Chinese games firm Tencent has introduced a new social credit score for players in China.
Per a tweet from Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, Game Credit will reward users who play regularly, earn items and report cheaters with a higher credit score. On the flip side, negative behaviour such as cheating will have a detrimental impact on their score.
Right now the system is only live in China, but given Tencent's rather sizeable footprint in the West, this could actually be a viable way of fighting cheating and other toxicity over here. The firm owns - or at least owns a stake in - League of Legends firm Riot, Fortnite and Unreal maker Epic, Clash of Clans outfit Supercell, as well as Activision Blizzard, Frontier and Milky Tea.
Tencent now has a social credit score system for gamers in China that play Tencent published games.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 10, 2018
Regular play, earning items and reporting cheaters will increase a user’s credit score. Stuff like cheating will decrease a users credit score. https://t.co/z2xAevmr3p pic.twitter.com/kP3fUDW6yz
The notion of a social score is rather similar to that seen in a Black Mirror episode, which isn't the best place to find inspiration for applying technology, we must admit. But this could well be one means of incentivising good behaviour. Toxicity in the games space is one of the hottest topics right now.
Titles like Playerunknown's Battlegrounds are in an on-going war with cheaters - so much so that the game's development is slowing to accommodate this fight.
Meanwhile, managing toxic communities has become a big deal, too, with the teams behind Rainbow Six: Siege and Overwatch - to name just two - putting a great deal of effort to combating the negativity in the community.
