toxicity
Massively Overthinking: The war on MMO chat toxicity
This week, The Ancient Gaming Noob posted up an image of RIFT Prime, where Trion asks people to... play nice. "Just a neighborly reminder...
Blizzard’s Overwatch League addresses toxicity with fines and suspensions, while the Dallas Fuel drops a toxic player
Last week, we covered an ESPN piece in which the author called out Blizzard for sitting on its hands after an Overwatch League player...
MMO business roundup: Steam, toxicity, Kartridge, contracts, dopamine, and guns
What's going on in the online video games business this week? Let's dig in.
Steam, toxicity, and Kartridge
The Center for Investigative Reporting (via Motherboard) has a...
Ubisoft addresses Rainbow Six Siege toxicity, ESPN slams toxicity in Overwatch League
Ubisoft is sick of toxicity in its games, and to combat it, it's whipping out the banhammer as a "first step" in getting the...
Here’s how Saga of Lucimia says it’ll ‘keep toxicity to an absolute minimum’
This week's dev-written Saga of Lucimia blog asks everybody over the age of 35 to think back to bygone days "when reputation used to...
Toxicity roundup: Overwatch troll, Fortnite pro fired, Division modder ban, HOTS’s voice chat, and Twitch’s new anti-hate rules
When the toxicity topics just keep piling up in the news room and nobody wants to cover them, you get the Toxicity Roundup, your...
Best not be toxic on YouTube, Overwatch players, because Blizzard is watching you
Back in 2013, when Linda "Brasse" Carlson still fronted SOE's community branch, she made headlines for making SOE's anti-toxicity policies very clear. "If we...
Riot partners with the Peach Belt Conference, Blizzard takes OWL toxicity seriously with suspension and fine
E-sports is continuing its rise in respectability: ESPN reports that Riot Games has partnered with the Peach Belt Conference, known to "real" sports fans...
Why developers believe abusive vitriol is the cost of doing business with games
When is it appropriate to send verbal abuse to someone you don't know personally? When is it appropriate to tell someone that you hope...
League of Legends unbans ‘reformed’ toxic player called a ‘humunculus’ by fired employee
Among last year's toxicity-in-gaming stories was the one that taught the internet an important lesson: how to spell homunculus. No, that wasn't it. It...
Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Biggest MMO Industry Disappointment of 2017
Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Biggest MMO Industry Disappointment, which was awarded to EverQuest Next's cancellation and No Man's Sky's...
Overwatch deals with trolls and smurfs
The complex and often times toxic environment of Overwatch continues to make the popular team shooter a source of controversy and attention. Even Game...
Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan on WoW Classic and the Overwatch toxicity ‘strike team’
Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan gave an interview on Reddit this week that provides an interesting perspective from an original World of Warcraft developer who defected to...
BlizzCon gamers react to, reflect on Overwatch toxicity
Toxicity in online gaming is easily one of the biggest stories of the year, particularly in Overwatch, where Blizzard has been focusing its anti-toxicity...
The Daily Grind: How can individual MMO players combat toxicity?
MOP reader Tyler sent us a tip over the weekend that keeps bothering me. According to a post made on Facebook this weekend, a...
Guild Chat: Should MMO guilds use trigger warnings?
Welcome along to another edition of Guild Chat, the column through which Massively Overpowered readers can air their guild issues and get help solving...
The Daily Grind: Are you a fan of ‘automatic helping behaviors’ in MMORPGs?
We've been complaining about lockboxes a lot lately as an unwelcome psychological trick in gaming, so this morning, I wanted to talk about a...
Riot employee fired over toxic chat comments says he deserved it
Last week, news that Riot Games Lead Experience Designer Aaron "RiotSanjuro" Rutledge had insulted a banned League of Legends streamer in a public chat...
League of Legends dev who insulted streamer is no longer with Riot Games
Two days ago, we reported that a League of Legends developer had landed himself in hot water after he went grossly overboard in insulting...
Riot apologizes for League of Legends dev who joked about streamer’s hypothetical death
Over the weekend, a Riot Games developer made a Terrible Mistake: Lead Experience Designer Aaron "RiotSanjuro" Rutledge insulted a banned streamer in League of Legends' public...
