Weird that he also uprated alot of users.

Maybe it's just to make sure he doesn't deplete his rating.

It seems rather arbitrary - he's downrated people seemingly arbitrarily, and upvoted people seemingly arbitrarily. So maybe it's legitimate, and the gent is just a lurker + rater.

IMO, more observation is needed to figure out the pattern in this specimen's behavior.

Creating an account down-vote in a retaliatory fashion is grounds for getting a ban, both due to vote abuse and having a duplicate account. Vote abuse alone is generally punishable as well, although not with an immediate ban.

There's no evidence of anything irregular going on here though.

Usually people just hit the "report" button along with a description. But since this one seems to be done publicly...

IMO, more observation is needed to figure out the pattern in this specimen's behavior.

I don't think so. I had a few of my own posts hit by the spree.

To me it looks like a new user searching for related content about game designing as a job. It is a new account. There are only a few discussion threads being voted on. All of those discussion threads follow a very clear theme.

As for the votes, checking the individual posts that were voted on I see a very clear pattern:

Downvotes went posts I would summarize as:

• Get a proper education to help further your career
• Get a proper education to help break in
• Game design is not entry level
• Game design is not entry level
• Game design is not entry level
• Bad attitudes make a bad applicant/worker
• Get a proper education for your region, and game design is not entry level
• Lots of work is required to learn things, you need to work hard
• Question if a proper education is necessary
• Game design is not entry level, education is useful to careers

Upvotes went to:

• Game designers are paid well relative to many other careers in life
• Annual salary survey link
• A strong portfolio can overcome a non-traditional degree
• Formal education is less necessary in certain parts of the world
• You can learn a lot about design by making tabletop games
• You become a designer by designing games (it is not a catch-22, just do it)
• Game design requires knowledge gained by experience
• Level design is a path to becoming a game designer

Nothing irregular there. Frustrating and showing a bias toward specific views, but it doesn't look like they're attempting to intentionally break the voting system.

Unfortunately, without knowing what is going through their mind it is just speculation. As for the system, yes it can be abused for good or bad. A user can upvote or downvote if they feel your reply adds and subtracts from the topic, if they agree or disagree with your comments, or even if they like or dislike you as a person based off your views or comments. I don't see the point in stressing over the reputation as it is more a false sense of hope as I think my rep is high mostly due to logins and screenshot showdown points. I'm sure users that suspect abuse will report it and moderators will act accordingly.

Personally, the reputation doesn't mean anything to me as I view myself to be an eternal student so that anything I do know there is always room to learn. I do not view it as a number showing my knowledge or anything like that and I honestly don't pay much attention to when I go up or down. I focus on replying to things I feel comfortable answering and watch topics I find interesting or want to see what methods are recommended for the question and upvote according to whether I feel it added or at least tried to help the OP in the thread.

My point in my rambling is to not worry about the reputation points as it is just a number. I think it is more your answers to questions and advice that matter more than a reputation number. That is just my opinion though so you are completely welcome to ignore it.

Because reputation doesn't really do anything, and just because someone doesn't post doesn't mean that they can't accurately judge the value of a post.