Trolls Playing Trolls: Microsoft May Have Plans For Online Gaming

Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
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Trolls Playing Trolls: Microsoft May Have Plans For Online Gaming

The idea of playing on Xbox Live is an exciting prospect for some, and a terrifying process for others. But it may well be shaping up with the arrival of the next generation of gaming consoles thanks to an improved overall setting that may just make your game a whole lot nicer overall.

With the coming of the Xbox One is also set to be a new kind of reputation-based gaming system, which is geared toward keeping players playing...and yet at the same time tossing the trolls into their own little collective, so that the intermingling between players is kept on a comparable level.

Naturally, some might have some concerns about this; after all, one person's trash talk is another person's nightmarish level of trolling, and the thought of some disgruntled gamer filing "troll" charges is the stuff of nightmares for some gamers. But this will be worked around by the simple expedient of the aggregate, that is, comments will be taken over a long period of time, thus ensuring that only when a lot of people cry "troll" against someone in particular, then that person might find himself--or herself--wearing the troll face. Granted, there's likely to be some mistakes made and some outright malevolence involved, but in the aggregate, it's a safe bet that most of the impacted will be those who are supposed to be impacted.

Some have compared it to the "Max Payne" system for dealing with cheaters, the so-called "Cheaters Pool" in which those who cheat find themselves only playing with other cheats. That's not exactly the case--it's much easier to spot a cheat from a hacked file than from a personality flaw--but it's not out of line.

The policy overall isn't a bad one, really, and it certainly has its advantages. Indeed, many don't want to face down the trolls and the impressively expressive racists and the like, so Microsoft relegating said trolls to their own little pool makes some sense. Of course, there are those who find the trolls entertaining, so hopefully there will be a way to occasionally dip a toe in the troll pit for that kind of low-brow entertainment that can only be had from gaming with trolls.

There's no word as yet as to when that particular party will start up, but it's a safe bet that it will get rolled out in short order following the launch of the Xbox One, still likely to arrive by the end of the year. It will remain to be seen if it actually gets launched as expected, or how it will be received when it is launched, but it's likely to be at least reasonably well received when it does hit.
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