Ubisoft confirms it has a new system in place to deal with slurs (on the PC version of the game) — and it’s handing out timed bans to players almost instantly.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege started getting very focused moderation back in the spring with the explicit goal of getting players’ hate speech out of its multiplayer experience. Now, reports PC Gamer, the publisher confirms it has implemented a new system that is quickly handing out bans of varying length when slurs are spotted in the game’s chat.
To wit: One redditor tested out Rainbow Six Siege ’s “toxicity filter” yesterday and instantly after typing a slur, got ejected from the match and received a ban.
The sanctions are not all permabans; according to the game’s code of conduct (whose terms were updated June 11), it’s 30 minutes the first time, two hours on second and third offenses, and further offenses get an investigation of the account that could lead to a permanent ban.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, which launched in 2015, is mainly a multiplayer game; the shooter has no campaign mode but it does have a solo mission series.
Some have complained about the swift justice; the game’s official Twitter account isn’t having it.
Good.
In another tweet, the managers said that “Fighting against toxicity and cleaning up the Siege environment is a very real and important issue.”
On Reddit — where an /Games thread was locked because of abusive hate talk in the comments — players said the filter’s fast action is, amusingly, even being exploited by players looking to get opponents thrown out. For example:
“I feel like a dick, but I used this to my advantage earlier today,” wrote Rook_Boi. “In a ranked game I typed in chat ‘don’t be racist’, and an enemy got instantly kicked because I baited him into typing something racist.” Another commenter said they saw users trying to lure others into getting moderated by using loaded questions in chat.
Related
Ubisoft went on the move back in March when it said it would start issuing bans to players who use racist slurs, homophobic slurs, and other forms of hate speech in Rainbow Six Siege. (The policy only involved the game on Windows PC; players on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are subject to Sony and Microsoft’s codes of conduct).
But at the time, Ubisoft said it would be charting “tracking the frequency at which language that violates the Code of Conduct is used by individual players.” Now it seems like a single use is good enough to get someone thumbed.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is currently in its third season of content. In March, the game also saw an all-time high player count on PC.
