Friday The 13th: The Game Working On "Report" System

Team-killers, Jason-helpers, a Tommy that doesn't help anyone, and Chads. These are a few of the types of players that you might encounter when playing Friday the 13th: The Game, and while they're certainly frustrating to deal with, there's not a great deal that you can do about them right now. That might change soon, however, as the Friday the 13th: The Game team has said that they are working on implementing a "report" system into the game to cut down on the poor sportsmanship.

To understand why an asymmetrical multiplayer game like this needs a reporting system, you have to consider some of the elements in the game that make abusing the gameplay possible. Voice communications continue to be one of the most useful resources for Counselors looking to survive, and without a walkie talkie, you'll have to be near another Counselor in order to strategize over voice comms. That works both ways, however, meaning that if you're nearby Jason, he'll also be able to hear you.

This becomes an issue when people queue up for a game in pairs or larger groups and one of the players is chosen to be Jason. Each Counselor can see their teammates on the map, should they find a map, and can quickly group up with Jason to direct him towards their teammates. This nets the Jason player some easy XP, and the Counselor can also repair generators and attack Jason to earn their own XP. Not a fun match to watch for 20 minutes if you aren't part of the group.

We are indeed working on a report system.

— Friday the 13th Game (@Friday13thGame) June 9, 2017

And sometimes, you just have a teammate who thinks it's more fun to take advantage of the friendly fire and whack you with a baseball bat and take those car keys for themselves. They could be doing it for survival or for any number of reasons, but ruining another player's experience by going directly against the game's formula should definitely be reportable.

But when it comes to a report-and-kick feature, there's another issue that arises with games such as these, and that's how easily the system can be abused.

You can see report systems being abused throughout other team-based games constantly. In League of Legends, you can't play through one match without seeing "report so-and-so" in the chat, usually because of some minor disagreement. Kick-based systems can be even worse, as seen in the similarly asymmetrical Left 4 Dead games. The kick system in these zombie games requires a majority vote, something that a group won't hesitate to push for if a player even barely shows signs of slowing down or indecisiveness.

So how should Friday the 13th: The Game proceed with the report system? Hopefully, very carefully. The game can be a thrilling experience when played correctly, but launch problems and some annoyances over unavailable bonus content are enough to frustrate and dissuade many players. A need to fix the griefing problem competes with resolving matchmaking and server issues; players can't play if the servers don't work correctly, and players won't play if others ruin their experience.

Gun Media is a small team, as they and supporters have said several times, but with them looking to fix current issues and also add more content, they certainly have quite the full plate.