Xbox Live Bullies Beware: You’re About To Get Punished

Xbox Live has always been an interesting gaming platform due to the fact that the service that amazingly connects you with people around the world is the same service that makes you never want to connect with many of those people ever again.

Microsoft has realized that it has its fair share of gamers on the Xbox Live platform that don’t really play nice, so the company is now going to actually do something about it.

Starting soon, those who have poor reputations as misbehaving gamers on Xbox Live will be punished in a way that only Microsoft can punish — by allowing other Xbox Live gamers to report you for bad behavior.

We’ll let Xbox Live Program Manager Micheal Dunn explain:

“The more hours you play fairly online without being reported as abusive by other players, the better your reputation will be. The algorithm looks to identify players that are repeatedly disruptive across the community on Xbox Live. The vast majority of players do not regularly receive feedback from other players and, thus, will stay at the “Good Player” reputation level.”

In a post on Xbox.com, Dunn went on to explain what the differences were between the levels of behaviors for gamers on Xbox Live. Here are the three levels, along with Dunn’s explanation of each level of Xbox Live gamer:

Good Players

The majority of gamers will fall into this level. As we’ve said before, we have plans to introduce rewards for good behavior and look forward to sharing more in the future!”

Needs Work

“Beginning this month, some players will start receiving reputation warnings as their reputations drop due to feedback from the community. The purpose of these communications is to remind players about their effect on the community and encourage them to have more positive interactions.”

Avoid Me

“If players do not heed warnings and continue to have a negative impact on other players and the Xbox Live community, they will begin to experience penalties. For example, people with an “Avoid Me” rating will have reduced matchmaking pairings and may be unable to use certain privileges such as Twitch broadcasting.”

The system supposedly is not going to be so sensitive that Xbox Live gamers will need to worry about a few negative reports here and there from other Xbox Live users. However, if a lot of negative reporting happens, then gamers should expect that some of their Xbox Live privileges will decrease.

Image via Xbox.com