Call of Duty has announced that they will work harder to tackle racism and racist players in games on the platform as reported by Engadget. This follows the news that the company will delay further Call of Duty seasons owing to current protests around the globe.
Greater monitoring of racist behavior online as well as in-depth reporting systems will be introduced to tackle the problem. This comes as the likes of Snapchat and YouTube have introduced further fact-checking and community rules to combat racism.
Infinity Ward Promise to “do a better job”
In a tweet, Infinity Ward promised that they would do more to tackle racism on the likes of their Call of Duty platform.
The company has not offered much in the way of specific detail in how they will do this. However, it is clear the plan is to step up its efforts.
The tweet also said that the company wanted to “apologize” for not doing enough in the past. It seems that the recent unfolding events have had a profound effect on Infinity Ward. This is also the case for other companies such as YouTube who are donating $1M to the Center for Policing Equity.
What is Infinity Ward Planning to Do?
As mentioned, there is little in the way of detail in what Infinity Ward has announced. The first point on their tweet is to step up monitoring and identifying racist content.
This looks as if it is a general recognition that more resources need to placed in this area than have been done previously.
Secondly, the company said it wishes to increase reporting capacity. This could see a more robust system come into force to combat racism on the platform.
Additionally, Infinity Ward aims to add greater restrictions on name changes. This aims to make it harder for individuals to avoid punishments.
The final point made is that Infinity Ward aims to increase the punishment it has at their disposal. This is likely to include more permanent bans and systems to prevent repeat offenders from coming back into the game.
Overall, although there is no clear plan of how this will be achieved this announcement can be seen more of a recognition of what needs to be done.
The acknowledgement of the extent of racism in multiplayer games such as Call of Duty is an important step. There is much to do to tackle racism in online games but this seems to be a positive move.