Everyone should be able to enjoy games without fear of discrimination, harassment or bullying. However, new reports from Deloitte show that progress on this front remains fleeting, for example for women.
The survey found that women avoid multiplayer and live service games in part because of bullying and harassment: 69% of women surveyed prefer simple mobile games to multiplayer games, 48% believe there is too much bullying or harassment, and 44% say they are more. they are more likely to play a multiplayer game if they know there is a measure that limits bad behavior.
And while roughly as many women play video games as men in the US, some women even say they hide their gender to avoid online harassment.
Gaming companies can and should be better. I believe we have what it takes to make virtual spaces not only fun and engaging, but also safe for everyone. Here are six steps all studios should follow to combat bullying and harassment in their games.
1) Set clear community rules and stick to them
First: develop a comprehensive code of conduct that explicitly prohibits harassment, discrimination and hate speech.
Make your stance on player safety clear, strong and unambiguous to build trust and respect. Clearly define what is acceptable behavior and what is not, and if possible use examples from the context of your games to make it specific and relevant.
List and explain what will happen if guidelines are not followed, such as warnings, suspensions or permanent bans.
Use concise and clear language when writing instructions to ensure they are understood by all players, regardless of age and language skills. If you have a large player community in a particular language area, consider localizing the instructions.
Make sure instructions are always readily available. Consider “locking down” some social features so that players must first read and commit to following them – or even take a quiz – before playing.
Take Supercell's Safe and Fair Play policy as an example – its games have clear rules that are shared and easily accessible through their website. By encouraging respectful communication and enforcing strict consequences for inappropriate behavior, the company protects players from fraud and bullying.
Once you have rules in place that your players can easily understand, ensure fairness and build trust by applying them consistently to all players.
2) Design the game to encourage positive player interaction
When designed thoughtfully, games become powerful tools for teaching us right from wrong. This idea should be at the core of game design and live ops campaigns.
You can build and foster a supportive atmosphere by running events that facilitate teamwork and encourage fair play, by rewarding players who show good spirit, or by launching campaigns that emphasize positivity and inclusion.
For example, you can design your campaigns to reward the best individual players or teams, or even an entire community of active players, when they achieve common goals and objectives. You can have features that encourage resource sharing or reciprocity when gifting an item to another player. Likewise, you can add a shared coffer boost to the game for everyone, like Minecraft, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Hay Day did.
In many games, players can revive or heal their fallen teammates, encouraging players to look out for each other. Some games have reward systems where players can praise each other and get rewarded for being helpful, friendly or great leaders.
Some games have mentoring programs where experienced players are rewarded for helping newbies learn the game. These types of social game mechanics are most developed in social multiplayer games like World of Warcraft or Overwatch and contribute to a better collaborative, positive and inclusive game environment.
3) Make it easy to report to players and moderate to moderators
Introduce user-friendly tools that allow players to easily report harassment or harmful behavior. Ensure that reports are investigated and dealt with promptly and ensure that their reports are treated confidentially. Design the reporting system to be accessible from chats, player profiles and other relevant areas to automatically collect enough data to help players and enable informed decisions by moderators.
While keeping the reporting process simple, include categories that allow moderation to be prioritized based on the reported issue. Also, give players self-moderation tools they can use to mute or block players they don't want to interact with. These features are very common in games where you have large player communities like Fortnite.
“If you have a highly social game with user-generated content, invest in robust moderation tools.”
Consider providing these tools to team or clan leaders to support moderators in ensuring a friendly and positive team interaction and environment. Such practices are already prevalent in highly social team games such as Clash of Clans.
If you have a highly social game with user-generated content, invest in robust moderation tools so that moderators are well equipped for the job. This should include effective dashboards, intelligent prioritization, detailed reports with context, comprehensive investigative tools with cross-reference capabilities, and action frameworks with smart, evidence-based challenges.
4) Monitor proactively
Regularly monitor game chats, forums, and social media channels to detect and address harassment or toxic behavior. Understand which specific topics or events may have historically attracted malicious or malicious users and activity.
Prepare for this by training and equipping moderators to be responsive, reminding the community of guidelines, and making sure sufficient resources are available to handle the temporarily increased moderation load. These can be political topics (such as elections) or events (such as Pride).
Make sure you give your moderators personal support to deal with difficult situations. For example, at Rovio, we developed specific guidelines and information packs for our community-focused employees about our Pride campaign to help them manage interactions with the community during the campaign.
5) Maintain transparency
Be open about your commitment and efforts to maintain a safe gaming environment. Regularly inform the community of actions taken against violations and openly enforce consequences. Address issues openly and describe what changes have been implemented to make the community safer.
To build trust, make sure your moderation process has feedback that informs the player who reported the problem. Conduct internal audits to ensure monitoring systems and moderation procedures are effective and unbiased. This is important when using automated processes supported by artificial intelligence, while preventing the intrusion of human biases.
To build trust and demonstrate your commitment to a safe environment, consider posting regular reports on the state of the community, including actions taken against offenders, while maintaining anonymity.
6) Cooperate with the player community
Engage in constant dialogue with your players, listen to their feedback, and involve them in shaping community rules and security strategies. This will make them feel valued and heard and more likely to continue to support and listen even in difficult situations.
Their feedback can provide insight into specific issues, whether it's community or game management, making it easier for you to solve real problems.
“Regularly inform the community of actions taken against violations and openly enforce consequences”
Players are often the first to notice problems in a game or community, and if you have an open and trusting dialogue with them, they will proactively inform you of any issues. Working with the community also means that the most active members will help amplify your voice, especially when making changes to the game.
The best reward for a gaming community is seeing their opinions matter, or even seeing their ideas come to life. Rovio illustrates this concept with an annual Angry Birds 2 hat design event for players. Allowing the community to leave their mark on the game is a great step towards a more inclusive gaming environment.
While these six steps provide a solid foundation for safer gaming environments and communities, they are by no means an exhaustive list. Improving gaming safety requires constant effort, ambition and commitment from all gaming companies. When developing your next game, challenge the team: how can this game foster empathy, respect, and inclusivity among players? Let's continue to strive for safer, more welcoming and inclusive gaming experiences for all.