Stop Punishing Start Rewarding

I put this in General Discussion as well so people could share thoughts on it, but I figured it deserves to be here even more so the devs actually see it 😅.

People are still DCing and still killing themselves on first hook, and I get it with all the cheaters and toxic players out there, but it makes the game far less enjoyable. I know the DC penalty has made an impact in cutting down the number of people that DC but it hasn’t solved the issues that cause people to want to DC in the first place. Sometimes as a survivor you get super selfish teammates who do nothing all game, sabotage you to help themselves (such as running at your 90% gen in hopes the killer will hop onto you), or killers and survivors working together, or killers hardcore camping and tunneling – all of which ruins the experience (I get to some people this is a valid gameplay strategy but it shouldn’t have to be because it does destroy at least one person's fun). I don’t think any of the former is something that can be easily fixed since the Devs have been trying for years. Unfortunately, the more they add to the game the more they have to consider, and it can’t be easy. So…

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: We have a THUMBS UP button for a reason, but it seems to serve no purpose. So why not give it a legit purpose by adding Player Reputation? Make it so every season people start at 0 reputation and gain a point (or # of points) per thumbs up they get from other players. When they get a certain amount of reputation points reward them with bloodpoints (less desirable option imo) and/or (most desirable options follow imo) Iridescent Shards and/or an exclusive reputation cosmetic (a new one each season) or special points/currency that they can save up and later use to buy a Battle Pass. I think this would encourage people to play less toxic, which would also aid in making a more pleasant gaming environment where people don’t want to quit because they want the rewards.

I understand this can be abused in some ways, but I have some possible preventive solutions for that, too:

- Make it so players can only thumbs up once per player in a match.

- Don’t allow people in a party to thumbs up each other (if there’s a way to do this) or somehow give it a time limit (such as 1 per day/week/whatever) so friends who play multiple games together can’t just thumbs up each other after every single one.

- Require a certain amount of match points be earned to get a thumbs up so people can’t just give them to players that didn’t do anything in the match.

- Make Reputation Point farming (when a killer and the 4 survivors all work together to get max match points) an offense that can be reported (or find a way to prevent it).

There might be more but I can’t think of them right now.

You can also add a THUMBS DOWN, too, where people can lose reputation. I understand this could also be abused so I think the best way to avoid abuse would be to make it impossible to thumbs down if someone has earned over a certain amount of match points (since high points means they are actually contributing and playing the game).

I also think reputation should be visible to encourage people to play less toxic and not quit matches so much. If lobby dodging is something people might be worried about then show reputation at the end of the match.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. In other words, people respond better to positive things (rewards) vs negative things (punishment). But yeah, that’s my suggestion. I personally LOVE the idea of earning reputation exclusive cosmetics or being able to save enough points/currency to buy a battle pass (even if it took a long time).