Remember the five star rating system the Xbox 360 had? If you had to take some time to think about it, don’t worry. It was rarely used and the implementation was not a tangible result you could check on. The concept behind the five star rating system of the Xbox 360 was innovative yet flawed. By giving someone a low rating you would essentially not be paired with that person in future Xbox Live matchmaking. The problem with this is most likely you would have to do this with every multiplayer session you participated in because of the horrible etiquette a lot of players showcase. This is, unfortunately, a byproduct of the anonymity the internet grants you. So, what most players turned to (myself included) is the party chat mode. This prevented dealing with the the “miscreants” of Xbox Live, but a new problem arose: teamwork was a lot harder to come by in multiplayer sessions because of the fragmentation of the chat. No one would win.
This is the very problem Microsoft wants to solve with the Xbox One. In a recent interview with OXM, Microsoft’s Senior Product Manager Mike Lavin discussed some ideas on how this new reputation system will affect future Xbox Live users. This “Reputation” system will be displayed on your profile just as prominently as your Gamerscore was on the Xbox 360. Exactly, how does this system work? According to Mike Lavin, this system will, essentially, separate the people who play nice with the ones who don’t. This will be based on a rating a person is given following a multiplayer match. In matches which include several players to a team, the person with the lowest score will be the dictating score of that team. Basically, putting pressure on that individual to conform to the play style of that team. Why would that player want to conform? Well, unless they don’t mind playing with other players with similar etiquette traits, they will basically be in Xbox Live purgatory.
Imagine that. Like a virtual insane asylum.
Aside from gaining reputation in gaming it may also be increased by joining Microsoft’s community programs. Xbox Live Rewards being one of those such programs It is not yet known whether this system will be based on numbers, stars, etc.
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