Infinity Ward, the developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and CoD: Warzone have now announced that they will do more against racism after loud criticism of racist player names. There is no place for that in their game.
Why all the fuss? After the African American George Floyd died during a brutal police operation in the USA at the end of May, there were nationwide unrest in many major cities. Many people have since taken to the streets to protest against racism and excessive police violence.
Infinity Ward and Activision, like many other industry giants, also took a clear stance and postponed Season 4 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone as well as the new season of CoD: Mobile for this reason.
What is the criticism about? However, there was not only understanding from the players but also criticism. Not everyone could understand this decision and its contribution to solving the problem.
Some even accused the developers of hypocrisy. They would want to send a message with the season delay, yet their game has been full of racist names since launch – and the developers hardly do anything about it.
“No place for racist content in our game”
This is what the developers say about the criticism: This criticism has not gone unheard, and there was a quick response from the developers. They have now expressed themselves on Twitter.
There they stated that they have been addressing this issue since the launch of CoD: Modern Warfare. Thousands of players with racist and hate-oriented names are banned daily. At the same time, the developers also acknowledged that they need to do a better job and apologized to the players for the problem.
“There is no place for racist content in our game,” the statement said.
This is how Infinity Ward wants to combat racism in the game: Furthermore, Infinity Ward also presented concrete measures on how to address racism in the game. These include:
- Additional resources will be provided to better monitor and recognize racist content.
- An additional reporting system will be introduced in the game to increase the number of bans per hour.
- Further in-game improvements to facilitate reporting of violations will be considered.
- Additional filters and restrictions on player names will be introduced.
- The number of permanent bans will be increased to better filter out repeat offenders.
This is how players are reacting: The measures and the statement are well received by many; the tweet has already received nearly 32,000 likes (8:30 AM, 06/04). Many are pleased that the community’s outcry was able to move the developers to action. However, there is also criticism.
Some players point out that the developers only began to act after the situation had turned into a national tragedy. However, the problem is anything but new, and the game is already half a year old.
Others, however, are not interested in all of this. They still cannot understand the postponement and the entire fuss and simply demand the release of Season 4.
What do you think about the whole situation? Do you think it’s good and important that there is now a stronger approach against racism in the game? Or do you just want Season 4 to be released? By the way, all that we know so far about Season 4 can be found here: CoD MW & Warzone: Season 4 Start – All Facts, Leaks, Rumors
