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From what I heard Blizzard is already overdoing it, going as far as punishing a professional player for posting a meme on Twitter or muting people for "toxicity

From what I heard Blizzard is already overdoing it, going as far as punishing a professional player for posting a meme on Twitter or muting people for "toxicity" and then punishing them again for lack of communication. For me, this isn't a problem to be solved on such a high level. After all, a mute function exists already and can be applied to anyone and the best thing is that it's a power within the hands of a player.

throwaway2048 9y ago
The problem is plenty of people wont mute, and toxicity is majorly contagious, so you get reverberations from the inital toxic incident going on pretty much ad infinitum.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  It's a game that kinda requires communication and coordination with your teammates. Muting isn't an option. That, and blaming someone for not muting is blaming the victim, rather than blaming the other person for being toxic in the first place.
crysin 9y ago
Part of the thing with Blizzard is they have the Overwatch League which they're trying really hard to legitimize as a true spectator sport. I don't know the specific person you're referencing in your post but there are players like xQc who have been banned as they're official league members who have agreements about their public behavior and repercussions if they break those. Blizzard does go pretty hard on the ban hammer in Overwatch overall, but most of the news worthy bans have been about Overwatch League players, who have a bit more of intimate relation with Blizzard than regular professional gamers.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  People say they go heavy now, but when Overwatch came out, they didn't really do anything, and it was a pretty toxic cesspool. From what I've heard, most people are happy that they've started to clean it up.
openasocket 9y ago
There's plenty that the creators can do to empower change at a lower level. Like making people muted by default, or maybe if someone has been reported they are muted by default. An issue with muting is that, depending on the implementation, the person behaving badly may not be aware they are being muted, and certainly won't know why. Providing some sort of feedback mechanism so that people being immature online get some sort of encouragement to change their behavior. Maybe a reputation system, that is viewable by others, so they can choose to not interact with toxic players. It's not about having tons of moderators policing everything, it's about the fundamental mechanics of the system you are creating, the incentives. This can involve the peripherals of the game like player chat, community events and outreach, and even the core mechanics. A competitive multiplayer game where the mechanics are set up so that each team is only as strong as their weakest player, for example, is naturally going to increase tension and be unfriendly to new players. This was (possibly) alluded to in one sentence in the article: "the team emerged with a new focus not just on disruptive players, but on the ways competitive games can make assholes of us all." All this goes to say that preventing a game community from becoming toxic is not a simple or trivial thing, and it's important if you want your game to succeed. It sounds like a coalition sharing ideas and experiences dealing with toxic behavior is exactly what we need.

throwaway2048 9y ago

The problem is plenty of people wont mute, and toxicity is majorly contagious, so you get reverberations from the inital toxic incident going on pretty much ad infinitum.

s73v3r_ 9y ago
It's a game that kinda requires communication and coordination with your teammates. Muting isn't an option. That, and blaming someone for not muting is blaming the victim, rather than blaming the other person for being toxic in the first place.

crysin 9y ago

Part of the thing with Blizzard is they have the Overwatch League which they're trying really hard to legitimize as a true spectator sport. I don't know the specific person you're referencing in your post but there are players like xQc who have been banned as they're official league members who have agreements about their public behavior and repercussions if they break those. Blizzard does go pretty hard on the ban hammer in Overwatch overall, but most of the news worthy bans have been about Overwatch League players, who have a bit more of intimate relation with Blizzard than regular professional gamers.

s73v3r_ 9y ago
People say they go heavy now, but when Overwatch came out, they didn't really do anything, and it was a pretty toxic cesspool. From what I've heard, most people are happy that they've started to clean it up.

openasocket 9y ago

There's plenty that the creators can do to empower change at a lower level. Like making people muted by default, or maybe if someone has been reported they are muted by default. An issue with muting is that, depending on the implementation, the person behaving badly may not be aware they are being muted, and certainly won't know why. Providing some sort of feedback mechanism so that people being immature online get some sort of encouragement to change their behavior. Maybe a reputation system, that is viewable by others, so they can choose to not interact with toxic players. It's not about having tons of moderators policing everything, it's about the fundamental mechanics of the system you are creating, the incentives. This can involve the peripherals of the game like player chat, community events and outreach, and even the core mechanics. A competitive multiplayer game where the mechanics are set up so that each team is only as strong as their weakest player, for example, is naturally going to increase tension and be unfriendly to new players. This was (possibly) alluded to in one sentence in the article: "the team emerged with a new focus not just on disruptive players, but on the ways competitive games can make assholes of us all." All this goes to say that preventing a game community from becoming toxic is not a simple or trivial thing, and it's important if you want your game to succeed. It sounds like a coalition sharing ideas and experiences dealing with toxic behavior is exactly what we need.