How a player can interact with the world of a video game is one of the main measurements of video games' advancement since they were first created. Games started off with simple inputs like move right, jump, and shoot, often these were the extent of player’s interactions for moving the game forward. But as games developed, they became massive open worlds with hundreds of individual characters that players can interact with differently. Online multiplayer games like MMOs have players encountering each other, allowing for nearly endless possible in-game interactions, and a much deeper sense of immersion.
Player interaction is what separates video games from other visual mediums like film and television. The player's ability to interact with the world of the game allows for brand-new story telling possibilities. Not all players use the ability to interact for the advancement of games, however. Instead, many would use this anonymous interaction as an excuse to harass and abuse their fellow gamers.
Sony has now filed for a patent that could track player behavior, seemingly in the hopes of identifying which players are struggling with the game, and which players are using the game's systems to negatively impact the play session of other users. It is unclear what constitutes these negative player interactions but from the patent description it sounds like actions that would commonly be referred to as “griefing” among gamers.
Griefing is the name given to the deliberate provocation or harassment of players through in-game interaction in online multiplayer games. It is a common problem for multiplayer games where players are able to negatively interact with another player's character or game. This includes games like Minecraft where greifers can destroy player-made structures, or Grand Theft Auto Online where they can endlessly attack other players for no reason. Many online games have their own systems in place for discouraging griefing, such as passive modes or bounties that reward other players for killing the griefer's character.
As the patent was filed by Sony it is uncertain whether this system could be used on a future Sony produced game with a heavy online focus, as the term MMO is specifically mentioned at multiple points throughout the patent description. Or if this patent could be used across the entirety of PlayStation's online library, marking out players that are more likely to repeatedly partake in abusive actions across multiple games which could help to streamline the player reporting system.
Online harassment is a constant battle for companies like Xbox and PlayStation. But the patent does plan to also track good and neutral behavior using an unbiased point-based system. This could mean that the patent plans to make it so known abusive players will be matched exclusively with each other in online games.