Though the video game world is full of wonderful things and gamers, it’s not always perfect. In recent years, there have been many, MANY, cases of people going too far, especially in regards to voice chat. Whole communities have become “toxic”, and that has led to just as many refusing to talk with other gamers so that they don’t have to deal with it. The upcoming Bioware game Anthem will have multiplayer and chat elements, so what is Bioware going to do about toxicity?
Well, in a post on Reddit, Bioware’s Chris Schmidt address it directly:
“The general toxicity question is a great one,” Schmidt said. “There has been quite a bit of talk about this recently in game development, led by the Fair Play Alliance. There are some great learnings about methods to combat toxicity that have been shared by several studios for the greater good. The tricky part is before you launch the game you don’t really know how much toxicity will surface in your player community.”
“The approach we have been taking is a proactive one: studying best practices and success stories around the game industry and applying some of those in Anthem,” he continued. “I can’t really speak to details at this point, but I’m working with a holistic plan with the ability to both be proactive and reactive to whatever flavor of community standards settle in around Anthem.”
It’s good to see that Bioware is taking this issue very seriously, as they’ve honestly not had to deal with this in-game in the past. And hopefully their plans work so that gamers can enjoy working with others on various missions. Anthem is shaping up to be something truly special, and it would be a waste for it to fall a few pegs because the community ruins it for others.
