Remove Report Spam Function

pwesmith · October 2012

Here's an honest suggestion to improve Champions Online.

Remove the broken Report Spam function!

No, seriously... the game would be better without one. I know it's not game breaking and it's no bug/glitch/heavy gameplay altering hindrance, but the community that it does primarily affect is the RP community, and of course other players that enjoy chatting in a video game. It is an essential element to a MMORPG to be able to communicate with other players. This is all thrown out the window when people abuse the "Report Spam" button. I know this isn't the first time this has been complained about, but I'm posting it again because multiple friends have encouraged me to do so... so... here I am. Hello, my name is Smith and I'm a victim of a False Report Spam Abuse. (Hi Smith.) I'm not the only one.

Seriously, I cannot tell you how many times I've been victim to this faulty system. My friends have even complained about this, and there's literally trolls that go around and abuse this mechanic to silence people in the masses. Think it isn't used for evil? Check it:

http://oi48.tinypic.com/a3jkaw.jpg

Want the timestamps?

http://oi50.tinypic.com/vnju6o.jpg

Funny thing, I knew who did it, and asked somebody else to ask them if they did a false report on me. They did.

http://oi49.tinypic.com/28jz1gj.jpg

... and this isn't even the first time I've been wrongly muted for absolutely nothing. I'm not saying there hasn't been a time where I may have posted too many things too quickly or cursed at another for upsetting me, then received a well deserved mute... but the majority of the time I'm literally standing idle in Millenium City or RPing with my friends. This sudden punishment will of course cease any current RP and leave my friends baffled as to why I'm suddenly very quiet.

People like this can just freely misuse this chat ability, without any logical reasoning except for, "I don't like them." If you don't like someone, just Ignore them.

Trolls find this power beyond enjoyable and will amass small groups to plan "Chat Assassinations" to silence innocent players. It's a real downer to set up a thrilling RP plot line and have it shut down when one of the main protagonists of your script is spontaneously hushed for 24 hours. How? Why?... because someone didn't like another person and called on 4 friends to target the oblivious person and mute them. Sometimes all it takes is just 1 "Report Spam" and everything is thrown off.

I know this function has been used in the past for the right reasons and players that did indeed deserve duct tape to the mouth were treated with such. Will we really keep this cracked operation known as "Report for Spam" knowing more people use it out of spite over reporting an actual offense? More than likely this post will mean nothing, but hey... I was motivated to annoy the forums with its presence once more. I'm sure any of you out there reading this that have witnessed this or experienced it personally can relate and share a bit of pain. If you haven't been subject to such a horrid mechanic, just wait...

So, yeah... removing the "Report Spam" option would make the game a bit better. "What will we do about that actual spammers?" Simple, you just (IGNORE) them yourself. Done.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be returning to my silent gaming on Champions since I can't talk to anyone or respond to their questions.

~Dr. Smith, the cat medic.

dagrekk · October 2012

While I understand you're frustrated, I'm pretty sure posting other peoples' handles is against the forum rules and I suggest you remove it from your post.

That said, I have never been muted myself but I've seen people use the Report Spam function as a malicious tool. What I think should happen (but doesn't as far as I see because of staff shortages) is if someone gets flagged with the Spam button and contests, a GM/equivalent should receive a short log of Zone chat from the moment said person is flagged; if it is not following the Report Spam guidelines then the mute can be removed.

However I've heard that even if they had a dedicated staff member(s) for that, they wouldn't be able to remove the muting anyway. I wouldn't say no to it being completely disabled though.

ashensnow · October 2012

pwesmith wrote: »

People like this (@CharmingKarma) can just freely misuse this chat ability, without any logical reasoning except for, "I don't like them." If you don't like someone, just Ignore them.

Ignore does the same thing as report spam. Both give you points towards a chatban.

nebeldushmer · October 2012

Yes but it takes a certain number of ignores to get you chatbanned, what pwesmith is referring to is the ability to report spam and silence some one after just one report. I agree wholeheartedly with him, the "report spam" with instant silence is rediculous and its abuse is honestly more annyoing than helpful to the community as a whole. It just encourages trolling and an immense lack of cooperation amongst us as gamers. We should be looking for ways to resolve our differences, not just finding ways to avoid each other at all costs, even if it's something like having another person silenced. In most cases that I have seen people get silenced it has honestly been unfair and an abuse of the report spam to troll the victim simply because the person who initiated the report just simply didnt like him/her.

neojin777 · October 2012

pwesmith wrote: »

the community that it does primarily affect is the RP community

Do not "rp" in local or zone chat. It is reasonable that certain players,
like to play in peace without *hurr durr, herpedy - derp* *picks some imaginary flowers,
for his imaginary "rp" friends* you know what i mean i guess. I warn the people at least 1x,
if their chat is disturbing me before i actually ignore them, if they don't listen it is their own
fault and i am not the only one who gives warnings. The few players who report for spam
immediatly are stupid. Since asking nicely usually gets the "rp" side pretty butthurt,
pretty fast and makes them either get quiet or makes them leave to another place instead.

btw i agree with the removal of said report system, even though it feels like that part of the
game is not that easy to edit, otherwise the issue would have been solved long ago already.

ashensnow · October 2012

nebeldushmer wrote: »

Yes but it takes a certain number of ignores to get you chatbanned, what pwesmith is referring to is the ability to report spam and silence some one after just one report. I agree wholeheartedly with him, the "report spam" with instant silence is rediculous and its abuse is honestly more annyoing than helpful to the community as a whole. It just encourages trolling and an immense lack of cooperation amongst us as gamers. We should be looking for ways to resolve our differences, not just finding ways to avoid each other at all costs, even if it's something like having another person silenced. In most cases that I have seen people get silenced it has honestly been unfair and an abuse of the report spam to troll the victim simply because the person who initiated the report just simply didnt like him/her.

There is no such thing as, "the ability to report spam and silence some one after just one report," in CO.

What can happen is that a player might be one point shy of a mute, which means that one more point, from either ignore or report spam, would be sufficient to cause a mute. Even so its not the single report/ignore causing the mute, but rather the accumulated point total.

The system is ridiculous. No customer should have the ability to deny another customer access to part of the service.

pwesmith · October 2012

neojin777 wrote: »

Do not "rp" in local or zone chat. It is reasonable that certain players,
like to play in peace without *hurr durr, herpedy - derp* *picks some imaginary flowers,
for his imaginary "rp" friends* you know what i mean i guess.

This is why we go to places like "Club Caprice" and other social areas of the game. The majority of the people I know that RP don't do it in public around other non-RPers. We take our business to respectable places and will use team chat when around others. What do we do then when people still abuse the Report option? Others have such a biased opinion about role players and not all of us flaunt our ability to post with average grammar skills.

In addition to this, non-RPers will usually stride into the areas we like to RP in and go about with their nonsensical ramblings in attempts to provoke us. Once they're done poking at us, they'll report us for spam... because that seems fair.

cptvanor · October 2012

neojin777 wrote: »

Do not "rp" in local or zone chat.

Anyone reporting someone for spam because they're RP'ing, is effectively griefing them and should be reported, and be banned from the game for 1-3 days.

There's not a single rule in this game that says people can't RP where ever they want, when ever they want.

So there is simply no grounds to report someone for spam when they are not in fact spaming. Doing so is exploiting a broken system and should be treated as such. If someone doesn't like to hear other people RP'ing in local that's their problem and no one else, they have no right to try and stop someone, then anyone does to try and stop people from speaking in Zone or any other chat chan.

lotar295 · October 2012

Actually,we have RPers in zone a lot,and to some of us,its a form of our entertainment,and we get into it and have a really fun time,so really it isn't grounds for reporting,I'd say we NEED this report function OUT,or at least have a GM to review them all,because automated reports are abused....way,way too much

Cryptic,please....remove the report spam function,or at least get GMs to review them and determine whether the reason for reporting XXX is valid or not.A good amount of the players even signed the petition in my sig to get the abusing tool out.

cybersoldier1981 · October 2012

neojin777 wrote: »

Do not "rp" in local or zone chat. It is reasonable that certain players,
like to play in peace without *hurr durr, herpedy - derp* *picks some imaginary flowers,
for his imaginary "rp" friends* you know what i mean i guess. I warn the people at least 1x,
if their chat is disturbing me before i actually ignore them, if they don't listen it is their own
fault and i am not the only one who gives warnings. The few players who report for spam
immediatly are stupid. Since asking nicely usually gets the "rp" side pretty butthurt,
pretty fast and makes them either get quiet or makes them leave to another place instead.

btw i agree with the removal of said report system, even though it feels like that part of the
game is not that easy to edit, otherwise the issue would have been solved long ago already.

Edited for the sake of being nice.

First thing you should do is probably consider if you were there first. If so, you can ask them to go to team. Also keep in mind that while you think it may be 'acceptable' to ignore them for 'disturbing you' with their RP, keep in mind they were nice enough not to do the same to you when you told them to shut up.

Also, let's be fair-

RPers are also just as guilty of this. Maybe even worse. Someone shows up with a 'non-serious' toon, they blast them with ignore... many times before the person even says anything, just because RPers can be whiny little children. I've also seen entire SG's put someone on ignore for simple revenge or petulant reasons.

All in all, it's not one group or the other. It's a cheap and crappy 'feature'. I'm honestly surprised we haven't blasted the Devs and TT with it just to show them how broken it was.

"We weren't abusing the feature, we just all didn't like what you were saying. So the system decided that warranted shutting you up for the day."

arimikami · October 2012

neojin777 wrote: »

Do not "rp" in local or zone chat. It is reasonable that certain players,
like to play in peace without *hurr durr, herpedy - derp* *picks some imaginary flowers,
for his imaginary "rp" friends* you know what i mean i guess. I warn the people at least 1x,
if their chat is disturbing me before i actually ignore them, if they don't listen it is their own
fault and i am not the only one who gives warnings. The few players who report for spam
immediatly are stupid. Since asking nicely usually gets the "rp" side pretty butthurt,
pretty fast and makes them either get quiet or makes them leave to another place instead.

btw i agree with the removal of said report system, even though it feels like that part of the
game is not that easy to edit, otherwise the issue would have been solved long ago already.

And if I said that people PvPing disturbs me would you think they shouldn't be allowed to do that? What if I said I don't like it when others level faster than me? Should their XP gain be nerfed? Of course not. You'd say I was being foolish and that others are going to play this game in different ways and that I need to learn to accept that not everyone is going to play the way I think they should provided they're not going out of their way to disturb other players. I don't see why it's any different with RPers.

chalupaoffury · October 2012

Ironically, telling rpers to stfu because you don't like them talking near you? Easiest way I know of to get yourself a mute. If there are any rpers around, it'll trigger a mass-ignore from all of em. I know I'm guilty of that, people who complain about rp in game tend to get my ignore finger itchy.

Also, stupid system is stupid. Please to remove, the only use it sees in CO is as a metagame based pvp option. Chat Ganking.

flyingfinn · October 2012

Still kind of amazed, who's bright idea it was integrate the system to Cryptics game engine....
Like, come on. Do you live in the Happy Rainbow Land where everyone is nice to each others.
:rolleyes:

Remove Report Spam Function

Comments