PlayerRating: a reputation system for multiplayer online games

Abstract

In multiplayer online games, players interact with each other using aliases which unfortunately enable antisocial behavior. Vague rules and limited policing mean that only the very worst offenders are ever disciplined. This paper presents PlayerRating, a distributed reputation system specifically designed for online games. It leverages the prior experiences of a player's peers to determine the reputability of all other peers, allowing well-behaved players to safely congregate and avoid interaction with antisocial peers. The system has been implemented as an interface add-on for the game World of Warcraft and is evaluated theoretically and experimentally.