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The Players are the Problem: Community Managers Complain of Harassment Excessive

Some Destiny 2 and Minecraft players seem to be overindulging in their fandom.

Kyle Orland - July 28, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

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In video games community management is all about listening to the concerns of the fans and communicating with them in a way that makes them feel that their concerns are being taken into consideration. But what happens when some of the concerned players start to cause concern for themselves?

This is the question that two major gaming companies have been asked in recent times. Community managers claim that the fact that players harass them makes it harder for them to do their jobs.

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 reply from Bungie. Dylan Gafner, Destiny 2 Community Manager, replied to explain that he had taken time off due to "some serious harassment of my family and me," which led to "a reduction in communication as the team develops future defenses or strategies to prevent such incidents."

The harassing Gafner is referring to goes beyond "just rude responses on Twitter or vague remarks," Gafner wrote. It includes "real threats to our people and our studio" from fans. Some of the harassment was apparently conducted through private channels. 30tt "Just because you can't see it directly in a given tweet or forum reply doesn't mean that it did not happen," Gafner wrote.

Gafner wrote, "I will be very clear in stating that I appreciate the studio for the amount it has helped me personally after some serious harassment of me and my family." "I'm taking a break partly due to this."

While Gafner acknowledged that "it's an inconvenience that we don't have more interaction with each other in recent times," the reduced communication isn't meant to be an "retaliatory action" against the majority of the community. Gafner wrote "Sometimes we just need to take a little bit of time to get things sorted out." "Can take weeks, or take months-just like any given development pipeline, because we want the best for our players as well as our employees. We cannot continue doing business as usual until we have the issues addressed. It's a pain, but we want to make sure people are protected and are taken care of.

Madness in Minecraft

Further Reading

Mojang clarified in a FAQ that it doesn't focus on minor offenses like swearing, but more on serious instances of hate speech, bullying harassment sexual solicitation, or making threats to other people. Mojang also clarifies that it will not be monitoring chat on private servers (absent a player complaint) and that humans will be involved in any ban decision and that any bans are subject to appeals.

Fans are voicing their disapproval of the new moderation system. Many angry fans are forming groups under the #SaveMinecraft hashtag. The hashtag is full of dramatic comparisons to George Orwell's 1984. In one of the most straightforward examples of the hashtag the hashtag, a Twitter user wrote: "Just remove all chat reports." "Servers should be in charge of moderation like they have always been."

Reporting me for saying racial slurs is literally 1.19.84#saveminecraft pic.twitter.com/43BCekvGnB

- Walnut Bread Guy (@WalnutBreadGuy) July 19, 2022

Writing on Reddit, the relatively new Community Manager MojangMessh said that while the company "appreciate[s] and value[s]" this type of feedback, Mojang is "not planning on changing" its new chat moderation system. MojangMessh stated that taking into consideration feedback does not mean that it will change the principles of design Mojang Studios adheres too.

MojangMeesh then was able to criticize members of the Minecraft community for taking their feedback too far. Overzealous and harassing messages from some fans have been hindering communication between the company and its players, the developer wrote:

There have been some people following Mojang employees on Reddit and have responded to irrelevant posts by them and making comments about this system. This isn't a way to encourage employees to reach the community and will not bring about the changes that you want. If you feel strongly about something in Minecraft Please let us know in the appropriate locations (such as these threads) since we'd like to hear what you have to say! But, harassment doesn't benefit anyone, not even the devs who receive it or the players who are excited about a forthcoming change. This kind of behavior is detrimental to our ability to engage in positive and honest conversations with you.

Although problematic players are not new to the world of gaming It is not common for community managers to make such public complaints about harassment that they have to work harder. Let's hope that these community managers prevail and that the companies involved will continue giving the assistance they require.