There have been more than 350,000 Call of Duty bans by its anti-toxicity team as part of its ongoing effort to address offensive language and names that may upset some players.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the latest core game in the Call of Duty franchise, but its anti-toxicity team had a lot of work cut out for it — aside from the newest release, it also spent time investigating the player bases of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Call of Duty: Mobile. The combined effort from the developer's anti-toxicity, enforcement, and technology teams have resulted in more than 350,000 accounts being banned for "racist names or toxic behavior" — and that's just the beginning of its efforts.
The Call of Duty Bans Are Just the Beginning for Anti-Toxicity Efforts
350K Call of Duty bans is certainly a good metric for success, but it's far from the only thing the anti-toxicity team has done thus far. Although an unspecified number of those bans were due to player reporting, many of them came as a result of an "extensive review" of the franchise-wide player name database.
Bans are a reactionary measure, though, and the game's developers have also taken proactive measures according to today's announcement. New in-game filters have been implemented to prevent "potentially offensive" user names, clan tags, profile, or text chat. These filters have been implemented across 11 languages so far.
Going forward, CoD's developers plan to expand its ability to detect offensive behavior, review and expand its enforcement policies, and do a better job of communicating with its community. Of course, it also aims to equip players with the tools they need to reduce any potential problems on a personal level.
"Our goal is to give players the tools needed to manage their own gameplay experience, combined with an enforcement approach that addresses hate speech, racism, sexism[,] and harassment."
This is certainly welcome news for gamers who would want to avoid seeing offensive language or bad behavior in their games. You can experience the first-person fun of these games by buying Call of Duty (and its various spinoffs) via its official website.
What do you think of the 350,000 Call of Duty bans for toxic behavior and racist names? Do you think the developers are doing a good job of combating toxicity? Let us know in the comments below!
