Toxicity is a huge problem in online gaming today. Stepping into an online match of Call of Duty or DOTA 2 is as likely to expose you to some of the worst language that you’ve ever head as it is to find cool new friends to play with. This has caused huge swaths of the gaming populace to either avoid online play altogether or take drastic steps to hide from the bad actors in the community.
A new group has formed that includes major players in the online gaming space like Blizzard, Riot, Xbox, and Twitch. This group, called the Fair Play Alliance, has formed to combine their resources and experiences to help establish standards of behavior and to help squash negative behavior.
They held the first Fair Play Alliance Summit this week at GDC (The Game Developer’s Conference). It was an all day summit held at the conference where GDC attendees could learn how developers can create a more welcoming and inclusive environment in their games.
Mission Statement
The Fair Play Alliance is a coalition of gaming professionals and companies committed to developing quality games. We provide an open forum for the games industry to collaborate on research and best practices that encourage fair play and healthy communities in online gaming. We envision a world where games are free of harassment, discrimination, and abuse, and where players can express themselves through play.
Membership
Over 30 gaming companies represented, including:
- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
- CCPGames
- Corillian
- Discord Inc.
- Epic Games, Inc.
- Flaregames
- Huuuge Games
- Intel Corporation
- Kabam
- Kefir
- Ker-Chunk Games
- Mixer
- Owlchemy Labs
- Playrix
- Radial Games
- Riot Games
- Roblox Corporation
- Rovio Entertainment Corp.
- Space Ape Games
- Spirit AI, Ltd.
- Supercell
- Two Hat
- Twitch
- Unity Technologies
- Xbox
What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
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About The Author
This is an amazing development. I play a lot of Rocket League, and even something as benign as cars pushing around a soccer ball elicits torrents of hate speech. The group I play with on Xbox frequently reports people who use abusive language, but it’s unclear if any action is taken against them. We’ve often talked about how it would be nice if Xbox offered updates on the status of complaints. Quite a few people I play with have turned off the chat function unless they’re playing with close friends. It’s nice to see that there’s movement on this issue by those who have the power to shape the online gaming experience.
I agree with you 100% Samuel. Its such a mess online sometimes. Here’s hoping they make a difference.