When Dota 2 was launched, designers and developers assumed that the main reason people would stop playing the game was due to poor performance in the game. However, losing multiple games was not a reason people left – they did so because of abusive language and behaviour from other players. So they decided to do something about it.
The Dota 2 team decided to implement a communication banning system. This was for a variety of reasons: not all players know that it’s possible to mute other players, damage is usually done by the time players decide to mute the abusive person, or that people want to know in advance who should be muted so that they don’t have a negative experience. Finally, they believed that the experience of being banned would make players change their behaviour. While the system isn’t perfect, they are seeing some excellent results\
- Since the ban system has been implemented, there’s been a 35% drop in negative communication interactions.
- Less than the 1% of the active player base (players who have played Dota 2 in the last month) are currently banned.
- 60% of players who receive bans go on to modify their behavior and don’t receive further bans.
- Total reports are down more than 30%, even after accounting for the reduction in the number permitted per week.
It seems like a decent way to fight the horribly abusive tendencies in online gaming. It will be interesting if it makes the community more interesting and exciting. Many people move to other games because of the people rather than the game, perhaps this will trigger a change in that tendency. In any event, it’s good to see the ban hammer being put to good use!
Last Updated: May 30, 2013
Lord Chaos
May 30, 2013 at 12:10
Never liked multiplayer all that much. Prefer to have fun whilst playing and not have a troop of Justin Biebers droning in my ears.
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:22
amen brother
Xelus
May 30, 2013 at 12:34
Agreed to that, I prefer trolling bots and dominating their whole team instead of having moaning players or getting banned from a Counter Strike Server for killing 5 campers in a row whilst running around instead of camping.
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 12:21
there is an issue with this automated system that we experienced over the weekend
we
were against playing on the south african server, and we noticed the
opposing side did what we believe to be a exploit (they pooled there
cash together, and bought there anti mage a hand of midas at the start
of the game)
we told them we were gonna report them for exploiting. thats it we werent rude or anything towards them.
I
think they then just reported as for bad communication and we all got
communication bans for 24hrs, seriously wtf? not sure what happened to
them
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:22
so glad i’m done with that crap
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 12:27
whats crap?
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:28
not the game, the people
Kradenko
May 30, 2013 at 12:28
How do you pool money in DoTA2? You can’t transfer gold from one user to another. Maybe he actually just farmed it up?
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 12:43
I know how its done and he had hand of midas before the first wave of creeps, you telling me thats normal?
we watched the replay and seen how its done
prozac
May 30, 2013 at 15:31
guys report him on his steam profile
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044966024/
i did it now after watching the replay….send the report from his steam profile under the suspected cheater button and INCLUDE THE MATCH ID!
BestAmInAfrica
May 30, 2013 at 20:43
😡 as fuck.
Matthew Holliday
May 30, 2013 at 12:30
Any system can be abused.
And sofar as i know, pooling gold is not possible, and you shouldnt be able to sell items that you didnt buy.
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 12:45
you dont have to believe me, i dont want more people to start doing it, so i wont tell you on a public forum
its very possible and im sure it will be patched soon
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 13:58
Whats the match ID? Would be interested to check it out.
Not to do it myself 😛 just for interest sake! I’ll type up a damn email to Gabe demanding a patch!
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 14:08
http://dotabuff.com/matches/204174291
enjoy
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 13:58
I could be wrong (haven’t checked myself) but I think it is still possible to sell consumables that allies have given you. That is the only way I can see this happening. An ally buys you some clarities and you sell them before they lose their value.
Regardless, this sort of thing won’t last and will be patched in future.
Matthew Holliday
May 30, 2013 at 14:03
Wasnt possible in the past, unless they broke something with the recent patches, which has happened quite often lately.
fix one thing, break another.
Navi Fan Boy
May 30, 2013 at 20:42
Stop tears please.
That had to be the easiest game of my life!
SojournZA
May 30, 2013 at 21:16
haha the exploiter speaks
you enjoy your ban?
been seeing you lose alot of games recently with out your exploit
Unavengedavo
May 30, 2013 at 12:21
…
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:23
oi, thats my hammer!
Rinceandspit...
May 30, 2013 at 12:25
He stole your hammer man! Le KILL!
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:27
i know man, and i know its my hammer since the original i edited to this size for the banhammer-games of weeks past
checkit, i posted above and its the same damn size!
oi oi and oi @Unavengedavo:disqus
Unavengedavo
May 30, 2013 at 12:29
I know its the same hammer 😛 I copied it from one of your previous posts…
And I didn’t steal it… I borrowed it 😛
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:30
hmmmmmmmm
i’m watching yooooooooooooo
haha
LordCaptainAwesomeness
May 30, 2013 at 13:08
He is not stealing, merely making an offline copy for himself and all his friends 😉
Rinceandspit...
May 30, 2013 at 13:23
Well, so far no one has stolen Le Sigh… I can’t think why though…
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:21
thats why i left
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:23
hammer you say????
edit: i see plagiarism 2 minutes earlier!!!
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:40
henceforth, the new hammer shall look like this:
Lord Chaos
May 30, 2013 at 12:49
And now it’s stolen. ;P
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:49
ahhhh, but its still miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine
Lord Chaos
May 30, 2013 at 12:56
Hope you had a tracker installed, last I heard it’s halfway to the border.
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:58
lol, troll
Lord Chaos
May 30, 2013 at 13:07
I blame lack of sleep. But at least I’m not bouncing around like the energizer bunny.
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 13:10
and i am?
Lord Chaos
May 30, 2013 at 13:12
I would not know what you are busy with in the office.
I should have added “yet” to the end of my above comment
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 13:19
hahahaha point taken
Rinceandspit...
May 30, 2013 at 12:27
In the future MS will be able to hear what you say, dispatch a team of MS ENFORCERS, intercept your pizza order, pose as said pizza boy/girl/donkey, and force you to sign an contract that makes you accept all advertising. I could’t think of a better way to stop trolling…
Matthew Holliday
May 30, 2013 at 12:37
Voip still isnt a very big thing on the SA server, atleast for pub games, and those that do use it the same way that they would use text chat.
havnt seen much in the way of harassment coming from voip over here, although its more noticable on the international servers and when south american players try play on the South African server (Br players are worse than Russians)
Systems are in place to prevent abuse in the majority, they are not 100% foolproof and you cant blame them for that, but the bottom line is: this is the internet, if you dont have a thick skin, thats your own problem.
Theo Steenekamp
May 30, 2013 at 12:44
Don’t see a lot of swearing in the comments… here goes. Bunch of spoiled, rude fuckers playing LoL and Dota. Probably basement creeping lard asses. Only way they get out is when their mums have to change their sheets.
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:47
wow, strong feelings there dude…
but, i tend to agree with you. not the choice of words i would have used, but yar, i be agreeing with the attitude
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 12:47
where is mattyfeeeeg to come shed some expert light on this?
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 13:53
I AM HERE! Don’t know why disqus is giving me issues (can’t use my twitter account for some reason :<)
What expert light do you require? 😛
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 13:56
some peeps comments below on cheating etc…go get em mattyfeeg
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 13:59
MY WORK HERE IS DONE! 😛 you should come back EK 🙂 this system should make the game a little friendlier and more enjoyable!
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 14:01
meh, i have a planet to protect and aliens to keeeeeell now, responsibilities and all
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 14:01
When all of that is done 😛
Admiral Chief Commander
May 30, 2013 at 14:14
…then its time to do it all over again!!!!
Ultimo_Cleric_N7
May 30, 2013 at 13:25
And thats why I prefer Dota 2 to LoL.
hairyknees
May 30, 2013 at 13:56
YEAH! Valve doing things right 😛 the game still has a long way to go, but at least they are making some good adjustments. You still get the odd chop/dick/doos/etc here and there, but this system should hopefully teach them some manners.
Warren Ross
May 30, 2013 at 14:27
Again, something that League of Legends has had in place for a long time now (tribunal system). In terms of efficacy: I took a few months off playing earlier this year, and by the time I came back the worst of the trolls seemed to be gone, and in particular players who regularly left games in progress was a thing of the past.
Valve should just go take a look at the LoL feature list, and get with the current decade… :p
Mark Allison
September 12, 2014 at 11:16
I agree. This is really one of the biggest problem of many dota 2 players, attitude. This is also what makes me want to play with Bots rather than multiplayer.