2-month ban for anyone using the word "noob" or complaining about new players

[Arkog]

Guys,

I totally appreciate the efforts that the developers have recently done to attract new players to altitude but I am totally embarrased by the reaction of many experienced players. For over a year we have seen how the player base of alti has schrinked to a handful of freaks and addicts (I include myself) and we have all been complaining about that. For what? Now that the developers have taken drastic measures, giving the game for free with the sole intention to increase the player base, all I see are experienced players complaining about the new players and insulting them. Wow, wow… ladies and gentlemen, maybe we will now realise that if altitude has lost its playerbase is not because of any technical or gameplay reasons, but just because it is played by a bunch of idiots without any social skills that makes the experience of playing altitude disgusting to anyone who is new.

So, I very seriously propose to ban for 1 or 2 months any player that complains and insults new players. If they don't like how newbies play, they won't mind to wait 2 months until the newbies have learned to play better.

Here some proposed very simple ethical guidelines for experienced players:
1) Respect new players: Do NOT complain about them and do NOT insult them.
2) Help new players grow. Do you consider yourself a good player? Then become a leader instead of just being a miserable complainer. Use the team chat to get your team organised and to give tips to the new players.

Seriously, the responsability of attracting and maintaining a healthy playerbase is not only of the developers. The experienced players have a big responsability for that too and we have to take it. If we don't stop this now the playerbase will soon schrink to half of what it was three months ago.

Best,
Ark

[Slender]

My experience so far with most of the new players has been like this: 2 or 3 kids (most likely Europeans) start picking on another player (which name was related to Pewdiepie) calling him a bunch of stupid names, followed by these 3 same toddlers changing their names to something like "pewdsgayfaglol" or "lookatmeimpewdsfag" and so on and so forth. Not to mention they were using your discussed term here "noob" on everyone in the server I was in at the time. So it's really not us "veterans" falling upon them but within themselves, the "newbies". I can say with ease that most part of the current ladder community does not behave in this way except for a very few handpicked that have quite a temper but they happen to not tend public servers.

Either way, in order to manage your desired bans on us, most public serves would need active "veteran" players to handle these kind of situations, because seriously, no one would ever give administrator rights to a level 15 player. So in the end, it's all paradoxical.

[Demuyt]

As Slender pointed out, most vets have the same mindset as you (we're thrilled to have so many new people and don't want to see them go).

The other day some noob was yelling at a new player telling him not to run the bomb because he wasn't getting any results, but then 3 or 4 people including myself told the guy not to worry about him and to keep running (+advice) and it ended there. The solution isn't in bans but in how the rest of us people will welcome the new players. So everyone, keep on eye out.

Originally Posted by Slender

(most likely Europeans)

where does this come from lol

[Slender]

They were saying japierdole like a lot. I know things lol

[Arkog]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I have also seen a few newbies missbehaving and I muted some of them. But there are some Vets out there complaining a lot and making life of newbies hard. This has always been an issue in Alti (indeed, my main reason for not playing ladder) but given the critical situation of the playerbase we have a responsability after the generous move of the developers. We can't let a few egos to spoil the opportunity. As you said, actual bans are difficult in practice and should only be applied to extreme cases. Is best for us to be aware and try to stop the complainers within the game.

Btw, I have a silly question (yeah, 1000+ hours and still have plenty of those :s ) When I mute a player during the game, are his comments also hidden for the other players, or am I the only one not seeing the comments?

Best,
Ark

[Aki1024]

Originally Posted by Arkog

Btw, I have a silly question (yeah, 1000+ hours and still have plenty of those :s ) When I mute a player during the game, are his comments also hidden for the other players, or am I the only one not seeing the comments?

Muted players can be heard by everyone who hasn't muted them. Even as server owner, muting is local only.

[abski170]

I think it may be better to create more servers for new players. Another idea is to have certain servers only accessible to players who have at least reached level 60.

I think these things may help accommodate the needs of new players and players who have played Altitude longer.

Miscommunication sometimes happens. I think cooler heads can try to approach players who show unbecoming behavior and get to the bottom of it. A quick reminder that we were all newbies once upon a time may turn that erring player around.

[Slender]

Every server is marked with either a green ✓ or a red ✗ to signify that players are allowed to join only certain servers. If you're below Ace 0, for example, you'll only be able to join these servers called "New Players Ball 1-59 US" or something, therefore only those players meeting the criteria will be able to join and those who are Ace 1 and above will not be able to and vice versa, those players under Ace 0 will not be able to join servers like Dojo.

So your suggested veteran-free environment is already in place and working quite well as I've seen those New Players servers filled almost completely but this leaves behind the idea of one being there and attempting to rectify any game play misdirection as to game mode objectives or mechanics.

[Aki1024]

I remember being in the Denver new player only servers. Soccernamlak started in the same server that I did.

[Arkog]

Originally Posted by Aki1024

Muted players can be heard by everyone who hasn't muted them. Even as server owner, muting is local only.

Thanks. Well, it would be nice that those with admin rights in a server could also fully mute players so that nobody can hear them. To avoid abuses, the "mute" state should automatically be reverted when the current game has finished. As an extra, every time a muted player writes something the server could feedback (only to him) a reminder that he/she is muted until the end of the match.

Best,
Ark.

[Slender]

Factual evidence of unwanted l33t diseases on our community, but then again, as I said on one of my earlier posts here, these aren't players who are active at all on ladder, so I guess it's safe to say it's not our burden to see new people just leave because of a few retrogrades out there. Chop his ****ing head (second image is from almost at the end of his review, which is somewhat extensive, mainly consisting on how bad his experience had been so far and it seems that a vast majority does agree with this guy, which is far too demeaning).

[Bizlab]

Oh God this place looks like it was made in the late 90's... vBulletin... just nope.

Soo, I completely agree with Arkog. I have played Altitude only for like 24 hours and I've seen a lot of old players complaining about the new players. I just can't understand, why. This community is so small that even really bad players, noobs, should get a warm welcome. I saw a discussion on Steam where people talked about this game being "dead". Now there are more players and still people are complaining.

Btw, here's the discussion between me and Mr.Step0

Step:
*starts a vote to kick somebody*
"Reason: Noob"

Me:
"Is that really a good reason to kick somebody?"

Step:
"He's a noob and he should play against bots : )"

Me:
"If noobs aren't allowed to play online, then why are you here?"

Step:
": )"
"I'm the biggest one"
"Score doesn't matter in this gamemode"
"This game was a lot better when it wasn't free"
"Now there are assholes and noobs all over the place"

Me:
"And by assholes you mean players who kick other players out of the servers just because they're new in the game?"

Step:
"No, I mean you : )"

Me:
"So I'm an asshole 'cause I don't want to kick noobs out of the game?"

Step:
*changes subject*
"Let me guess, you play this game only 'cause it's free?"

--Game ends and another begins--

Me:
*Kills Step*
*Kills Step again*
*...and again*
*......and again*

Step:
*Starts a vote to kick me*

Me:
*Gets kicked*
*Joins game again after 2 minutes*
"Why?"

Step:
""
*Starts another vote*

Me:
*Gets kicked again*
*ragequit*

^My whole experience with Altitude in a nutshell. Kinda sad.

[VAN1SH1NG]

I have been popping in the pub servers quite a bit and it has been very rare that I would see old players complaining about new players. Certainly nothing to the point of them kicking new players.

You shouldn't let less than 5% of the population keep you from playing a great game. The Altitude community is generally much more new player friendly than most other games. Maybe it is just easier to player to kick other players out of servers here? You have to realize that the few "old players" that complain about new players are generally not established or respected players of the community.

While anyone can start a vote to kick anyone else on most servers, I am very surprised it would pass. I have really never seen anyone get kicked who didn't deserve it. A lot of the new players tend to not vote so I'm guessing the server had a lot of newer players on it and it passed with hardly any yes votes.

[Hollywood]

Whoever Mr.Step0 is... no idea. But from a quick search online:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/p1ndur
http://steamcommunity.com/id/p1ndur/...s/?appid=41300

Football server... yeah most of the "vets" are either in Dojo, or Ladder. Though from his screen shots, hes a jerk it seems.

[Bizlab]

Mr.Step0 was playing with his friends and the vote passed 9-1...

Yesterday his friends kicked somebody out of the server so Step could join. Not fair IMO.

If less than 5% of the community is like this, then why am I seeing behaviour like this every time I play the game? Is it 'cause I'm playing on public football servers? I really have no intentions of getting my ass kicked in some private competitive ace servers... I just wanna learn to play the game and have fun. And that's not gonna happen with players like Step.

[VAN1SH1NG]

Do you know what servers this is happening on? I personally am doing as much as I can to help out the new players. Hosting several servers and even added a new one that is fairly expensive specifically to help with the surge of new players.

Again I pop into the pubs many times each day to make sure the new players are doing fine and that there are no hackers. I have seen an occasional random rage at newbs comments in chat (generally from players who are not even good at the game) but that is all.

I do primarily monitor my own servers since I have admin powers there, but try to check up the other servers occasionally as well. My servers:
BALL -maxPing=400 - <Location>
BALL, TBD, FFA, & DM - <Location>
Death Match -maxPing=400 - <Location>
Football -maxPing=400 - <Location>
New Players (Level 1-59) - <Location>
Team Base Destruction - <Location>

I am usually available to come check out any issues if I am contacted via these forums, Steam, in-game, etc.

[Demuyt]

hahahaha mr.step0 is a piece of trash who joined in 2013 (by no means an "old player") and has been playing in ledow's ever since

please dont ever pay attention to him again

[Slender]

Well now he knows but how could the other new players tell who's trash and who's not? Who to listen to and whatnot?

[VAN1SH1NG]

The only solution would be stop allowing /vote drop/kick. Not really a viable solution without having active game wide admins who have the ability to ban players from all servers.

[Bizlab]

Hey I wanna thank you guys, you have been really friendly ^_^ I've got many nice messages here and on Steam. It seems that Altitude has a friendly community, there just are some elitist pieces of ***** who ruin the game for new players.

Unfortunately every new player is not going to find the friendly side of this community. I found you guys 'cause I wrote a review about Altitude and started a discussion on Steam about elitism. Not everyone is going to do that.

Maybe I'll give this wonderful game another chance.

But we still have to find a way to prevent new players from leaving because of a small part of the community

[Slender]

Now that's a goal to achieve on our side but only with help from the new guys as well. Some of the 'experienced' ones strive to give helpful advice to those we judge capable enough to understand some basic things most new players overlook when they start playing this game, but I do notice from time to time a few players who get a catch at the game very quickly and understand things as positioning and advantages as to what Green Perks are better in X situation, etc, although not every single one has been seemingly willing to acknowledge the advice we hand out, completely negating the point of us helping others adjust to the game in a Tutor-Pupil way, which seems to me, the best way to boost other's understanding of the game.

Also, as you pointed out, it's hard to make new players notice there's an actual community that grows in knowledge with these kind of discussions and that relates furthermore than that in the game, but still, we do our best.

[Aki1024]

For those that don't know what we mean by Ledows:

Originally Posted by What does Ledows mean?

A football only server (a map with no walls). The person who host it's is Ledow. Experienced players don't like these servers because those that play on them often learn to just spam and go while not getting to learn how to navigate around walls for both protection and flight. Playing just football is as bad for a player's skill as playing with rubber hull or on rubber walls servers (both of which are kinda of like training wheels that teach poor habits of play).

This spam and go approach is even worse for those that try and transition into TBD play (bomb the opponent base), as teamwork is much more critical.

Though it won't protect you from getting kicked from servers, the mute button is your friend. It's the internet. There are mean people on the internet. They are the loudest.

[angryirishman0]

Originally Posted by Bizlab

Hey I wanna thank you guys, you have been really friendly ^_^ I've got many nice messages here and on Steam. It seems that Altitude has a friendly community, there just are some elitist pieces of ***** who ruin the game for new players.

Unfortunately every new player is not going to find the friendly side of this community. I found you guys 'cause I wrote a review about Altitude and started a discussion on Steam about elitism. Not everyone is going to do that.

Maybe I'll give this wonderful game another chance.

But we still have to find a way to prevent new players from leaving because of a small part of the community

I would give either 'Dojo' or 'Dojo II' a try, they're some of the more popular non-ranked servers. Most people who play in it are US if you're wondering about active hours. Full pretty much every night from 9-12PM EDT and other times throughout the day

[CmdrNoval]

Originally Posted by angryirishman0

I would give either 'Dojo' or 'Dojo II' a try, they're some of the more popular non-ranked servers.

Additionally, the owners of Dojo (Jazz) & Dojo II (me) will not tolerate this sort of behavior to go on in our servers.

If you run into this issue in either Dojo.... Please, Report it.

The offending player will be banned.

In a case like this, a 1-year ban is the usual, but I have even doled out perma-bans, in some cases.

[OpTiMuS]

if any thing can be done like new players up to ace 2 cant be kicked..!!!

[Aki1024]

Originally Posted by OpTiMuS

if any thing can be done like new players up to ace 2 cant be kicked..!!!

1) Signup for a new account
2) Proxy
3) Troll to hearts content, you can't get kicked.
4) ???
5) Profit.

[wyclef]

Being called noob is a rite of passage.

[CmdrNoval]

Originally Posted by wyclef

Being called noob is a rite of passage.

Yeah, we've all had to take a little punishment as noobs. In Alti, and many other games...

It is to be expected.

However, there are those who continually make a habit of being jerks.

Those of us who own servers, and the admins we choose, need to ensure that our visitors are not being openly harassed.

If, for no other reason, to keep this pleasant community from turning into a cesspool.

[Woofy]

And if you would like to take a couple of the nice ones undercyour experienced wing, pm me. Trying to revamp Teaching Squad