Player Feedback on Xbox 360
One of things we strive to do with Xbox LIVE® is to give you a great place to play where everyone can have fun as part of a community. Part of living in any community is making sure that every member lives and abides by the rules in terms of what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
What does that mean to you? Because the Xbox LIVE community is powered by its members (you), you control who communicates and plays with you, and you can also let us know through player feedback when someone enhances or ruins the experience.
There are two types of player feedback on Xbox LIVE:
- Player reviews. Submit a player review to flag that player as a person you prefer playing with, or someone you want to avoid playing with. Preferred players are more likely to be matched with you in games, while avoided players are less likely to be matched with you. Reviews also affect the player's reputation.
- Complaints. When a player violates the Xbox LIVE Code of Conduct, you can file a complaint against them. Complaints are reviewed by Xbox LIVE and may result in action against the player's account.
Submit a Player Review
Player reviews affect social matchmaking and rep. If you like someone, submit a positive ("prefer") player review. When you do, you'll be more likely to encounter them in games. Positive reviews (or no review at all) also boosts a player's rep (the stars on their gamer card).
If you find that you really don't like playing with someone, submit a negative ("avoid") review and you'll be less likely to be matched with that player in the future. It'll also affect their reputation. When multiple people avoid a player, their rep suffers. Avoided players can check their gamer profile to see what they're doing wrong.
All player reviews are anonymous.
To submit a positive player review:
- In the player's profile, select Submit Player Review.
- Select Prefer This Player.
To submit a negative player review:
- In the player's profile, select Submit Player Review.
- Select Avoid This Player.
- Choose why you want to avoid the player: communication, game behavior, or player skill.
Note
Only communication and game behavior affect a player's rep. Player skill does not.
- Select the specific reason you want to avoid the player.
- Communication: trash talking, unpleasant language, or disruptive voice.
- Game behavior: overly aggressive, unsporting conduct, or quit early.
- Player skill: lacking skill, too good, or unfamiliar with game.
If you change your mind about a player, you can submit different reviews (initially prefer, later avoid, for instance), but only the current review counts, and it counts only once (no stacking the deck). Xbox LIVE will also start to ignore negative reviews from a player if they are identified as abusing the system. (System abuse is defined as submitting negative reviews against a disproportionate number of players.)
File a Complaint
If a player exhibits offensive, hateful, harassing, or threatening behavior, tampers with the system, or otherwise vioilates the Code of Conduct, file a complaint. Complaints are reviewed by Xbox LIVE and may result in action against the player's account.
The Code of Conduct here on Xbox.com and in the Xbox Dashboard has examples of the sorts of things that aren't OK—for instance, choosing a gamertag or nickname that's offensive, being verbally abusive, or using constant profanity during in-game voice communication.
To file a complaint:
- In the player's profile, select File Complaint.
- Read the information on the screen about filing complaints. If you still want to, select File Complaint.
- Choose why you want to file the complaint: profile, text and voice communications, video communications, or tampering.
- Select the specific reason for the complaint.
- Profile: gamertag, personal picture, personal info, or player content.
- Text and voice communications: text message, voice message, voice chat, or in-game voice.
- Video communications: picture message or video chat.
- Tampering: feedback tampering, system tampering, or cheating.
Filing a complaint won't mute, block, or avoid a player. Consider applying those options in addition to filing the complaint.
What Happens to Complaints?
All feedback is reviewed daily and action is taken against the players for whom the behavior is verified. Below is a list of current offenses and resulting banning actions:
- If you choose a gamertag that violates the Code of Conduct and other gamers complain about it, you'll be forced to change it. And we're good at recognizing the hidden meaning in creative spellings, so you might as well pick something nice from the start.
- If you choose a gamertag that violates the Code of Conduct in any game, regardless of ESRB rating, and other players complain about it, your account will be suspended. First offense is a one-day suspension. Second offense is one week. Third offense and every subsequent offense is two weeks.
- If your use of voice violates the Code of Conduct and other gamers complain about it, you'll be voice-banned. Durations of the voice ban are the same as for suspensions. If you're voice-banned you can still play, but no one else will be able to hear what you say.
- If you violate the Code of Conduct by cheating or exhibiting "bad gameplay" and other gamers complain about it, you'll also find yourself suspended from one day to two weeks.
If you are voice banned, locked out, or asked to change your gamertag, you'll be notified in the Xbox Dashboard when you go to play. If you are voice banned or locked out, you'll also receive an e-mail at the account you used to sign up for Xbox LIVE.
Controlling Communications
In addition to submitting a player review or filing a complaint, you can also control how people communicate with you. If you really don't want to hear or be contacted by a player, you can mute them or block their communications to you.
- Mute. Open the player's profile and select Mute. You'll no longer hear them in the game, but they'll still hear you.
- Block communications. Open a message from the player and select Block Communications. The player won't be able to send you any messages until you send them one first.
To control your communications in a more general way, set your privacy settings to let only friends communicate with you, or just block everyone. For more info, see "Privacy Settings" in Manage Your Gamer Profile (or Xbox LIVE Family Settings).
For More Info
For more information about dealing with offensive behavior, see Dealing with Offensive Players.
