--> Annoying Players
In any game, there are going to be jerks. That's the way of the world. But when the teams start to talk about each other in venomous ways, and behave badly because they think the other guys are all jerks, the game is starting to get ugly -- and thus not fun in the long run.
Let's face it: unless we were dumb, we knew from the start that the team choice was arbitrary. It doesn't matter what you actually care about, you just pick a color. Orange or blue.
Now when I played SC, everyone on my team talked about the other team as bad people, assholes, people who didn't want everyone to have fun and just liked picking on people. WE are nice people, and supportive, and great, but THEY are total dicks.
Guess what? I chose a team arbitrarily for Paraversume, and you know what? Everyone KNOWS that the blues are dicks. You have to be an asshole to stick with the blue team, obviously. Orange, oh, we're quite saintly.
I know that's not statistically significant or anything, but I'm betting that the Blues talk about the Oranges the same way. Sure, we have the odd dickhead, but we don't know about it or we laugh it off. Probably both. But their guy? Oh, he's an asshole.
This is NOT GOOD.
Suggestions:
1. Start a third team. Just think through what will happen, right? A PP goes up, and THREE teams show. Who shoots whom? If Blue really are dicks, Orange and Black (or whatever) will trash Blue, and Blue will always lose. Good: they learn something, maybe. But if in fact everyone is pretty much evenly balanced normal people, it gets complicated real fast. Blue-1 will talk or think, Blue-2 always shoots first, and so on. But since Blue-2's actions get Blue Team trashed, Blue Team will have to do something to rein in Blue-2's behavior. And the same goes for the other teams. I suggest that you accept volunteers up to X percentage from Blue and Orange to form the new team, so that everyone is equal very quickly.
2. Set up the occasional BIG MONSTER BASH. Drop a 10k Igor and tell everyone where it is -- set up a non-aligned portal to go to. Now will people team up to trash the Igor, or will they shoot each other? If one Orange decides it'd be funny to shoot a Blue, won't Orange be just as pissed as Blue about the result? And so on.
3. Have the PPAs be aligned. You get full XP for blasting them no matter what alliance, but if the poo hits the fan and you're outgunned, your aligned PPAs will join in to take out the other team(s). Weakest team gets the most PPA allies, or PPA allies only support the weakest team, or whatever. So if you show up at a PP and the other team has zillions of heavy hitters, the longer you can hold out and do your best, the more bad-ass PPAs the other team has to fight off at the same time. Balances the equation a little.
Because in the end, it's all about balance. For the new or casual player, getting hosed by some big meanie from the other team is not fun. It's even less fun when you realize that there is nothing at all you can do about it. Sure, you can call for help, but by the time your team's big hitters show up the other guy is gone, or you call for a PP and everyone on both sides shows up -- at which point you are a trivial casualty in a big battle. Not fun.
4. Develop Team Leaders, people who play a lot, have powerful drones, and behave well. Have teams put names forward for leaders, and have the other team cast an important (if not necessarily deciding) vote. If Orange puts forward a big hitter who's a total jerk to the Blues in every venue, they should be able to vote her down. But if Orange puts forward someone that the Blues think plays fair and honest, that's a good leader. And then, when reining in your team's bad-behaving jerks becomes important, those leaders need to step forward and do something. When they do, by the way, you should have "thank you" tags on posts and names. Those who get the most such tags FROM THE OPPOSING TEAM get XP bonuses -- leaders only, of course; this should be subject to some comment or review or whatever by the originating team, just in case. But the idea is that you should be able to have team leaders who get XP bonuses (or whatever) for being enemies their enemies can respect. Among other things, this means that if one Blue player is being a total jerk to someone else, for example haunting a newbie's spawn in order to blow him up just because, the Blue leader who says "stop it or else" has an incentive -- and Orange has someone to turn to when their new player is having an awful time because of the Big Blue Meany.
Can't resist:
"Yes, your Blueness!"
"Whaaaaaat? Blue meanies only take no for an answer!"
"No, your Blueness!"
"That's better, Max."
Edited by user Thursday, June 19, 2014 8:08:58 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Had written "a last suggestion" and then wrote another post of suggestions, so I changed t