Ever experienced a quitter? People that disappeared just a week after your game started? I suggest to create a Karma System to determine which player's a bad or good player.

Now, use that kinda same bar type like the game format. But this one filled up with red color every time they disappeared for a month (of inactivity with no vacation mark) or the narrator's call.

Great idea and would make a big difference, especially to some writers who put their all into a story that just doesn't pan out. . . at least they walk away with something.

We should show who has given Karma too . . (on a profile) . .. not to whom or anything, just a running tally like the favorite system. Shows who gets acknowledgement, but also shows who is supportive as well.

I for one would love it for effort - running a Beginners game, sometimes these new guys really give it there all. You may not see Shakespeare, but who cares .. . sometimes you can really tell when someone just really pushed themselves and I would love to give them a high five for it.

Win win.

As long as you are talking POSTIVE Karma....but I am not for negative "thumbs down" type abilities. This leaves much open to interpretation by those giving the stars, points, etc. I've seen the repercussions of a system that allowed free-flowing negative reporting. It was abused by anyone with a beef. It became an unjust and runaway system making the game nearly impossible to enjoy.

Upvotes on what? Player contributions? Would you also want downvotes?

I would prefer story recognition over individual recognition. I feel Storium was designed to encourage players to collaborate and build something as a team. Though, I know it comes from a place of wanting to award your peers, I'm concerned that individual 'likes' might sour the collaborative atmosphere of the game.

Perhaps, when a PM function is in place, you can simply message the person and tell them how much you like what they've done.

I would caution against implementing audience recognition unless you also devise some clever means to avoid "ballot-stuffing" effects that may follow from it.

The only thing to remember, or keep in mind, is a character is not the player. A player shouldn't been punished or given bad karma because they were rude in acting their weaknesses or failing an objective. If there were a way to keep player-character grudges separate, then this would be a fantastic addition.

I don't think it should play into story mechanics, but definitely would love a way to reward/encourage good writing. Any system can be abused, but it's still a good system to have.

Personally I'm not a fan of "karma" systems. I would very much depend how it was implemented here. But on the whole I find that sites that employ "karma" systems end up with cliques where certain individuals just go around upvoting all their friends regardless of the quality of writing. It definitely allows for more of a dick factor to enter into a game if there aren't any checks or balances on it.

A quick update on this: as of Alpha 2, "Karma" is no longer a part of the game mechanics, but we may bring it back in a different form to fill the role discussed here — as a "+1" or "like" signal. Stay tuned!

I like the idea of (even nonmechanical) fanmail/+1/like capability - sometimes the writing is just excellent and I want a way to show the other players I like what they're doing without it being an issue of Karma per se. Like Andy says, it could be enabled/disabled by the narrator if its distracting.

I definitely agree! Even if it's another kind of Karma (story karma vs player karma; even if the two pools do the same thing, so that later on you might add hacks on to player karma at some point in the future).

Essentially, a simple "Fan Mail" mechanic. Perhaps with the additional option of Narrator/Creator choosing to enable/disable it.

Also, I love the idea of people reading story submitting recognition; but I would say definitely not anonymously, they'd have to at least log in to Storium or some other social network, so you can see who's posting the feedback. Sounds awesome!

I'm currently messing with a demo game now, going live as soon as I get player buy-in!

There should be some kind of player to player recognition, yes.