Monaco’s interesting way of trying to create a positive online community via how they marketed the game and did outreach with the beta to “get the ideal people to love the game.”

http://kotaku.com/how-my-game-cuts-down-on-online-gamer-obnoxiousness-493652383

Another LoL post, more on how they are approaching trying to improve their player community.

Some results from the previous post about the peer rewarding system in LoL

League of Legend’s new Honor system lets you call people out for positive behavior.  It’s a bit like reporting only for positive things.  I’m unclear on whether any action is going to be taken on this data (like for matchmaking or whatever), but I still think it’s a good idea.  Apparently Dota 2 has something similar, but I had not read about it.

This is a fascinating example of mentorship-for-profit in the competitive multiplayer space.  I suppose that is one way that you ensure you get mentors who care about teaching and helping the new players – pay them!  The idea that they also take deaths for their mentees is one I hadn’t considered before.

http://us.battle.net/en/realid/

http://kotaku.com/331227/ssbbs-answer-to-disconnects

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/15/team-fortress-2-update-is-devoid-of-hats-full-of-training-and-t/

http://thetipofthesphere.com/2011/01/07/balance-by-attrition/

http://kotaku.com/5733206/a-new-and-maybe-better-way-to-stop-people-from-being-jerks-online

“Yeah, it potentially could [lead to another online mafia incident], but it looks like they’re doing a lot to make sure only experienced players can do it & that there can’t be collusion (judges get random cases, can’t communicate, don’t know how much their vote is worth). It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.”