Ah yes, the much talked about bubble system. There seems to be a serious disconnect between what the administrators feel the system accomplishes, and what it's actually doing. This post will attempt to summarize and analyze the problems surrounding the system, while attempting to provide plausible solutions.
The blog post is meant to engage the news-reading N4G'ers rather than just the forum go'ers, and to promote a meaningful discussion towards a better commentary system.
TLDR; Get rid of bubbles, it's a form of censorship. Use a simple agree/disagree where trolls/spam can be buried. Also, a possible 'exp-based' reputation system around rewarding users for good comments but not censoring different opinions.
<<What's the point of it anyway?>>
Essentially, the bubble system is an attempt to allow the community to self-moderate. That is to silence trolls, flamers and spammers meanwhile rewarding posters the community deems proper.
<<What does it really do?>>
It effectively strangles commentary through a number of ways:
a) Opinions by their nature are subjective.
Therefore not everyone will agree. Sure, this is an alternative 'agree/disagree' but we all understand how heated console wars are--how often are people hitting 'disagree' and then de-bubbling too? It's a system that builds fanboyism in itself, since the 'community' feels justified in de-bubbling when there are lots of disagrees.
b) 'Community-driven' is inaccurate.
Bubble votes are counted differently based on the person de-bubbling--the more bubbles the more power. This perpetuates *their views* while marginalizing others. If everyone had an equal say in de-bubbles less griefing would occur. Essentially, the 'community' are actually those that the community itself deems worthy. Therefore the 'community' is a self-perpetuating body made up of members who all share the same opinion.
c) Builds superficial reputation.
A posters comment is only as relevant as their bubbles. Posters are pre-judged based on bubbles, making their comments seem false before some even read them. This also communicates to other posters that whatever this commentator says is not what the community as a whole believes--hence their lack of bubbles. A better reputation system is suggested below, which unlike the current one does not vilify it's own users.
d) 'One-hitter' posts
When a user has one bubble, no conversation can be permitted. This provides incentives for users to post 'one-hitters' or rather, single posts that try to communicate one idea while attempting to pre-empt possible replies (since they themselves cannot reply). This often leads to troll-like flame posts rather than anything meaningful, because after all, why post something meaningful if you cannot even continue the conversation? Creating a new account only get you banned, so essentially, if you do not agree with the 'community' you are permanently reduced to sound bites. Sounds like censorship.
<<So far, what are the results?>>
Fanboys. Yes, the system that is meant to keep them at bay only perpetuates it. The gaming news media knows it, hell even developers know it. This site's full of 'em. Look at the news posts we've seen, tons of sensationalist fanboy titles. What comments are really being de-bubbled, even disagreed? If you take a close look, most aren't trolling, offensive or destructive--they're different points of view often being de-bubbled by fanboys. Sure some are often abrasive, but surely discussion can have tension--it's in the very nature of debate.
When opposing views are be-bubbled it simply justifies the 'community's fanboyism'--whatever side that may be. Posters who are punished for their views leave the site, or return to antagonize others--strengthening the opposing 'community fanboys' and adding to flame wars. Ultimately, the point of debate is to not only prove your own argument, but to provide others with different perspectives. The bubble system prevents that, marginalizing any intelligent conversation into carefully worded sound bites which aim to either piss off fanboys, or are too meek to add anything interesting to the conversation (ie. "cool game bro").
<<What can be done?>>
First, N4G needs to swallow it's pride. It's not the first news aggregator with a large community. Many, many other sites have similarly built communities but do it much better. Part of building a site is not only maturing the features and technology in the backend, but also maturing the community by allowing it to grow through it's own commentary (see NeoGAF).
Reddit is a crucial example of how the internet can self-moderate but not censor itself. There are articles for fanboys, agnostic gamers and casuals. Commentary ranges from outright fanboys to casuals and even developers. Why can't N4G be like that too?
<<Solution>>
The bubble system is flawed. Period. No other community site uses a system which marginalizes opposing views, stifles intelligent discussion, and reduces commentary to sound bites. It needs to go.
The best method is to continue with agrees/disagrees, but instead when a comment hits a certain ratio (which the user may be able to customize) the comment is 'hidden'. Hidden does not mean gone--it will still allow others to post and continue the dialog whether it's flamebait or not. This just means the rest of the community doesn't have to be subjected to it if they don't want to be. This still allows conversation to flow meanwhile hiding unpleasant troll-like comments or flame wars. While we're at it, deeper comment nesting would be nice too.
But what about reputation? How about this:
HEATSCORE™
This was a concept developed using other CMS-PHP 'points' systems as way to built reputation. This was based of early CRPG's and their 'karma' system using 'posting EXP', essentially it works like this:
Everyone starts off 'neutral'. Let's say a heatscore of 100. Whenever people 'agree' with their posts their score 'cools down', when others disagree their score gets 'hotter'. The more people agree with them, they cooler they get--that is they are labeled as people who's comments appeal to the masses. The more people disagree well, you're a 'hot' commentator. Those who straddle the line are considered neutral--neither fanboy nor crowd favourite (aka community fanboy).
The words 'hot', 'cool', 'neutral', etc. can be called anything to sound appealing. The point is, just as Fallout 3's achievement for being neutral is called 'True Mortal' neutral is where you want to be--you're not ruffling feathers, but you're also not kissing fanboy ass. The 'neutrals' become the coveted position of the community, a poster who can see both sides of the story--a position that can challenge the community to maintain. You can even add awards and 'titles' based the poster's patterns to encourage meaningful participation.
NOTE: Neutral (and other positions) is obtained through an overall ratio (not on just individual posts), that is one post may get 5:1 agrees, another 1:5 disagrees which overall is a 1:1 ratio. These positions would also have a range, that is a 0.9-1.1 agree ratio might still keep you in neutral.
This system can be a good gauge at exactly where the community lies. If most commentators are 'hot' then this place is a battleground. If everyone's 'cool' then no progressive discussion is happening--that is, everyones agreeing with everyone else--hence a 'community' of fanboys.
The important thing to note is 'heatscore' is only for reputation. It should not affect anyone's ability to post.
<<Solution: Final Note>>
I'm not pretending this suggestion is the end-all-be-all, I'm just trying to start some kind of dialog towards solving the problem. There has got to be a better way to nurture intelligent commentary than this current bubble system.
<<Moral of the story>>
Control does not solve problems. Communities solve problems. The bubble system is a flawed form of control masquerading as the 'community's voice'. It's not a voice, it's a hammer. A hammer that punishes different opinions, stifles fluid commentary, incites/creates more fanboys and reduces the beloved N4G community into a veiled fanboy-fest.
I enjoy this site and will continue to participate in it. I have deep respect for the moderators and administrators here. I sincerely hope the administrators are willing to considering alternate ways to manage the comments, especially by looking at great internet communities that do it successfully.
P.S. Yes, my N4G account has only one bubble left--but please, consider this post and judge me not by my bubbles, but my commitment and interest in this community. Thanks for reading.
RKGK/Rakugaki is an action platformer about a team of graffiti artists fighting against an autocratic corporation in Cap City.
TSA writes: "A roguelike deskbuilder full of stylish vim and vigour, Zet Zillions has a lot going for it, but can it challenge the genre's best?"
The Digital Foundry verdict on the technology of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Such a good looking game, best graphics this gen so far
" When the camera zooms in for a close-up, the level of detail is such that it left me guessing whether I was looking at real-time graphics or a pre-rendered cutscene. Thankfully, with Photo Mode being available at any time, you can easily confirm that they are, in fact, real-time.Of course, it's really the animation you experience while playing that impressed me the most. The expressions visible while engaged in combat or simply exploring really help bring the characters to life. "
As a story-focused game, characters and character rendering play a significant role in the presentation. However, while the pre-release media largely focused on Senua herself, Hellblade 2 features a surprisingly large number of other humans. It's without doubt one of the games defining visual features - the character rendering in Hellblade 2 sets new standards, delivering sequences that, at times, almost resemble actual filmed scenes with real actors. This is one of the first examples of a game that stands up against the promise of the UE5 demo The Matrix Awakens. The scenes feel very natural and realistic in a way that manages to somewhat sidestep the uncanny valley almost completely.
Incredible graphics..this is finally next gen graphics. It’s an experience more than a game. You can fault it or accept it and embrace what it gives you. It’s like Sony 1886.
(Summary)
- Takes advantage of everything UE5 offers
- Final game 'lives up to the lofty expectations' of the 2019 reveal
- Character rendering sets new standards and nearly resembles movie sequences with actual actors
- Leverages Unreal's Meta Human 5 to bypass the uncanny valley feel
- DF were left guessing whether some cut-scenes were in-game or real life footage (photo mode shows they're all real time)
- Character detail and how light / specular etc reflect on it praised
- A lot of the visual make up is tied to the post-process effects
- No option to disable things like CA, DoF etc but it's all suitable to the games presentation
- Soft filmic image quality and wider FoV praised
Resolution and Visuals:
- DRS 1296 to 1440p (w/ black bars 964 to 1070p). Series S will be covered in separate video
- 'Not sure if adding more pixels would make a difference to the filmic quality'
UE5 Features:
- Lumen is used extensively for direct and in-direct lighting, a lot of real time changes and shadows etc all update accordingly
- 'Phenomenal stuff'
- Lumen does a better job than traditional real time lighting system for indirectly lit areas like under ramps etc
- Lumen reflections used in combination with SSR for water bodies. Some water bodies can show SSR artifacts when moving camera
- 'Anyone looking at the game in motion will be impressed even if they do not understand the technical reasons'
- Unreal's fog is used effectively, fog lights up with light sources and runs at high quality
- Water effects and waves are praised. ' Absolutely stunning'
- Nanite is extensively used and eliminates visible pop-in even during scene transitions
- Minimal repetition or tiling, uses photo-grammatory
- Some assets like tree branches can show low resolution when zoomed in with photo mode, however
- Fine shadow detail is retained even when zooming extremely in thanks to Unreal's Virtual Shadow Maps
- Shadow quality is not always perfect and can show cracks in some instances but very consistent by and large
- Not the first UE5 game to use all these features, but by and far the best looking game to do so.
Performance:
- 30 FPS but the performance is locked and never dropped in John's testing on Series X
- DF tested the game on their Series X - similar - PC to see how much performance could be gained over 30
- 4K with DRS, they were able to stay locked at 30 FPS on High
- DRS 1440p with 60 FPS target sees game play at high 50s with more drops in cut-scenes
- DF thinks based on this test, SX can do 60 FPS with a more aggressive DRS target
- However, PC version can show massive frame time stutters that the Xbox version does not in the same areas
- DF summary: 60 FPS is theoretically possible, but for a stable 60 they might need to drop settings a lot
Audio
- Headphones are needed for Binaural audio effect that the game uses extensively
- DF thinks it is 'incredibly engaging'
Trailer Comparison:
- They compare the Giant fight trailer with the same area in the final game
- Final game has lesser lens distortion and difference in how the flame is lit
- The flames felt more 'fluid' in the demo versus the final game, otherwise no difference in the segment noted
- DF thinks Ninja Theory 'reached their goal'
- Praise the polish, presentation etc.
If they achieved this level of quality their first time using UE5... I can't wait to see what their next game is going to look like.
Remember the trailer release and ppl didn't think it was insane footage cause it looked too good
if i could i would bubble you up for this. wait... good blog though
Fantastic blog post bro, really.
Like the idea, always ready to try something new.
Your solutions are just as flawed as the bubble system, whats to stop the same people that debubble from hiding ones comment and giving someone a negative rating?
Bubble system sucks, period. If you have a different opinion than the masses, they will de-bubble you even if you're not a troll.