The Next Change - The Badge System

[Sir Rogers]

Hi guys,

I would like to introduce the idea of a badge system. As you have noticed there have been a lot of newcomers lately; some for the better but most for the worst of dotarrank. So there is the need to protect the quality of games, something that wasn't as much of an issue before because people knew one another.

So I think that we will introduce different badges for players to show other players who they're dealing with. I'm going to list a few examples and how the badges are achievable:

Inhouse Badge
Probably the most sought after badge as it is only achievable through playing test games and being awarded the badge that way. Having this badge means that you are part of the dotarank communtiy and you are allowed to participate in inhouse games.

CM Badge
Being able to participate in inhouses and be a greater part of the communtiy is one thing. However there are normal games and CM games, which are on a totally different level. So being able to participate in those means that you have to be in possession of the CM badge. There are two different CM Badges, the one for normal players and the one that you can earn if you prove that you are a good captain.

Manners Badge
This is very important your manners badge will be determined by how well you can behave with others. In the same way as the CM Badge, the Manners badge will also have different levels and you don't want to land in the negative zone of the badge's levels.

Reliability Badge
This badge shows how reliable your connection is. It will be automatically determined by the system depending on your total disconnects and your disconnects in the last X games that you played. If your connection is not stable then it is likely that people will not want to take the risk and play games with you.


Those are just a few examples, I'm sure there's the opporunity for other badges. The idea is that it will give everyone a better way of making an opinion on players they don't know yet. Your feedback will, as always. be warmly welcomed.


Regards,
Sir Roges

[oa2000]

i like the idea but some more info would be nice like, if you have allready proven yourself in the ih games will you still need to make a test game? when will test games be made?

[lol_sex]

i like the idea but some more info would be nice like, if you have allready proven yourself in the ih games will you still need to make a test game? when will test games be made?


well this goes hand in hand with the community thing...
it is very kind [and imo neccessary]to present yourself and give input to the site aswell.
so regarding you.....i think u said hello to everyone and u give input to the site so u have my love by now <3
and u can enter any of my cm games although i havent seen u play

i had i mind when u are known by lets say at least one gm as a good teamplayer and well mannered dude
u should get that badge real quik

[Sir Rogers]

i like the idea but some more info would be nice like, if you have allready proven yourself in the ih games will you still need to make a test game? when will test games be made?


well this goes hand in hand with the community thing...
it is very kind [and imo neccessary]to present yourself and give input to the site aswell.
so regarding you.....i think u said hello to everyone and u give input to the site so u have my love by now <3
and u can enter any of my cm games although i havent seen u play

i had i mind when u are known by lets say at least one gm as a good teamplayer and well mannered dude
u should get that badge real quik


Excatly, the idea is not to make it painful for people to get in. It should be fairly easy to get in if you're a good guy and you belong into the community. It's there to keep the people out that don't belong here. So I think anyone already participating in inhouses, active on the forums etc... Will already get the badge without testgames. It's a system to get newcomers into the community.

[Sirian]

woohoo, fits right with my archeology and swimmer badge from the boyscouts xD j/k

[oa2000]

i like the idea but some more info would be nice like, if you have allready proven yourself in the ih games will you still need to make a test game? when will test games be made?


well this goes hand in hand with the community thing...
it is very kind [and imo neccessary]to present yourself and give input to the site aswell.
so regarding you.....i think u said hello to everyone and u give input to the site so u have my love by now <3
and u can enter any of my cm games although i havent seen u play

i had i mind when u are known by lets say at least one gm as a good teamplayer and well mannered dude
u should get that badge real quik


Excatly, the idea is not to make it painful for people to get in. It should be fairly easy to get in if you're a good guy and you belong into the community. It's there to keep the people out that don't belong here. So I think anyone already participating in inhouses, active on the forums etc... Will already get the badge without testgames. It's a system to get newcomers into the community.


well i am not to worried about not geting in, and i hope we will get to play some games and get to know eachother.

[Cnacnel]

Lol, I don't like the reliability badge, as I have so many fatal errors that it's not funny anymore. >:(
Nevertheless this system looks like a good way of picking good, mannered players from the mass of completely random people.

[_Seeker_]

I was thinking about does ppl which won`t pass test games. Maybe we could move them to boot camp for further training,when it will be done. What do you guys think?

[Fluffy]

hey, i really liked the idea at first. but when i thought about it again and just the cm and the captains badge made sence for me. manner badge? what for, just ban this guys who don't show respect to others. imo we should just be more consequent, no matter if someone got warned before, showing bad manners is something that is not needed(and is showing how imature someone is), not in ih nor in any other game. its not that we are too less players by now, and the community is growing, so i would suggest to take the good ones, that can behave well, and get rid of everyone who doesn't know how to behave in a propper way. same for the reliablity, leaving games more often ruins it for all the other, i know everyone can disc from time to time, but when it happens frequently in a short period of time someone shoud get a timeban to fix his connection.
additionally i think balancing is more of an issue, because most of the signed games i played at the last days was totally unbalanced.

Fluffy

[lahmus]

I want to support Fluffy, although it might be a nice system, I think all those badges are a bit too complicated: as a newcomer, nobody wants to work through hours of tutorials+explanations and faqs.

Indeed, we already have a strong "badge" system, that is not yet really axhausted: the ranking system. It could combine the reliability badge (-10pts for leaving) as well as the manners badge (i.e. -10pts for trashtalking/flaming), plus other possible attributes (i.e. -2pts for not being teamplayer by refusing to buy team-chick etc).
In the early years of arank we had plenty games called "dotarank -ap rank10+", which resulted in games with reliable, well-mannered players. That may be a coding task for the bot, to host both free games and rank-limited games...

However, what ranks do not show, is the skill level. So mabe a second indicator (skill-level, IH badge or CM badge, or whatever) could be introduced. But for an easy start and to limit administration, i guess it would be sufficient if everybody ranks its own skill, for example over the webpage profile, by himself. "newby, low, middle, high, superpro" - i think most of us would knew where to put us.
Then balancing would be easy.

And with regards to IH: I dont think the community is already that big that marl or tyr need badges to decide who is good enough to play their IH games. I think its _way more important_ to clarify, for all players, that those specific games are IH (i.e. gn: "tyr raging cm - PRIVATE"). Remeber, not everyone knows and understands terms such as "ih" on their first visit in the channel.

[[pF]Breaking]

Well I don't really understand how will each badge be earned ? Only through those "test games" ? Lahmus has a good point, I don't really think that any newcomer is willing to go through all that proces of participiating ( first he needs to be lucky to be online at the same time a test game is running) in a test game.