To serve and protect?

To serve and protect. It may not be the “official” motto for moderators across the various Game Worlds, but it certainly should be and in most cases is the driving force of their service to the public.

Trying to live up to this credo, I sometimes encounter situations that strike me as very unfair, but there are no rules against it, so my hands are tied. I encountered a situation like that this very morning.

Imagine if you will, a new user that only joined the Miller community last night. He built his team and he was ready to start playing. Three games later, his illusions are probably shattered and the new user has logged off, probably never to be seen again.

As soon as he confirmed his team, he was pounced upon by a number of high ranked teams. Unsurprisingly, he didn't stand much of a chance and he was crushed. Three games were played, all three were lost with humiliating numbers. 5-0, 5-0 and 7-0... Not a very nice way to welcome a new user and most certainly not a very good way to ensure a new user remains active in the Game World.

To me, actions like this are unfair and even counterproductive to the good of the entire community. Why pounce on these poor new users? For a few measely ranking points and some extra goals for your strikers?

In the end, most new users who encounter situations like this will lose all hope of settling into a new Game World. Losing your first matches big time is not very motivating to continue playing and it will just drive these new members away, leaving the in-game economy as dead as it was before they came along.

Where am I going with this rant? I feel we should add a bit of newcomer-protection for teams entering an established Game World. Some sort of protection for new users, which means they are given adequate time to settle into their new Game World, without being harassed by much stronger opponents looking for an easy win.

There's a few possibilities to achieve such a goal. We could opt for a protection system based on the team reputation, meaning the new teams with 1 and 1.5 stars are only capable of playing each other, ensuring they can easily settle into the Game World. As a team gets stronger players, its manager can opt to play stronger opponents as well.

A second way would be to add all these new players into a special federation for newcomers, which means they would mainly be playing each other in the first season, allowing them even more time to settle in. After the first season, they would be cleared from this federation and allowed to pick their own federation.

I'm sure there are other ways to achieve this, but that is not the point I'm trying to make. The current situation simply isn't working and it needs improving, before we succeed in driving away all new users...