Fixing the Community Thinktank!

[Battlewrench]

People are people. Can't fix this community as well as anyone could fix a neighborhood or city. People lie, cheat, act obnoxious, gloat and everything in between. People are asses and friendly. Nothing can be done its just people being people.

[Necromunkey]

People are people. Can't fix this community as well as anyone could fix a neighborhood or city... Nothing can be done...

This is simply not true. Another analogy: The metro area of the city I'm in has a light rail train. People are supposed to pay before boarding, tho there are some who get on without a ticket (Its pretty easy to get on without a ticket). However, every once in a while and at random, a police officer will get on and check for tickets, catching the offenders and punishing them with a fine.

My analogy, while imperfect (like all analogies), serves two roles:
1) exemplifies that any community is or can be "patrolled". In a neighborhood, people tend to "patrol" themselves; for instance most people won't berate others at random due to perceived repercussions (real or imagined, may be a matter of confrontation). On the train there is a literal, although random, patrol.

2) puts my original recommendation in an analogy form :P

[Necromunkey]

To elaborate on my analogy; whats keeping people paying to get on the train? Because they're all nice people? Hell no. Its the perceived threat of punishment for riding the train without a ticket, however unlikely that punishment will be, hence people simply follow the rule.

If a minor punishment were to be applied to excessively rude people (specifically those who either grief or personally attack others), such as a decrease in rewards, there is the possibility people would act as most people do on the train. They simply avoid being punished by not being a dick. Those that chose to be mean play their chances at possibly being punished by a random "judge/patrol" (such as in my original suggestion).

[Blarp]

To elaborate on my analogy; whats keeping people paying to get on the train? Because they're all nice people? Hell no. Its the perceived threat of punishment for riding the train without a ticket, however unlikely that punishment will be, hence people simply follow the rule.

If a minor punishment were to be applied to excessively rude people (specifically those who either grief or personally attack others), such as a decrease in rewards, there is the possibility people would act as most people do on the train. They simply avoid being punished by not being a dick. Those that chose to be mean play their chances at possibly being punished by a random "judge/patrol" (such as in my original suggestion).

LoL does something similar, but there's still a ton of douchebags. You can't fix this problem. You just have to learn to deal with it i.e. ignore it.

[Battlewrench]

snip

And even then people will still try to find other ways to avoid paying and even in the neighborhood where the patrols are there is still crime. Might help but won't fix it. People still will be jerks and to some extent they have a right to be. SE can dictate what happens in their game sure but it won't fix jerks and it will still happen. Like the analogy but people will still be people.

[Doo]

And even then people will still try to find other ways to avoid paying and even in the neighborhood where the patrols are there is still crime.

I bet crime would go down though.

If the MVP system rewards are good, I'm sure it will make some players become more friendly but if it's just cosmetic junk, I don't see anything changing.