Decision Making - My experiences at Realm Of Empires

The toughest part of my job has been to take decisions when players violate the Terms Of Use in the game. Typically, as in any other game, people hiding behind anonymity have nothing to lose by abusing each other, using derogatory language. Having looked at many games, it is usually observed, that such issues get ignored. However, at Realm Of Empires, we have strived to make the game an enjoyable experience for all by enforcing the TOU and have also tried to make the person realize his mistakes, giving him a chance to improve. HOW ? Read on...

The game, requires a lot of communication and to facilitate communication, there is

- Global Chat

- Clan Chat
- Clan forums
- In game messages
- And an outside forum

At present there are 23 Realms at Realm Of Empires and it is not possible to monitor all the modes of communication. Block feature has been provided to players but that too does not control some people. When such issues are reported, it is very very difficult to take decision on one or two instances and BAN or suspend the player from the game. It is a game of war and diplomacy and tempers run high. In the heat of the moment many things are said, that players realize, could have been avoided. However, some take the chance to get rid of players by reporting them, getting them banned.

WHY was Decision making difficult ? Because, to get the complete picture of  why it happened was not trivial.

Let me explain with a story.... This was something i learned at school. We had a workshop on developing life skills and the topic was Decision making.

Please, be honest when you read this and answer the questions as you read through.

First Slide : A man is cutting the branch of a tree on which he was sitting.

Question : Right or Wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : What an idiot. Who wants to hurt themselves. So in my view, he was wrong

Second Slide : The whole tree is now shown. The man is vigorously cutting the branch and the main trunk of the tree is on fire, leaving him no way to get down from the tree.
Question : Right or Wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : Oh, i had not thought of anything beyond what was shown to me in the first instance, so now i think he was doing it right.

 

Third Slide : An even bigger picture shows, that the tree was on a seashore.

Question : Now, do you think he was right or wrong ? Give your view.

My answer was : Of course he was right. Falling in the water would save him from fire and chances of getting hurt would also be lesser.

Fourth Slide : Now, the picture shows an aerial view of the whole scenario. There are two sharks approaching the shore.

Question : What do you think, was his approach to save himself right or wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : Oh boy, he does not have time. He should have just jumped in the water and swam ashore before the sharks reached the place or the tree caught fire completely.

Well, all my answers were WRONG in the first instance, till i got the complete picture of the story. The lesson i learned was never take vital decisions based on partial facts.Take into account every aspect, each sides story before coming to conclusions.

Getting back to the original reason for this post. In the game what happens is people are reporting each other and it became difficult with the number of realms to keep a track, investigate and take decisions based on the ENTIRE picture. Banning players from the game was not a wise step, unless the complete picture was taken into consideration. Now, the question was what to do in such a situation. Then, it was decided NOT to take decisions as BANNING but just make it impossible for the person to use the mode of communication he has abused. For example, ban him from chat or ban him from sending messages. i.e even if he sends messages, it will not be sent.

A great improvement has been observed after this change. Earlier, players would come up with accounts just to harrass others and even if banned from game, it would not hurt them. Now, silencing them by banning them only from chats or messages has made it easy for us to manage and also makes the game an enjoyable experience for all.

Realm 23, released on 11th February,2012. Register at Realm Of Empires a unique multiplayer, online, real time strategy game, on Facebook - to join the fun ! It will teach you to handle every aspect of life !
Be it Diplomacy or War ; Forward planning with patience or taking quick split second decisions.