Racist insults, sexism, harassment or other discrimination in the Twitch chat should soon be a thing of the past!
We reported last week on how the Twitch chat escalated during the Dreamhack Austin event and even the moderators had had enough. It was also clear in the comments on this article that many of you are fed up with the Twitch chat and often even hide it directly. Blizzard has also had enough of such chatting and is now planning a pilot project to combat insults.
Play Nice – Play Fair
Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard, spoke in an interview with Polygon about the events of Dreamhack Austin: “We are extremely disappointed by the nasty, insulting phrases and words that some of the online viewers wrote in the Twitch chat. One principle of our company is “Play Nice; Play Fair” and that allows no room for racism, sexism, harassment or other discriminatory behavior in or outside of the gaming community.
In Austin, the situation in the chat escalated after Terrence Miller was able to win the Hearthstone tournament. Due to his skin color, there were insults in the chat.
Image source: Kotaku
To better manage this behavior at live events, Blizzard has now reached out to players, streamers, and moderators as well as partners like Twitch, Dreamhack, and others to work together towards a more positive future. Ultimately, they have started a pilot program that Twitch is now working on, which will help improve channel moderation and combat ban evasion.
Additionally, Blizzard’s eSports tournament partner guidelines will be updated, which will include stricter penalties. This is intended to provide a better chat experience around Blizzard’s content, says Mike Morhaime.
Other figures in the gaming industry and players must join in
It is still unclear what the pilot project will look like, but it will likely be an important step against negative behavior in online games and chats. “We believe that this will address the issues raised, but unfortunately only parts of these problems. For it to have a real effect, everyone must join in, as this is a problem for the entire industry,” Morhaime adds.
When cases like this go through the media, one can only hope that it prompts some people to think. One should simply be more positive and refrain from negative or insulting comments.
