There's been several comments in several posts in threads all over the place talking about rewarding altruism with niceness points for a high score table or somesuch. Please don't for several reasons.

I) Altruism comes in many forms. Not just gifting (although that's a good one). It can be as simple as bothering to answer Newbies questions in Newhome, or as much as really pushing a newbie to their first drive kill (I think someone mentioned doing that somewhere) In between there's tailoring salvaging to make sure that there's enough weapons of varying levels. There's probably many more ways that haven't occured to me. It's going to be hard to come up with all of these in advance.
II) Pure, unrewarded altruism is better. When Snickerer first gave me a chainsaw, the biggest thing that that gave me was the warm welcoming feeling rather than the game bonus (although that helped also). If I thought people were doing this to gain there own ends, it wouldn't have had so much impact (although I'd have probably still been impressed with the game for encouraging that)
III) Up till now, there's been plenty of gifting going on already, without any reward mechanism in place. It doesn't need rewarding at all. Facilitating yes, but that's a different thing.

Let this happen by itself, and it will be a lot nicer, I think.

I don't think anyone's talking about a reward. We're just talking about tracking it.
I mean, wouldn't you want to know?
I would. Without maintaining my own spreadsheet.
Now, whether that appears in the HoF, or as a datapoint that's only viewable by YOU (IE, system tracks your gifting but output appears in your own personal profile, or when you show up to Heidi's or somesuch) is open for debate.
Actually, I kind of like the idea of having that data be private to the character.
Good Morning, CrashTestPilot. As of today in Season 2, you have gifted X req and Y ciggies to your clan, and X req worth of items to other players. You're such a soft touch!

Would that get around tainting altruism in your opinion?

Very interesting idea.

All best,

~Crash

Actually, no I wouldn't be particularly interested. But you are, and so it's a fair guess that other players would as well. Fair enough, it's a case of different ways of enjoying the game. Hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds as someone else has said. Good metaphor that by the way, although I suspect that most of us are varying mixtures of those types, and there's probably a few others as well.
But I digress. If there's a call for this being recorded, then I can see a case for putting that feature in. But yes, I'd be a lot happier if it was kept private rather than a hall of fame entry, where it will easily end up being about being highest on the table and competetive rather than as a community spirit sort of thing.
Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick somewhere, but there are posts in all sorts of different places about this, but I think some people were talking about rewarding gifting. I'm starting to get quite confused about what posts are in what forum to be honest, and about where I should be posting. Hope I haven't messed up your attempts at organising too much CMJ.

Respect

Hairy

Actually, I don't really have a position on the matter of an "altruism tracker." If an idea is doable and folks are interested in it, then it ought at least be subject to discussion, debate, refinement, and possibly execution.
I agree that folks could game the system, particularly for an HoF listing. I think having it be viewable only by the player, or perhaps the clan refines the idea nicely, and YOU inspired it!
All of this is part of Season Two planning and discussion, which fundamentally boils down to the intersection set of what players say they want, whether it adds an appealing dimension to the game, and if it's technically achievable without forcing CMJ/Dan to labor long.


I categorize all of this as brainstorming and discussion. Ultimately, it's Dan's world -- we're just playing in it.

All best, and keep the ideas coming!

Yours,

~Crash

Personally, I would be a lot happier not seeing those numbers. A question of self-image... am I an open-handed giver who freely gives whatever I can, tangible or intangible, whenever I have it to give -- or am I the kind of giver who goes by a carefully calculated charitable contributions budget, with my eyes firmly on the metaphorical tax deduction at the end of the year?

There's room for both sorts of giving in the game. But if there's feedback supplied to satisfy the information needs of Type 2 givers, it will rather cast a blight over the Type 1s, who will be made to feel that they ought to be paying attention to the numbers.

If this feature is introduced, I'd vote for making it a player preference. An opt-in player preference, like time stamps -- that is, off by default.

Shifting this over into the Season 2 planning forum, and sticking in my tuppence'orth - yes, I agree. Altruism should be its own reward, and altruism points were a daft idea. What silly sod came up with... oh.