Long awaited and finally on the test servers of Heroes of the Storm: the Voice Chat. But while some celebrate it, others look pessimistically into the future. Will the Voice Chat fuel toxic behavior, especially against minorities?
Announced at last year’s BlizzCon, it is finally visible on the test servers: The Voice Chat, which aims to greatly simplify communication within teams. However, some see it as a danger and fodder for harassing players.
Minorities Become Target
The spokesperson for concerns regarding the Voice Chat is especially the HotS streamer FerociouslySteph. She openly identifies as transgender but has often been defamed in the past for it. As a member of a minority, she highlights on Twitter, in her streams, and in articles what a Voice Chat can cause.
While it is indeed great to be able to talk to familiar teammates, she tells Polygon. However, in randomly assembled teams, members of minorities reveal themselves and quickly become targets. Studies show that women, for example, receive up to three times more ridicule and scorn in Voice Chat than their male counterparts.
FerociouslySteph also sees the advantages of a Voice Chat in random groups. However, for the targets – it’s not so funny.
“Every time you are forced to mute the toxic player, you disrupt the flow of information that the affected players may still give to others. And even if the harassing player is only focused on insulting, this won’t help the team. Both are unfavorable. There are numerically few minorities, so they are hardly present for the average player. But all my games will have at least one minority player and thus suffer disadvantages from harassment.”
When she speaks, she is disadvantaged because of her voice. When she doesn’t speak, she can contribute much less to the success of the match. Muting doesn’t harm the toxic player but the victim.
Limiting the Chat Would Help
FerociouslySteph doubts the effectiveness of the reporting system, which still seems too immature to her. She also doubts that other players would stand up against toxic players.
Proposed Solutions
- Limiting the chat to friendly players, even if that is not ideal.
- Stricter punishments for troublemakers.
- More principled teammates.
- Blizzard should publicly discuss and condemn toxic behavior to make a statement.
How peacefully the Voice Chat will run and whether it will be as toxic as feared remains to be seen. For FerociouslySteph and others, it seems to come at the expense of diversity. Because where one is insulted, one shows neither oneself nor pride.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to the Voice Chat? Or do you have critical views on it?
