Hey everyone,
Recently there have been several discussions on the forums and elsewhere that aimed to critique TLOPO's banning procedures. These discussions have been host to many valuable points which the moderation department is using to further improve how behavioral incidents are handled in-game.
As TLOPO's lead moderator, I'd like to give you a preview of some changes we're working on. This list is by no means final and will/may not reflect how our policies will actually stand when they are released. A lot of what we're working on mimics the moderation system that Pirates Forums uses, so you may see parallels between the two.
First of all, the subject of banning based on using inappropriate language. The community made several great points about this, namely this: why are we banning for something that only moderators can see? If the word is filtered already and won't show to other players, why should I be punished?
This actually made a lot of sense and is one of the main catalysts driving this overhaul. In Disney's POTCO, the in-game automated chat system would deliver warnings for words that were on the blacklist. After three warnings, the gameserver would automatically issue a ban. Back when TLOPO did not host several hundred players at a time, this system worked nicely - but it has not scaled well going into the Beta phases and with a more aged community. This system is not very forgiving to typos either - making a mistake typing words like "shirt" and "shot" would contribute to earning strikes.
Within our new procedures, we're electing to refrain from banning for standalone language. Instead, a chat service will be implemented that will automatically autocorrect inappropriate words to more appropriate substitutes. This acts as a safety net for a few reasons: it's forgiving to typos, it will help to preserve the flow of conversation, and it will ultimately lessen our grip on chat moderation.
It's also worth noting that there are a few exceptions to this. For one, filter evasion will still remain an offense. If you go around the autocorrection filter, you can and will still be awarded infractions. Additionally, even if you do type an inappropriate word or phrase and it is autocorrected, the moderators will be notified of the original language and can inspect your logs to determine your intent. If language was used to harass another player and it was autocorrected, a moderator can and will still ban for harassment.
The bottom line is this: we're becoming a bit more case-by-case/contextual with our banning pertaining to language, but ultimately choosing to release our grip almost entirely.
It is also possible that muting a player for chat violations will become a more common practice instead of banning the account outright preventing any play time, but nothing has been discussed at length regarding this feature yet.
One of our goals is to amend our Terms of Service to clarify what "exploitation" means. In the past, we have banned players for abusing glitches present in the game. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this practice. Ultimately, it is not fair to ban players for something that is present in the game's code (aka TLOPO's fault). That's not an exploit - that's a glitch that we need to fix. These issues are usually fixed rather swiftly, so it does not make sense to ban a player for something that is ultimately short-lived and temporary. Instead, exploitation should specifically refer to the usage of outside third party programs, like autoclickers or other cheating applications.
Another goal of ours is to implement a less-aggressive banning ladder as well as "offense forgiveness." Infractions will be assigned a specific point value - when a user reaches a specific threshold, assign a ban of predetermined length. After a period of time, if the account stays clean (no infractions commited after the last infraction), the infraction's point value will expire and no longer contribute to the account's cumulative point total (similar to PF warning accumulation and expiry). The amount of offenses needed to achieve a termination will also be reworked - with intent to allow accounts to "last longer" before that final punishment is dealt.
There isn't a set ETA on any of these changes yet, though we hope to finalize these policies sooner than later. I'd like to acknowledge and thank those of you who have been vocal in making constructive criticism regarding our procedures. This is a time of growth for the project, and it's only normal for our procedures to scale appropriately to our growing audience. Let this be testament to the fact that we do listen actively to the community's input! We appreciate your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve the game and its policies.
Thanks for everyone's support. If anyone has any questions or comments, I've left the thread open for replies. I'll do my best to answer any questions or concerns.
JFR
Lead Moderator @ TLOPO
Administrator @ Pirates Forums
