Xbox One’s reputation scoring system takes effect this month

Xbox One knows if you’ve been naughty, and it knows if you’ve been nice.

Starting this month, Microsoft will retroactively update Xbox One players’ reputation scores this month as it begins its reputation tracking program in earnest. The rating of each person will be prominently displayed on their Gamercard, which is a small profile that shows basic information about Xbox Live members.

Since Microsoft’s latest console launched, the company has been monitoring players on its Xbox Live online service for disruptive and abusive behavior. Based on this, an algorithm assigns them a reputation score based on their interactions with the community. They are then sorted into three categories: “Green = Good,” “Yellow = Needs Work,” and “Red = Avoid Me.”

The majority of Live members will remain in the “Good” category. Those who have been continually disruptive in online play and communications, however, will likely see their reputation score drop. They will also receive notifications explaining why they’ve been docked and how their behavior negatively affects other members of the community.

Microsoft program manager Michael Dunn wrote on Xbox.com today that the algorithm behind the reputation scores is complex. At its core, it tracks when Live members are reported by their peers for abusive behavior or cheating. But it’s necessarily more complicated than that, in order to protect innocent users from fraudulent reports.

“The algorithm is sophisticated and won’t penalize you for a few bad reports,” wrote Dunn on Xbox.com last July.

“Even good players might receive a few player feedback reports each month and that is OK. The algorithm weighs the data collected so if a dozen people suddenly report a single user, the system will look at a variety of factors before docking their reputation. We’ll verify if those people actually played in an online game with the person reported – if not, all of those players’ feedback won’t matter as much as a single person who spent 15 minutes playing with the reported person. The system also looks at the reputation of the person reporting and the alleged offender, frequency of reports from a single user and a number of other factors.”

Microsoft plans to add unspecified rewards for “Good” players in the future and to implement penalties such as limited matchmaking abilities and the loss of Twitch broadcasting privileges for players with an “Avoid Me” reputation rank.