In online multiplayer games, a player’s behavior shapes the game’s overall experience. Maintaining your community as safe as possible should be at the top of your priorities.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that while players have positive social experiences, 86% of adults experience harassment in multiplayer games. As for teens, 66% experience it.
The less your players feel safe, the more likely they will tap out of your game, causing you to lose your demand and reputation. Proper game moderation prevents this from happening.
Understanding game moderation
Game moderation ensures that all user-created content in a gaming environment is appropriate and follows a platform’s guidelines.
Most gaming consoles and marketplaces today come with settings for filtering inappropriate content. This includes parental controls to set time limits and screen who users interact with online.
On the other hand, gaming moderation is needed with in-app moderation for communities, chats, and interactions between players. This is most common in online multiplayer games such as Overwatch and Fortnite.
Where does game moderation apply to
Game moderation applies to any aspect involving online gaming, such as the following:
- Live streaming through Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms
- In-game chats
- Community forums
- Live gaming
- eSports/online competitions
How game moderators keep your community safe
Game moderators are administrators ensuring a safe and fun gaming environment for all players. They block hackers and other players looking to cheat the system, post spam or inappropriate content, and violate game rules.
Apart from this, game moderators are tasked with the following responsibilities:
Muting, blocking, or banning players
Game moderators have the power to mute players posting offensive and spam messages to forums and chats. Other players can report these instances to the moderators so they can exercise their authority to do so.
At the same time, moderators can block or ban players with repeat offenses or worse offenses. Kicking a player out of the game is possible based on their assessment of the case.
Filtering content
Game moderators also work on filtering content and comments that are inappropriate, offensive, or spam. They can manually remove content from the forum or automate this task through filtered words and expressions.
Moderators can also set their guidelines for posting and review all posts and comments before it goes live.
Facilitating discussions
Being a game moderator is more than about filtering and following rules. They also stimulate interaction between players by starting discussion threads, friendly debates, and other activities.
They even serve as in-game support by answering basic inquiries from players.
User research
In some instances, game developers and publishers would like to ask for player feedback about the game.
Game moderators can facilitate user research or one-on-one interviews with select players for game reviews, player experience, and other relevant information.
Developing a game moderation strategy
Poor moderation affects players’ welfare and safety in-game, translating to high user churn and low demand. Riot Games’ study of its popular game League of Legends revealed the grueling effects of toxicity on player churn.
A concrete game moderation strategy assures and maintains order and safety in your online game community.
A few factors should be considered in creating a game moderation strategy, including the following:
Measure your community’s resilience
In developing a concrete moderation strategy, you must take a look at how much negativity you can handle before the forum collapses.
Using a quadrant, divide your community based on demographic and place them in four categories:
- High-risk, high frequency
- High-risk, low frequency
- Low-risk, high frequency
- Low-risk, low frequency
Depending on its result, you can see which demographic is more resilient to negativity and which could break more.
Categorize user behavior
Like community resilience, categorize player behavior into categories, such as average gamers, trolls, and boundary testers.
From there, you can see their characteristics better and set appropriate actions for each group. Trolls are best banned or kicked out, boundary testers are warned, and average gamers are encouraged to interact.
Take extra verification
Sticking to stereotypes, meanwhile, can be tricky at times. Studies monitored striking similarities in interactions between trolls and average players, and victims can quickly be perpetrators themselves.
With this, considerations should be placed when creating your game moderation strategy. Careful monitoring and user verification might be needed to see which players use troll accounts and flag them for possible risks.
Consider combining AI and human moderation
Pure human moderation can be taxing for your team, especially when managing huge gaming communities. But pure automation poses bigger risks of qualifying inappropriate posts and offensive content.
Combining human moderation and AI is an ideal way for your game moderation strategy. With this, you can maximize moderation and maintain safety within your community.
Hiring gaming and content moderators offshore
Game moderation is a round-the-clock complex work, especially when handling global communities.
Your local moderators could limit your capacity to handle players with different behavior, attitudes, and even spoken languages. With this in mind, hiring game and content moderators offshore is your best option.
OP360 is your reliable provider of remote staffing for your moderation needs. They provide customized solutions depending on your platform, whether for live gaming, video streaming, or tournaments.
Getting started with hiring your game moderation team is easy. All it takes is a few clicks to connect with them right away.
