Reputation / Trust System

Ludic Organisational Structure · VI – Social Order relation · Tipping potential: medium

Reputation/Trust orders through institutionalized memory: the system observes and evaluates behaviour and turns the evaluation into a resource that opens or closes options – regulation through consequences rather than prohibitions.

Design question – How does past behaviour influence an agent’s future possibilities in your game?

Reference example – Red Dead Redemption 2: honour rises with good deeds and falls with bad ones – and changes prices, conversations and options. Dune: Imperium: influence with the factions opens alliances and rewards. Football: yellow cards are counted across the season; after a set number comes a suspension.

Ordering domain

Orders behaviour through institutionalized memory (reputation as a resource).

Emergent behaviour

A reputation economy, the leap of trust, strategic reputation manipulation and the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Core Mechanisms

• Scoring (MEC-09) – Reputation points / trust value.
• Monitoring (MEC-19) – Behaviour is observed and evaluated.
• Feedback (MEC-30) – past behaviour influences future options.

Dynamic Mechanisms

• Progression (MEC-15) – Access to new possibilities at high reputation.
• Decay (MEC-04) – Reputation declines without active upkeep.
• Communication (MEC-16) – Reputation is visible / is communicated.
• Enforcement (MEC-23) – low reputation → sanctions.

Feedback architecture

• positive – Reputation spiral: behaviour → reputation → trust → better options → incentive for good behaviour. (Feedback)
• negative – Breach of trust: breach of trust → loss of reputation → exclusion → forced change of behaviour. (Enforcement)

Design parameters

• Source – by Ludic Regulation (automatically measured) ↔ social (assigned by agents)
• Visibility – public ↔ hidden (known only to the game)
• Decay rate – none (permanent) ↔ fast (constant upkeep)
• Thresholds – linear ↔ stepped (rights jump)
• Manipulability – tamper-proof ↔ manipulable (fake reputation)

Risk profile

• Runaway leader – high
• Kingmaking – medium
• Stagnation – medium
• Complexity ceiling – medium

Compatible with

• Alliance System (ST-12) – Compatible: reputation affects the ability to form alliances.
• Market (ST-01) – Compatible: reputation as creditworthiness.
• Democracy / Voting System (ST-06) – Compatible: reputation as electoral capital.

Tension with

• Combat System (ST-11) – Tension: violence undermines reputation.
• Exploration System (ST-10) – Tension: travelling alone – no one is watching.