BioWare Has Plans for Toxicity in 'Anthem'

BioWare tackled a common question in online games by giving some insight into the developer's thinking on toxicity in Anthem.

Defined in a variety of ways with different actions falling under the word's umbrella, "toxicity" in games generally has to do with players antagonizing each other and causing the overall experience to be worsened. Whether it's out of spite or because the antagonist thinks it's fun, it's a problem that online game have to deal with, and BioWare says it's prepared to address the problem in its upcoming game.

Within the Anthem subreddit, a Redditor shared a post titled "How will Anthem deal with Toxicity?" The post received just one parent comment that came directly from BioWare with senior system designer Chris Schmidt replying to explain how BioWare and Anthem will address toxicity. He began by saying that there are "a few moving parts" to the issue, the first being the actual catching and punishing of players who are cheating or exploiting parts of the game. He said that area falls under the customer experience team that he's not a part of, so he couldn't speak much to that area, but he could way in the topic of general in-game toxicity.

"The general toxicity question is a great one," Schmidt said. "There has been quite a bit of talk about this recently in game development, led by the Fair Play Alliance. There are some great learnings about methods to combat toxicity that have been shared by several studios for the greater good. The tricky part is before you launch the game you don't really know how much toxicity will surface in your player community."

As for specifics on BioWare's plan to fight toxicity, Schmidt said that he couldn't offer too many specifics but added that he's working with a plan that should cover whatever type of game Anthem shapes up to be once it's populated by players.

"The approach we have been taking is a proactive one: studying best practices and success stories around the game industry and applying some of those in Anthem," he continued. "I can't really speak to details at this point, but I'm working with a holistic plan with the ability to both be proactive and reactive to whatever flavor of community standards settle in around Anthem."

Schmidt said that the issue is an important one that is "near and dear" to him and that he's encouraged by continued talks from developers about toxicity in games.

Anthem is scheduled to release on February 22nd.