Nintendo Switch’s free-to-play ninja brawling sensation Ninjala might look like harmless fun, but online players are doing their usual online player thing and ruining the experience for others. Now, the devs have asked the playerbase to fight back.
For the uninitiated, Ninjala is a multiplayer action title in which the player takes control of a custom avatar, arming them with comical ninja weapons and taking to the battlefield in team or free-for-all combat modes. In terms of its look and feel, it’s very Splatoon-esque.
There are some issues preventing Ninjala from achieving that Splatoon level of success, such as the heavy-handedness of the in-game currency system, but the title could have a bright future if it irons them out. One crucial part of this is encouraging and developing a positive community, which is where the team’s latest post about online etiquette comes in.
In both ranked and unranked matches, the Ninjala devs state in a news post on the game’s official site, certain patterns of “unsportsmanlike behaviour” have been creeping in. Specifically, they list “players going unresponsive in mid-battle,” “players robotically repeating a single action” and “players running around the stage but not participating in battle.”
Needless to say, none of these sorts of things are anything new in online gaming. Any title with an online mode will see its share of trolls, griefers, ragequitters and the like. It’s inevitable, really, but this doesn’t mean that developers can’t take steps to try and limit the effects of this behavior. What’s Ninjala doing about the idlers in its matches, then?
As the news report explains, this sort of thing has a big negative effect on the game’s matchmaking, balancing and entire experience. Ninjala’s Terms Of Service are being defied, in short, so harsh actions including temporary bans and deactivating offending players’ accounts are being considered. As the devs put it:
“The Ninjala Team endeavors to provide a safe and fair gaming environment for all players, and we ask for your cooperation in enjoying the game responsibly and in accordance with the Terms of Service. Furthermore, should you encounter any suspected violations, we ask for your cooperation in reporting them to our team.”
Rather standard protocol, all told, but it’s encouraging to see that GungHo are closely monitoring the game, determining issues and quickly stepping in with ways to address them. Here’s hoping that that stick to this concept and that Ninjala continues to thrive and improve.
NEXT: Ninjala Has Been Downloaded Over 4 Million Times Worldwide
