- Use the rating tags received by each player to improve the 'profile' and 'game finder' pages.
To illustrate the specifics consider the different rating tags (and number of each) that I have received at the time of writing:
friendly (5), talkative (1), quick (3), trustworthy (1), brave (1), good strategy (3), helpful (2), silent (1), balanced play (1)
- On each player's profile page use all the tags received by a player to add a 'tag cloud' graphic.
In this illustration the font size is directly proportional to the number of times each tag has been used. Colour could also possibly be used effectively.
- Show up to three tags immediately after each player's name and star rating on the 'game finder' page.
Where the popularity of one tag in that list is more than 4 times greater than the next in the list the list is truncated.
In my example the popularity of the first three are "friendly" (5), "quick" (3) and "good strategy" (3) and so all three are shown.
However if for example the popularity of the first three were "good strategy" (15), "trustworthy" (12) and "backstabber" (2) then only the first two would show on the 'join a game' page since the third one is disproportionately small (ie 12 is greater than 4 times 2).
This will improve the following aspects of the site:
- Players would have an immediate and meaningful insight on the 'join a game' page about the kind of players in games before joining.
- Players wanting more detail could view the 'tag cloud' in the profile.
I appreciate that this is not a 'brand new' idea since something of this ilk has been hinted at from time to time throughout the development/implementation of the current ratings system. However I think the time has now come to start reaping the rewards of the ratings tags we've all been leaving.
