(This is a long post, but if you are into multiplayer I strongly suggest you review it).
I’ve always enjoyed multiplayer online games. One of the greatest inventions I ever ran into was something called Player Tracker (PT) for the real time simulation game Supreme Commander. The benefits of this application can easily be applied to EWOM. This specific program is a 3rd party mod to the game, but could easily be done by Stardock. If they don’t, I am begging to have one of the mod Gurus start programming this(I would but don’t have the faintest idea how).
This program tracks individual player performances, key indicators player resources, and records your personal classification for consideration when setting up future games. At first I didn’t think much of it, but after playing a number of 4vs4 online games, its value became clear. Most evident, it only takes one misfit of skill (someone who is much better or much worse than everyone else) to unbalance a game. Or worse yet, some jerk that intentionally ruins a game. The implementation of this filter drastically reduced such incidents. Supreme Commander games only last about an hour, EWOM will easily last much much more than that (I would say 4 to 6 hours), so I think something like this is even more critical for EWOM.
The best way to demonstrate this is through a proposed EWOM summary table, based on Player Tracker for Supreme Commander. The proposed table below would be displayed in the lobby, while everyone waited for all the slots to be filled and the game to start. The host could use this summary to identify anyone who doesn’t “fit” in this game.
The stats would need to be linked to the game serial number because if someone gets a bad reputation they just make a new character. Mousing over a column title would give definition, mousing over a number would give support numbers (i.e. 33% =15/45)
Column Explanations
Faction: Show what faction the person typically plays
Rating: Yours indicate your selection for that person from previous games (selected from pulldown menu). The Overall is the selection of the majority of votes.
DNP: Do not Play. DNP is you selected to not play this person again, (on PT there is a notes section. For example, could note that this player gave all his cities to a 3rd place player that changed the entire course of the game because he didn’t feel like playing anymore). This is probably the best function. If you indicated DNP, then don’t play. If more than 30% of people are saying DNP, then the person is most likely a real jerk, quits a lot, or is a griefer. There is some issues where great players have a higher DNP because all the people that get stomped think he’s a hacker. Mousing over the DNP also lists some of the reasons why (hacker, simcity, exploiter, etc…whatever custom reasons the community decides)
#Games: number of games
Win: Win percentage of games played
Quit: Number of games the person purposely quit before game was over
Drop: Number of games the person dropped connection (this may not be a concern for turn based games)
Production: These columns show the % difference above or below the average of all other players for a specific game. i.e. Marcin 31 produces 15% more gold than the average of all the players in previous games. This ratio approach accounts for map size, game length, etc… by comparing against other players in the same games. So you can really tell who sticks out.
Research: These columns show the % difference above or below the average of all other players for each game. i.e. Marcin 31 researches 30% more in warefare than the average of all the players in previous games.
Units: % difference above or below the average number of units produced by all other players for each game
Kills: % difference above or below the average number of kills of all other players for each game of units produced
Ping: average ping during the game (Joe Blow is apparently in Antarctica).
Conclusion
From the above information you can tell Mr. Asshattus has ticked enough people off that 60% of the people that played him said they wouldn’t play him again. The host probably doesn’t want him in his or her game and should kick him, because he will likely ruin the game.
Marcin31’s DNP is a high 15%, but this is likely because he is so good...bitter losers sometime do childish things. But it’s likely that Marcin should be kicked for another reason (or maybe asked to leave). Marcin31 is far out classing the majority of the group. He’s won 60% of the games he’s played, his gold production is 15% higher than the average of all the other players he’s played, he produces 30% more tech research, etc…
It’s up to the group and ultimately the host whether to include Marcin 31 or not. Do you want to play a large game where someone has so obviously been stomping the crap out of people?
Many of the multiplayer games should be set up with titles stating “for noobs only” or “100+ games” or some other metric to help assure the games will be balanced, but there are always experts that love to trash a bunch of noobs.
Ultimately Player Tracker has been a valuable tool in playing Supreme commander and has made playing multiplayer games much more pleasurable, limiting bad apples, bad connections, and unbalanced teams. You really don’t appreciate it until you use it. I hope this same improvement can be brought to EWOM.
If you want to read more about the player tracker, for Supreme Commander, link is here: http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=38565)
