Xbox One's reputation system will track behavior over time, group negative players

Xbox One will feature an updated reputation system that will help separate negative players by tracking them over an extended period of time, senior product manager Mike Lavin told OXM.

Reputation will be overhauled from that of the Xbox 360's, which is currently based on a five-star rating. Speaking with OXM at the reveal event in May, Lavin explained that reputation will be like achievements — players will want as high of a score as possible. Those who are consistently blocked or punished for sending illicit photos, for example, will begin to earn a lower reputation. For players that carry a bad rep, there will be consequences.

"Ultimately if there's a few percent of our population that are causing the rest of the population to have a miserable time, we should be able to identify those folks," Lavin said.

"There'll be very good things that happen to people that just play their games and are good participants. And you'll start to see some effects if you continue to play bad or harass other people en masse. You'll probably end up starting to play more with other people that are more similar to you."

Xbox One's new system will also determine if anonymity is required in various situations.

"Essentially, if you pop in to a multiplayer experience, the folks that you're friends with will see your real identity information — which is again controllable," Lavin said. "Anonymous folks will see your anonymous Gamertag."

Lavin said that while many of Microsoft's core consumers are interested in playing with friends, the company wants to ensure they have the option to communicate with others freely.

"In order to do that, you need a community of folks that aren't screaming vulgarities every ten seconds, or the griefers or the harassers, those types of folks," Lavin said. "What we're looking at doing is creating a very robust system around reputation and match-making."