Gaming giant reduce or eliminate toxicity in gaming culture, in an effort make gaming culture more positive and inclusive.
For as long as there has been online gaming, there has unfortunately also been harassment, particularly because lack of face-to-face interaction tends to bolster the so-called bravery of those who perpetrate it. But mitigating online harassment is a much trickier business than one would assume, especially when considering free speech, and more importantly, context. What is considered offensive is entirely contextual, so it isn't enough to ban a player for using foul language if the system is unaware that the other players in their group are friends who do not take issue with it. Amazon, for its part, has made steps in patenting technology that wouldn't ban players who are considered offensive, but rather group them together so that other players don't have to deal with them. Electronic Arts, on the other hand, is focusing more on the context than the content, by changing the way the content is delivered.
EA recently filed a patent with the United States Patent and Technology Office (what Valve came up with.
The idea sounds brilliant at face value, but like every other new innovation, there are some issues. Context is something that technology has to learn to understand, as everyone undoubtedly noticed when speech-to-text and autocorrect first came onto the scene, so in the system's initial phases, there will likely be some issues. The second is that the system seems like it would further dehumanize players by taking away their voices, which wouldn't make players much different than AI. So it is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater - sure, some players wouldn't be able to harass each other, but it wouldn't really feel like playing with real people anymore either. That's especially important now in the middle of a pandemic, when human interaction is more necessary than ever.
On the other hand, and perhaps more importantly, the system would do more than eliminate what is now an epidemic of toxicity in the in-game chat. It would also make online gaming more inclusive and accessible to those who are nonverbal or have difficulty communicating via speech, and that's much more significant than any quibble about the system other players would have. Additionally, no one necessarily has to adopt EA's new system and could remain perfectly content with headsets and private groups. After all, other companies are still looking into other ways to combat online toxicity, so while EA's patent isn't necessarily the perfect solution, it is a step in the right direction.
Source: USPTO
