So, let’s be honest for a minute or two here, the gaming online sphere is a pretty rough place sometimes. It’s been one for as long as I can remember, such as when Xbox Live first started and a man told me he was going to come to my house, kill me and then eat my dog in front of my dead corpse (not sure why my corpse would care at that point) as one of my first introductions to a community that could be rather nasty at times. Things like death threats and bullying are like a common occurrence nowadays, especially when big hyped AAA games are in play. Well, for what it’s worth, it seems the three big platform holders want to make it a safer place.
In a news post from Xbox Wire, Dave McCarthy, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Operations penned out a lengthy post about making the gaming community a “safer” place. While this was on the Xbox side of things, he said that he spoke for all three of the companies about it.
“At Xbox, we are aligned with both Nintendo, on behalf of the community of Nintendo Switch players, and PlayStation in our belief that protecting players online requires a multidisciplinary approach – one that combines the benefits of advanced technology, a supportive community, and skilled human oversight. We can accomplish more when we work toward the same goal, and so we will each continue investing in, evolving, and amplifying our approaches to user safety. As we continue this work, we will prioritize protecting the safety of our players, especially those most vulnerable.”
What does that mean? Well, McCarthy outlines a few things they are planning to do such as holding themselves accountable for making their platforms a better place, teaming with regulators more directly and empowering players and parents on how to better monitor their gaming experience. In the end, though, what kind of real-life actions this will lead to is up in the air. The idea is a nice one, of course, but unless it actual leads to some type of palpable difference to how things are, I imagine it doesn’t mean a lot to most people.