Toxic players and cheaters are a big problem in many multiplayer titles, and the battle royale Apex Legends, published by EA and developed by Respawn Entertainment, is no exception.
EA therefore presented some measures as early as February 2022how to proceed once morest these two game-spoiling groups. For example, instead of direct bans, personal e-mails were sent to offending players. However, it has now been found how to effectively reduce toxicity and cheaters play an important role in this.
Apex Legends: Cheaters are causing a toxic playing field
Chris Bruzzo, Chief Experience Officer at EA and initiator of the Positive Play Program, provides information regarding the new findings in an interview IGN. He not only talks regarding the program itself, what has already been achieved with it and what is planned for the future, but also goes into the connection between toxicity and cheaters:
“We’ve found that when games have bugs or cheaters, so when there isn’t a good anti-cheat program in place or that can’t keep up, especially in competitive games, that’s one of the roots that lies behind a large component of toxicity , namely when players have the feeling that the general conditions are unfair.”
“That they cannot compete under fair conditions. And then what happens is they get angry. Because all of a sudden you realize that there are others who are breaking the rules and the game doesn’t control that behavior. But you love the game and put a lot of your time and energy into it. It’s so annoying.”
“That’s why we’ve prioritized the task of dealing with cheaters as one of the best ways to reduce toxicity in games,” concludes Bruzzo on cheaters. The effectiveness of this measure is said to have been particularly noticeable in the Battle Royale Apex Legends, where you also control player names with artificial intelligence in order to block toxic examples.
The most used message between players is positive in nature
The consequence of the measures? A positive environment for all players. The most frequently exchanged text in Apex Legends: GG proves that this has an effect. The abbreviation stands for “Good Game” and is often written either at the end of a match to say thank you for a fair game.
Speaking of thanks, the words “Thank You” are also hugely popular, having been used more than a billion times in Apex Legends by 2022, according to Bruzzo. But EA isn’t the only company taking action once morest cheaters and toxic players: For example, Ubisoft and Riot Games have teamed upto weed out the bad fruit in their gaming communities.
