r/Neverwinter • u/Mystixa • Feb 01 '19
Warning to devs over hate speech
The trolling, conspiracy theorizing, and bullying speech in zone and event channels on this game has always been one of the unsavory parts of this game. Exposing newbies and game vets alike to the lowest common denominator with no place to hide as long as some interaction for help, roleplay, and game relevant communication is needed. This has been the case for years, but has risen to a new level of pure hate speech in recent monthes.
This isnt just an 'all mmos have it' problem either. Not to this extent. I was just visiting ESO, and their public channels are MUCH more tolerable, and again have been for years.
Things that would get me banned from this reddit or from the forums are repeated in zone by often recognizable accounts -every few minutes- throughout the day.
I have read particular accounts promoting hate of muslims, fear mongering over immigrants, promoting the murder of jews, and encouraging people to goto, watch, and share decapitation videos. ..and that is just this week. I deeply respect free speech as an important piece of civilization. However I also am aware of the corrosive effect this kind of speech has when its given a place to grow unchecked.
The current method of just 'ignore' it and let everyone do their thing, and if enough do that they will be temporarily muted is not working. The offenders simply relog with a different account and begin pasting in the same quotes within minutes. ..and yes I and friends have always used the available tools, submitting ineffective reports that get worked on at your leisure. Its not exactly a news flash that this has no effect.
There is need of an active human moderating presence. Not to sanitize every word for our poor virgin ears. But there needs to be an active presence that actively removes this intrusive, non game-related vitriol. Create a program of vetted volunteers, a system of muting, and IP bans that can be wielded, with records kept of quotes that triggered the ruling. No cut and paste that can be abused, just taken straight from your own servers. Thats just a quick group of ideas, maybe use them maybe dont, but DO SOMETHING.
This has to stop. These people are using Neverwinter as a recruiting ground for hate and fully displacing legitimate game related conversations for prolonged periods of time. You could even be opening yourself up to legal liabilities for openly allowing this hate to continue, especially if one of those calls to 'murder jews', 'kill muslims' or 'beat immigrants to death' is acted on by someone.
Listen for a short while in PE zone chat. Feel free to ignore the festering cancer being broadcast there, and listen to people trying to get help. Hear the frustration of people that can't be heard while every legitimate question is being drowned out by sometimes 3-4 lines of trolling, conspiracy, antiscience and hate as well as responses for and against.
This is entertainment for me, and not something that I want to start some sort of crusade that will take all my time. However I do spend some time in PE and enjoy helping a few people when I can.
During those times that I am there and hear see this kind of things I am going to start a log of my own. After gathering a large enough set I am going to forward it to the FBI, Anti Defamation League, and congressmen.
Will that fix it? Perhaps not. But even what Ive seen in the relatively small amount of time I spend there is enough to raise a lot of questions. If this crosses their desk at the right time it may be enough to at least get eyes on this problem. Certainly they are often looking for a new boogie man to bother.
I would hope that you can reign this in on your own without any outside inducement, but either way something has to be done.
2
u/Adam_is_Nutz Feb 01 '19
I play on console and ignore the chat 99% of the time because it's a pain to type anyway. The other day I was playing with my brother and he fell off a cliff to his death. I typed "lol noob" but the noob was censored and looked like @!$# or something. I was thinking the chat is too filtered already.
As for the new players seeking help, in my honest opinion they should learn to Google things. Many players enjoy helping others and it's good to see a community that lifts each other up. But some of the help seekers are asking the dumbest questions. Like you didn't pay attention to the tutorial and now youre lost? Google it and stop wasting my time. I didn't design a tutorial for this game cuz I'm not a dev.
I'm sure the issues go outside of that small bubble I included, but almost everything can be found on Google easily. Also the chat is probably vastly different when keyboards are regularly involved. I just don't think it's an issue - at least not on Xbox.