Use request-game pools rather than direct game sign-up
Initial description and motivating problem, plus extensive discussion in this activity feed link: http://planets.nu/#/activity/1650352
Emork suggested raising as a feedback issue so it didn't get lost.
Gist is that as a means to address perceived pre-defined alliances/teams in non-team games, you sign up to a pool, from which games are created by random draw via criteria matching (so you can sign up with game characteristics you are interested in [acceptable races(s), game level/type], but have no direct control over precisely which game you wind up in). Consequently multiple account holders, or defacto teams cannot engineer presence in the same game.
This system might run alongside the existing types so people have a choice, or might replace a subset of them.
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Whisperer commented
Challengespaceyard has something like this in BETA.
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Leendy commented
In my first game back to planets I encountered a cheater who is playing 3 races. 2 are intel gathering and suicide missions, one race is expanding at triple the rate of everyone else, making the game worthless.
Cheating in a game that plays over a few minutes or an hour is not a big deal, but when planets players have to invest months into a game, only to find out halfway through that it has been rigged from the start, it's pretty disenfranchising.
This is a good idea to address the issue. Another would be to able to flag players of "suspicious" gameplay so they could be avoided in games that someone signs up for.
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Anonymous commented
I gave this idea two votes.
Pre-game alliances are a significant shift in the game dynamic, rendering players without social connections on NU at a disadvantage, thereby hurting the retention and recruitment of new participants at NU. Games should be decided in part by social actions in game, not outside of it. The idea above seems actionable and goes a long way to address the issue of pre-game alliances.
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emork commented
It would make the leaderboard much more meaningful if just these pool games + hand selected games or game series (Die Hard) count towards the leaderboard.