Creating Safer Gaming Environments: Six Essential Steps

Every gamer deserves to enjoy their experience without fear of harassment, bullying, or discrimination. However, recent reports from Deloitte indicate that progress in this area has been slow, particularly for women. A survey reveals that women often avoid multiplayer games due to bullying and harassment, with 69% preferring simple mobile games, 48% citing excessive bullying, and 44% seeking moderation to ensure a safe environment. Despite the equal number of women and men playing games in the US, some women hide their gender to avoid online harassment. Gaming companies must do better. By following six key steps, we can create safer, more inclusive gaming environments. 1) Establish Clear Community Guidelines Develop a comprehensive code of conduct that prohibits harassment, discrimination, and hate speech. Make your stance on player safety clear and strong, using examples from your games to illustrate acceptable behavior. Ensure guidelines are easily accessible, concise, and translated for diverse player communities. Consider requiring players to read and agree to guidelines before playing, using tools like quizzes or gated social features. Supercell's Safe and Fair Play Policy is a great example, with clear guidelines and strict consequences for misconduct, protecting players from scams and bullying. 2) Design Games for Positive Interaction Thoughtfully crafted games can teach players right from wrong, promoting a supportive atmosphere through events, campaigns, and gameplay mechanics that encourage teamwork, fair play, and positivity. Examples include rewarding good sportsmanship, designing campaigns around shared objectives, and incorporating elements that encourage resource sharing and reciprocity. Games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Hay Day have successfully implemented these features. 3) Simplify Reporting and Moderation Introduce user-friendly reporting tools, ensuring prompt investigation and confidential handling of reports. Design reporting systems to gather relevant data, enabling informed moderation decisions. Provide players with self-moderation tools to mute or block unwanted interactions, and consider equipping team leaders with these tools to support moderators. Invest in robust moderation tools for games with user-generated content, including efficient management dashboards and intelligent prioritization. 4) Proactive Monitoring Regularly monitor game chats, forums, and social media to detect and address harassment or toxic behavior. Prepare for potential flashpoints, such as elections or Pride events, by educating moderators and reminding the community of guidelines. Ensure moderation staff receive personal support to cope with challenging situations, and consider publishing regular community reports to maintain transparency and demonstrate commitment to safety. 5) Maintain Transparency Be open about your commitment to safety, regularly updating the community on measures taken against violations and enforcing consequences. Ensure moderation processes have feedback loops to inform players of actions taken. Conduct internal audits to ensure monitoring systems and moderation practices are effective and unbiased, particularly when using AI-aided tools. Consider publishing regular reports on community safety, maintaining anonymity for offenders. 6) Collaborate with the Player Community Engage in ongoing dialogue with players, listening to feedback and involving them in shaping community rules and safety strategies. This fosters a sense of value and encourages players to support and listen to your efforts. Players often identify issues before developers, so collaborate with them to address concerns. The best reward for players is seeing their opinions matter, as illustrated by Rovio's annual hat design event in Angry Birds 2. While these six steps provide a solid foundation for safer gaming environments, they are not exhaustive. Improving safety requires ongoing effort, ambition, and dedication from game companies. As you develop your next game, ask yourself: how can this game promote empathy, respect, and inclusivity among players? Let's strive for safer, more welcoming gaming experiences for all.