I agree that it could be abused, but it’s way easier to reprimand a mod abusing their powers than 8 players muting someone because they don’t like how they talk. It was just an idea I had that allows players that WANT to volunteer to be able to help the game and make it better for the whole of the community.
I’ll take any sort of in game moderation, be it in the form of this idea, a mute button, anything.
I love the ignorance of people who continually say it’s a waste of time. It wastes noones time if They volunteer that time and it wastes zero time of the players in the game. People just like to complain and argue. They fall from the sky at a slow rate of speed and they are definitely at the center of the world.
This isn’t a matter of time-wasting.
Who watches the wwatchmen? Just because it’s a reportable offense to do so doesn’t mean that people won’t be sneaky and do it. Your entire suggestion just moves where the abuse is happening up to people who have more power ingame.
Answer this question: What really stops someone from abusing mod once and ruining a game? By shutting off one path of trolling you will end up with the same amount of ruined games.
Games are already being ruined from toxic activity. I’ve had games where I’ve just flat out gone afk because I’d rather just leave the computer than deal with the players. The thing is, it’s way easier for the devs to manage a group of volunteer mods and remove one from the team if they don’t do the job correctly than it is for them to read through hundreds of “Ban this person, they’re toxic” reports that get sent out each and every day.
Maybe even give levels to mods that increase their power as they show that they are dedicated to the position… Like start out with just a “Mod Report” button that they can use that has a special flags for the devs to look at. Then once they’ve shown they’re dedicated, allow them to personally give players warnings and THEN give them the ability to actually remove players that are out of line.
This would circumvent your worry that mods would abuse their power. But also giving the mods the ability to do something. The whole reason behind this idea is to remove toxic players WHILE ALSO making it so the devs don’t have to personally sift through the reports themselves.
It’s way easier to watch 100 people than to watch 10000 people.
Removing a person in the middle of an ongoing game will not happen.
^^^
Also it’s utterly broken with the current game mechanics. Can’t wait for people to ‘suddenly gamesolve’ and definitely not because a mod whispered the entire scumteam to them.
Don’t be so derisive when you yourself do not address the real issues of giving too much power to too many people. Allowing random players to become in-game mods could be heavily abused and cause a lot of wasted time and wasted games. It would be a disaster.
I’d honestly rather these volunteers just participate in games as normal and then report people for being toxic at the end if needed.
This is what we, the mods and guides, are here for. Please, enjoy the game and report people breaking the rules. I’m encouraging this as a person who sits anywhere between 3 and 6 (sometimes more) hours a day reading reports of games, so many I have them coming out of my ears, all completely voluntarily.
It’s less of an issue of reporting the player, and more of the issue of being forced to listen to toxicity during the game. When someone sits there and spams racial slurs or hate speech for the entire course of the game, not only does that ruin the game but it also makes me as a player not want to play as much. I’ve gotten to the point where I almost expect some sort of toxicity in a game now, be it hate speech, game throwing, or whatever.
I understand that removing a player or muting a player during the course of the game could be abused, and is something that y’all as mods and the devs believe shouldn’t happen… But a solution has to be figured out somewhere, because reporting a player only removes that player from further games and another toxic player will jump right into that spot and be in the next game.
I’m open to any ideas, and this idea, although a bit more complex and possible to be abused, was the best solution I could think.
While I agree that being stuck in games like that is disheartening, sadly stuff like that is bound to happen when you stick 16 people on the internet together in a chat-based game where people’s actions directly influence others for 15-20 minutes. Force-removing a player in the middle of a game is not feasible not because it could be abused, but because it would compromise the integrity of the ongoing game even more.
Well, then what about having official mods supported directly in game? Have the ability for a player to ping a mod when someone is acting up and allowing the mod to directly message or inform the said offender that they are acting out of line and will result in a ban if they keep acting up?
Obviously that would take more work since the mods would have to be active in game, but it would quiet the offender almost immediately making the game much more enjoyable.
Example:
As a mod you might get a message along the lines of:
[Player 1] suspects [Player 2] for [Throwing/Bad Behavior]
You as a mod (Still in the lobby), would bring up a message for Player 2 with a small message stating that you will review the logs after the game is over, and if their actions are repeated, a ban is possible.
Would give you the ability to quiet the offending player while still in game, and also having the ability to read specific logs without having to sift through reports.
That suggestion would not only require mods to be actively reading games in real time, but require a large amount of moderators as there are many, many games going on at once.
How about we just not be shitty to each other, eh?
That would be ideal, I agree @Sketch, but we know that cannot be enforced 
The question is, SHOULD it be enforced?
My answer is: it depends on the level of severity, as I think most people would agree. Saying “go k*ll yourself” is a lot worse than saying “f u king ur worst king evar”
In cases like the former, my opinion is unwaveringly yes - it absolutely should be enforced. Words like that are dangerous.
If words had no power, none of us would be here debating this exact issue right now. The pen is mightier than the executioner’s axe, and all that.
I understand that I can see where you are coming from but having volunteer moderator in this way is not the way to combat toxicity.
A) I don’t suppose that many players would be willing to spend that much time not playing the game, leading to many games becoming “unmoderated”. This would likely result in increased toxicity in these games as players mistakenly believe they can get away with things.
B) Removing players mid-game is unfair to their Team and should never be done.
C) It would take a lot of time to en-code this mechanic, and even more to link it up to the current Report System already in place. Considering there are a lot easier options than this, it is a lot of effort.
D) People would doubtlessly abuse it.
My suggestion is less of a report overhaul, and more of an attempt to try to figure out a way to clear the toxicity from running games. Yes, you can report a player post game for being toxic, and yes there is a possibility of them being banned. But that doesn’t fix the fact that the next game I join will probably have someone just as toxic in it.
There needs to be a solution to notify/reprimand/report players in the act.
I don’t think you’re understanding what i’m saying. Something needs to be done while the game is currently ongoing. If I’m going to hop into a game and someone starts being toxic right off the bat, I have zero desire to stay in that game, as that person completely ruins the game for me. But i’m forced to stay in the game because if I leave, then I get reported for “throwing” or “leaving.”
Your point is valid but as I said a mute function is far easier and more practical. Even if this system was put in place and was non-abusable, kicking players out in the middle of the game can completely disrupt the game if an important class was trolling. There is a reason you cannot leave mid-game.
True. People might just troll as moderator
