Spoiler: Original Suggestion Spoiler: History A while back, I suggested a quiz upon registration that can force players to read the T&C. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/forcing-new-player-to-read-t-c-upon-registration.120571/ The poll showed that the majority of the participants didn't read the T&C. As a result, a summary of T&C guidelines was presented upon the first login attempt on every new account. However, we soon realized that the majority of the player population skipped through the additional T&C guideline and the frequency of ridiculous bans (believable claim, jokes) remained intact. Although I absolutely agree with this, for the health and durability of the server, I still believe practical methods to reduce the number of bans from trivial causes may benefit the server in the long run. More recently, there was a suggestion to change the Maple Island "Rain's Maple Quiz" to teach the T&C. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/changing-rains-maple-quiz-to-teach-the-games-t-c.136437/ The concern raised by staff (Kai) was Recent forum banhammer drama related to believable claims and repeated failure to read the T&C gave me the inspiration to come up with this feedback. I had an impression that the reiteration of rules, no matter the frequency, will not be able to force individuals to read the T&C. Instead, I would like to re-suggest implementing a system that can raise awareness that will trigger people to learn the T&C due to self-concern. A passive, ban announcement board in the FM entrance, large and alarming enough to catch the gaze of every bypassing pedestrian. (This is only an example of what it may look like) I have previously mentioned this idea in yuval's thread but I would like to highlight it again for official feedback on its own. Spoiler: Reason behind Madori pretty much summed up everything I had in mind about this idea with her reply. Previously, there was a general discussion thread, discussing the option of ban announcement. Although the poll result was in extreme favor for the announcement of bans, heavy concerns regarding wrongful or mistaken bans, the annoyance of repeated ban messages, as well as privacy issues, were raised. The concluding reply from Evan was I hope this idea can cover the cons and accentuate the pros from the aforementioned discussions. I don't know if this is even possible from the technical aspect . Update: The biggest drawback of the original suggestion on the ban announcement board was the aesthetics. @ilyssia 's recommendation of Maple TV seems to better fit the current circumstance in royals. I'll support this suggestion on top of mine as a better option.
Realistically what would it change for the ban ratio? If people want to abuse they will abuse, even if they read the rules. Idiots are idiots, I mean even GM's have abused and they know the rules very well. I mean look at Sybe, Ashley, Haku, Charlie and Dimitri. 5 Idiots who knew the rules and broke them anyway because somewhere in their nature they felt the need to. I'm sure you have a counter argument, but this is just how I see it, and naturally I'm not always right about stuff. Also, if you add a ban announcement to a FM screen, I'm sure the next thread will be asking to add a FM button to the game so people can actually see the screen.
I think at minimum it would create a bit more work for us when we ban someone, having to essentially check a box or chose a dropdown option when banning players. Right now we have to manually type in a reason for it, which is good because some bans have to be described more than others. Not against the additional work, and some talk has been going on about some sort of announcement/notice/posting of recent bans.
<3 I really like the idea, i actually forgot i even commented on this eons ago Ty Sparkles~! Yeah, i was a semi bad noodle, i had dark thoughts of selling that WoW account, but i didn't give into the temptation once i saw the records of Blizzard doing their job and banning people Most people don't even use the forum, or visit it regularly to check ban appeals, like us thirsty royals drama end-gamers lel. So i really think this board could open their eyes every time they enter the fm. I’m not saying it'll stop the problem 100%, but it may put a decently sized dent in the grand scheme of things. Think of it like a commercial, companies pay for those to run so they can get it stuck in our heads, forever. (HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead) If we take the same tactic and apply it accordingly, it could subconsciously relay the information back to the user who’s thinking about doing something... suspicious. The psychology behind commercials is to place a seed in the consumer’s mind, so that way the next time they feel hungry, or crave something, their subconscious will immediately pull up an image of Coke, or Dairy Queen. So, what if we use the same tactic?
The real change in the ban ratio will depend on the number of people who are getting banned for ignorance and not malicious intent. This idea was planned to target the unfortunate victims who ruin their months and years of investment/effort due to simple ignorance. Simply look at the number of people who are banned for making a silly joke which is taken as a believable claim. If they witnessed others getting banned for it, I doubt they'd try to mess around with jokes. Not everyone seems to be reading ban appeals although it is quite beneficial. It surely would not affect the number of intentional hackers or vote abusers who came here just for that reason. Yet, humans are always full of curiosity. We are easily swayed and manipulated by others as we can see from the frequency of scam activities in royals. I have run a guild for the past 3 years and I witnessed many preventable misfortunes within my guild alone. I refer to those events as "preventable" because enough awareness could have deterred many from their regrettable act. Here are some memorable incidents A leech buyer offered to pay RP for leech service and convinced the guildie that it will cause no harm. Guildie gave the leech buyer her acc info so he could buy RP on her account. = perma ban A hacker distributed hacking tool file in the guild messenger chat saying he used it for months and never got caught thus safe to use. One of the dedicated guildie got curious and went to try it. = got caught 3 hours later Many openly admitted that they were account sharing as it was a norm in the servers they previously played = perma ban Some joked about acc sharing or RWTing in public PQ areas = perma ban Some were never aware of the existence of mapownership in royals and fought with mapowners = 3 day ban A lot were scammed or harassed but never even tried to report or retaliate in a legal manner = loss of assets and motivation A lot vote abused (minor) but stopped the moment I or other older players warned them. They went to confess immediately as they were instructed to save themselves from perma bans = 14 days minor vote abuse ban None of these guildies had "Shit I'm caught, bye" reaction. They all shared the common "I didn't know" feedback which can also be found repeatedly in the hundreds of past ban appeals. Of course, a lot of them must be lying but a significant portion is probably speaking the truth. I wish to believe 1000+ player base and consistent influx of newbies didn't all come with terrible, abusive intentions. Although it is their fault for not reading the T&C, I think little extra work from staff can prevent these misfortunes on a large scale. With an unhappy coincidence, as I was writing this reply, our guild found out that a new member was vote abusing (minor). This is an excellent example which emphasizes the need for awareness. This is what the dialogue looked like Spoiler: Dialogue Guildie A: If you are making a decision between Drk and Archer, bear in mind that HP washing an archer costs at least double that of Drk Guildie V (vote abuser): I was thinking of 500 x HP wash for my main character, would 500 be enough? Guildie A: You are going for max HP?? Guildie V: Yes, I think it'll be possible only 3months later T_T Guildie A: I just realized, I don't think 500 HP wash will be enough to make max HP for archer hmm... Guildie V: I'm voting consistently on 2 accounts...So I'll have 500 Ap resets after 3 months Guildie A: WHAT NO YOU SHOULDN'T Guildie V: Huh?? Me: Ah fk.. how long have you been doing that? Guildie V: I think it's been a week since I've played for around a week. Me: Stop it right now. Do you have a place to visit for 14 days holiday? Guildie V: Umm... nope... so what's going to happen to me? T_T I really didn't know Me: You need to go and report right away and you will most likely get banned for 14 days. You would have got a permanent ban if you voted any longer. Guildile V: Okay, I'll do that now. Where and how can I confess? We try our best to educate every new guild member with the core T&C but it is nearly impossible to gain every individual's attention if they don't have the initiative to read them. However, if they happen to bypass an alarming content, on a daily basis, they will most likely question what can be done to avoid it. We will always see the rise of idiots who will blatantly break the rules regardless of their position but we should give the benefit of doubt to the community. Despite the extra effort, anyone has the potential to turn into one of those 5 idiots but at the same time, one may end up growing as a core member of this mini-society with many beneficial contributions IF their silly ignorance can be awakened with an awareness campaign. Regarding the FM button, I think enough % of the population already use the FM for merching, npcing and purcahse of TP rocks/Smegas. There is no need for extra measures to expose this board to the player base.
Just curious and I don't want to derail the topic, but does it seem as if a language barrier may be the issue with some not knowing the rules, or is it because it's a wall of text that we have all been conditioned to click accept on through using other softwares? I mean, let's be honest, who really reads agreement terms when installing software... Perhaps there could be a daily notice that scrolls a few highlights of the most oft-broken rules in the game, since most people ignore the RoyalTips. As for the ban announcement, I think no one can whine over privacy issues or public ridicule if it's just showing statistical numbers.
I really like the thought, but in the same vein who really reads the yellow daily notices too? GMS groomed me into ignoring those pesky yellow tips
Although I cannot provide 99% accuracy, I can say with my own certainty it's the latter. If the language barrier was the real issue, the interested or the worried individuals would contact the bilingual players for help with translation. Google Translate does a superb job if the original text is written in perfect grammar as well. Most people just skip the T&C as if following a tradition. I'm afraid daily notice of rules will still count as a reiteration. People will only become alarmed if they physically see that others are getting punished for breaking the seemingly-trivial rules.
Broadcasting bans will ruin the game experience. I don't remember seeing ban announcements when I was playing maplestory back in the days. You don't want new players come in and the first few things they see is how many people are getting banned. That is not nostalgic of the maple they played back in the days and that is not the game experience you want them to have. Ban announcements also hurt the credibility of the server. When people constantly see ban announcements they are constantly reminded of hackers present in this server. Their perception of this server's worthiness will drop. Leave the banning to the GMs and let the players play the game normally. As for reading of T&C, I'm sure most people that break the rules knows that they are breaking them. A minority will not know, but being punished for ignorance is justifiable too.
It also seems that your main concern is the players being perma banned for making jokes in game. I think the root cause of this problem is that the GMs are too strict or unreasonable in defining what jokes warrant a perma ban.
I mean, I kind of see why they're strict on perma ban players who claim it's a joke. Tons of people could get away with it by just saying "it was a joke lol" But with that being said, I do think GM's should look into their accounts to even make sure if it was a believable claim or not imo. Yes, it gives them more work to do, but by looking into their accounts and checking their logs they can verify if it was a joke or not. And if it was a joke, they should be given a punishment, but not a perma ban. I've seen too many people get banned from making jokes about it & I can guarantee you most of them only did it for a meme. One in particular, I had a pole arm dk friend joke about buying a sky ski (spear) for irl currency. If they looked into his logs they could've easily seen it was a joke because the dude was using pole arms & had his mastery and skills all selected for pole arm lmao. But it is what it is.
Any newbie will see tons of daily public hacker reports via smegas, forum shoutbox reports and discord reports. If the credibility of the server is at risk due to the prominent presence of hackers in the server, it's already displayed on HD full screen. If they were to leave the server because of the dropped worthiness, it would have happened already. I see at least 3~5 public reports/day when I'm online. That reminder of hackers' presence as well as their fate is what I aim to nail with this idea. Hackers' presence is inevitable in a popular pre-server. I've visited MS game hack websites and they all emphasize how unlikely it is for one to get caught using those hacks due to amazing mechanic blah blah blah. Hundreds fall for this advert and give it a try because they believe what they see. Curiosity is a dominant factor. If those newbies are pre-warned of the consequences, it is less likely for them to indulge with illegal methods. Most potential hackers don't come to a new server with prepared hacks. They try out the server but when things become relatively more difficult, they develop funny ideas to look for shortcuts and end up searching for hacks thinking "I won't get caught". Permaban from a joke is only an example among many causes. As a regular visitor of ban appeals for the past 3 years, I believe I have seen and gathered enough data to confidently say that the number of bans resulting from ignorance is much larger than what you estimate. As I have illustrated with examples from my own guild, the majority were not aware of the fact that they were breaking the rules (except hacking). One could accuse that they were lying and acting ignorant but the instantaneous reaction, as well as the follow-up attempt for rectification, gave me the assurance that they were speaking the truth. It is also a common widespread custom for the majority of the world population. They do not read terms and conditions before signing a contract, especially if it's for gaming. Private servers rely heavily on its popularity and population. Preservation of every player should be among the key focuses.
I'm not a fan of displaying bans in anyway especially not some type of intrusive nagging message in chat or scrolling on your screen. I agree that believable claim bans often seem unfortunate but I don't think having the free market sign display how many people got banned for what will make any difference since believable claim bans are few and far between but they're often appealed compared to other bans so that might make it seem like it is more common. I think obviously both the wall of text and the somewhat fancy words that constituents the terms and conditions is daunting to some players including myself at one point but I'll leave it at that as this thread is about displaying bans in fm.
Firstly, most newbie players don't use forum shoutbox/discord. I think most regular players don't too. If you take that out of the factor, they will only occasionally see hacking reports in the smega. If we agree that smegas are occasional, then those occasional smegas that report hackers actually give newbies the healthy mindset that the community at royals do not welcome hackers and is doing an active part in eliminating them. That is quite different from ban announcements which only gives them the idea that there are hackers lurking in this server. Think of it as a community that is bonded together to actively police their own community, ensuring that crime rates are down, versus a community being constantly watched by the police (the GMs in this case). The former will instill the sense that the community is safe while the latter doesn't. The same applies here. Also, if ban announcement is enforced, it will surely be more than the 3~5 reports per day. A reasonable estimate might be in the double digits. That will be really discouraging and definitely hurt the credibility of this server. I say all these because I had played a private server that constantly announce autobans or bans by GM through smegas and it really made me think less of that server. So I guess while you propose the community should be constantly reminded of the presence of hackers, I'm saying we should diminish the notion of their presence and just enjoy the game as it was supposed to be.
Cause only Admins have access to the logs GMs actually don't have that much power as we thought - in terms of checking account info & chat logs
Remember her quiz back in Maple Island? ___________________________________ Try to work on something similar: A custom quiz-quest(s) with an attractive reward (req. level 20 or 30 to discourage creating multiple characters exclusively for its reward) that explains the ToS to the player. Have the answers be 'No, we may only vote once a day per player and it is against the rules to vote past this limit', for example. When people click on the answers, they are forced to read at least enough to figure out which one is the right answer so it should help with learning about the not-obvious rules like vote abuse and account sharing. Naturally a wrong answer means you get a reply from the NPC and have to redo the quiz/question. The reward could be some NX, NX-clothes or items, untradeables, scrolls, minerals, gear, mesos, idk. Naturally, it would have to be something helpful for new (and relatively new) players and encouraging enough to complete it.
I was gonna post this in the old feedback thread sparky linked but that's a year old. Would it be possible to rework Shanks instead of the quiz girl to include a quiz about the ToS? (RWT, Vote abuse, bot) 3-5 simple questions that require your attention before you're able to proceed to Victoria Island.
One can see that my original suggestion was of similar nature where I recommended addition of T&C quiz to the registration process. There is a loophole with the NPC quiz suggestion, which I find more problematic than the quiz contained in the registration form. One can even make a poll for this but how many of us actually read all the content for every NPC quiz content when we first encountered them in the maple island? Veteran MS players know that reading the actual content speeds up the process but newbies just press random options till they get the right answer because there's no penalty for getting the wrong answer and one can repeat [space bar (npc chat)] -> [enter] -> [up or down arrow] -> [enter] within seconds without reading any of the content. Those with a language barrier can't even highlight ingame NPC text for google translate or manual translation via discord which will further discourage them to guess through everything. For the NPC quiz idea to work, the required effort for redoing the quiz (after choosing random, wrong answer) needs to be bigger than actually reading through the question and answers. I have not experienced any quiz NPC in royals who offers such system. Some provide immense quantity of npc text to read through that discourages redoing the quiz but it'll still take less time to redo the repetitive entering process than actually reading through the wall of text. A quiz in the registration process takes place in a website where one cannot redo the quiz alone in a rapid manner compared to the NPC chat. They can't spam click enter or up and down arrow but forced to click on an option with their mouse. I still abandoned this idea because one can easily make an answer booklet similar to 3rd job adv one. People will Ctrl + F to look for the right answer because it still takes less time than reading through the wall of T&C to figure out the answers themselves. What are your suggestions to overcome this problem?
