detection and corrective action.
[ Team LiB ]
Detection
Because the difference between desirable and undesirable behavior is often subtle, detecting when such behavior occurs is often a challenge. Typically, it's easy enough to see the final consequence of undesirable behavior (angry parents, lost customers); it's often much more difficult to establish the root cause.
More significantly, there will always come a point where someone needs to make a value judgment as to whether a particular act was acceptable or not within a particular context. This judgment may occur far in advance of the actual act (as, for example, prohibitions that are embedded in program code), or it may take place immediately after the event (as when someone reports a violation). It may in some cases even be made long after the fact, when someone notices a statistical pattern or analyzes a set of user complaints.
Fortunately, many of the more serious abuses tend to be consistent behavior patterns on the part of individuals. These behaviors tend to be a reflection of the underlying value system of the player, and that is not something that changes quickly. Bruce Schneier, security consultant and author of Applied Cryptography, once said this about online games: "It's not important to detect every cheat. It's important to detect every cheater." Thus, it is in many cases possible to get a history of significant actions and judgments associated with a particular individual, and use that information in making future judgments.
The two primary means of data collection will be:
Reports by automated agents within the system Reports by witnesses within the game
Unfortunately, neither of these sources of information is reliable, but there is hope because they are unreliable in different ways and can be corroborated in order to gain a more accurate picture. In particular, witnesses can be biased or untrustworthy but are really good at interpreting what they see in terms of values. Automated agents are all too easily misled (mistaking legitimate behavior for impermissible behavior, for example) but are incapable of dissembling or shading the truth.
[ Team LiB ]