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SterlingARCH3R's avatar
7 years ago

The Choice to Censor - A Better Alternative

Note: TL;DR is the underlined below.

I understand that given the nature of FPS gaming, you're going to expect a lot of heated back and forth chat. Some of that chat may get toxic which ultimately detracts from actually playing the game itself. Players can choose to hide all chat, but that would effectively censor everything. As one means to deal with this toxicity, BFV now has a chat censor that proactively filters out derogatory terms, either directly or indirectly in reference to cussing, racism, hate speech, etc.


Of course, there has been plenty of push back from the gaming community given the current level of censoring sensitivity. Many gamers state that one should have the freedom of speech to say what they want and express themselves, especially for an M-rated game. Other gamers vent their stress in chat and don't even mean their repeated derogatory word choice, but need to actually see it said to express their frustration (and are strangely more relaxed as a result). Not to mention, any chat censorship won't carry over to verbal toxicity over the mic. Whatever the reasons, perhaps it's just a matter of actively tweaking the censorship logic, which may prove more effective over time. 

However, there's a far simpler way to demote toxicity: muting. Players can actively choose to mute certain players from appearing in chat. Now, I get that some players may get hot-headed for a particularly heated game. The following match may have the same players but with cooler heads. Therefore, the player's choice to mute another player would be made temporary and only to the match in which the muting took place. The muting can be made by say, pulling up the scoreboard (TAB) and clicking to the left of the player's name where the mic icon typically is (in BF1). This selection would filter the specific player from both chat and mic.


The freedom of players to temporarily mute toxic players, IMHO, is the best of both worlds - it neither disrupts the gameplay for all nor stirs controversy. This player choice is the perfect, self-governing mechanism against toxicity. And, it's not only I who is putting forth this request. Many, many gamers in-game ask if there's a mute function. Anyone who has grinded out hours and hours of Battlefield have heard this request. It's therefore a community request, with an emphasis on choice, to censor. So, give players the choice to censor, and we can all have our cake, and eat it, too.

Just my 2 cents.

5 Replies

  • The muting can be made by say, pulling up the scoreboard (TAB) and clicking to the left of the player's name where the mic icon typically is (in BF1). This selection would filter the specific player from both chat and mic.

  • SterlingARCH3R's avatar
    SterlingARCH3R
    Hero
    7 years ago

    After seeing the effects of the chat filter in BFV, I can see how it's a "first line of defense" that may dissuade some people from engaging in toxic chat, because typing negative words may be indecipherable and thus may be thought to some as "pointless" to type it out in the first place.

    However, I've noticed that players are VERY creative and will find ways around the censor. If there is a will, and those who are heated will have the will, then there is a way. Sure, the chat filter can be updated to include misspelled words, but then you'd have to not only constantly maintain that list, but you'd also have to reconsider some words because they're completely harmless out of context.

    I also know that EA has staff dedicated to managing toxicity in-game. A temporary mute function would not only save EA hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year, it'll be way more effective than a chat filter. Trust me, it's far better to not battle it out with players.

    Is it to protect children? Although I don't personally mind them playing this M-rated game, the chat filter can simply be a default setting in the Gameplay Options menu. Either way, the temporary mute function should still be added.

  • TTZ_Dipsy's avatar
    TTZ_Dipsy
    Hero+
    7 years ago

    Rated T/M or not, some people are just horrible in chat; I'm lucky I don't have this problem on PS4. I like the idea of being able to temp mute someone who gets a little heated in-game but firmly believe someone who goes out of their way to be creative should receive a permanant mute.

    Would this temporary mute work until you quit the game, or would you have to manually initiate it every match? Interesting idea nontheless.

  • SterlingARCH3R's avatar
    SterlingARCH3R
    Hero
    7 years ago

    @TTZ_Dipsy I think every game that you're in for that particular match only, the temporary mute applies. If you have to rejoin the same exact server with the same toxic player, then that would be redundant to manually mute again. But if it's a new match, then the temporary mute would need to be manually applied again.

  • SterlingARCH3R's avatar
    SterlingARCH3R
    Hero
    6 years ago

    The mute function has been added (when selecting players under squad selection). However, the censor is still there.

    It's sort of a win, right?

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