Some Destiny 2 and Minecraft players are getting too obsessed with their game.
Kyle Orland - July 28 2022, at 4:00 PM UTC
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In video games, community management is all about listening to the concerns of the players and communicating with them in a manner that makes them feel that their concerns are being taken into consideration. But what happens when some of the concerned players cause concern themselves?
This is the issue two major gaming companies have been facing in recent days with community managers stating that harassment from customers makes it more difficult for them to perform their job.
The first example is from the Destiny 2 community on Reddit one of the members posted on Wednesday expressing concern about the decreasing number of threads that receive an official response from Bungie. Destiny 2 Community Manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner responded to explain that he has taken some time off due to "some serious harassment of me and my family," which has resulted in "an amount of less communication as the team plans future protections / strategies to help avoid such incidents."
Gafner's harassment is not "just rude responses on Twitter or insignificant comments" Gafner wrote. It also includes "real threats against our staff and our studio" made by fans. Some of the harassment was apparently done via private channels. "Just that you don't see it in a specific message or forum response doesn't mean it did not happen," Gafner wrote.
"I will be very explicit in saying that I'm grateful to the studio in the sense that it has helped me personally following some severe harassment of me and my family members," Gafner wrote. "I take time off because of this."
While Gafner acknowledged that "it's an inconvenience that we don't have as much interaction here in recent times," the reduced communication isn't intended as an "retaliatory action" against the respectful bulk of the community. He wrote "Sometimes we just need to take a little amount of time to get things sorted out." "It can take weeks or even months, as any other pipeline of development. We would like to ensure the best for our players as well as our employees.Minecraft Servers But, we shouldn't simply go about business as usual' until issues are taken care of. It sucks, but we want to be sure that folks are safe and taken by the right people."
Minecraft madness
Further Reading
In a FAQ that followed the announcement, Mojang clarified that it is not focusing on minor infractions like swearing and more on more serious instances of "hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual solicitation, or real threats to others." Mojang also clarified that it will not actively monitor chat on private servers (absent player complaints) and that decisions on bans are made by humans and that appeals will be allowed.
Despite that the new moderation policy has led to an outpouring of anger from fans. Many angry fans are organizing under the #SaveMinecraft hashtag, which includes plenty of dramatic comparisons to George Orwell's 1984. In one of the most straightforward examples of the hashtag one Twitter user wrote: "Just remove all chat reports." "Servers should take over moderation as they have always done."
Reporting me for saying racial slurs is literally 1.19.84#saveminecraft pic.twitter.com/43BCekvGnB
- Walnut Bread Guy (@WalnutBreadGuy) July 19, 2022
MojangMesh, a relatively new Community Manager, wrote on Reddit that, while the company "appreciates and appreciates" feedback, Mojang "not intends to alter" its chat moderation system. Listening to feedback "does not mean that feedback will never change the design principles Mojang Studios adheres to," MojangMeesh explained.
MojangMeesh then went on to criticize members of the Minecraft community for taking their feedback too far. Overzealous and harassing messages from some fans have ended up blocking communication between the company and its players, the developer wrote:
Reddit users have been following Mojang employees, making comments on the system and responding to their posts. This kind of behavior won't encourage employees to reach the community and will not bring about the changes you'd like. If you are passionate about a topic in Minecraft we would appreciate it if you let us know in the appropriate areas (such as these threads). We'd love to hear your opinions! However, harassment doesn't benefit anyone, not even the developers who are subject to it, nor the players who are passionate about an upcoming change. We want to maintain an open and constructive dialog with you, and this kind of behavior inhibits this.
While problematic players are nothing new in the world of gaming, it's rare to see community managers make these kinds of public and explicit complaints about harassment that make it harder for them to carry out their job. Let's hope that these community managers will be successful and that the companies involved will continue to offer the support they need.
