NWI,
We have had several threads in past about instances of toxic racism and related bullying in-game. You responded by setting clear community guidelines and allowing for vote-kick. It seemed to help for a while, but now instances like these are on the rise again and consistently found on the public servers.
A personal solution would be just to mute the offender. However, there are times when it's not just one person, but a group of 3-6 ppl who will start talking about "killing N****" and other such toxic BS. Attempts to engage politely by affirming that such talk has no place here often lead to increased toxic chatter, including purposeful teammate killing & shot blocking, toxic verbal assaulting, and vote-kicking people who object to a de facto openly racist banter on this platform. To be clear - I'm not speaking of questionable use of words by a young kid who doesn't know better. I'm talking about openly racist dialogues that encourage violence towards people of color.
I play another tactical shooter, Squad, quite often, and rarely run into any such behavior. I think one reason for this is that tactical shooters (like Sandstorm presents itself) attract a generally more mature audience. Another reason is that many of the Squad servers I play on have an explicit and immediate lifetime ban for any racist behavior. It's written out clearly and for everyone to see, and it is enforced.
The purpose of this post is to spark a conversation of what a mature approach to addressing this would be for a gaming company. I understand there are various competing factors to contend with from the company's perspective, but at some point you have to stand for your values and ask if you are doing everything you can to address this issue.
NWI, do you feel ready to make such a statement? What I would propose is this, state a clear company policy visible in-game on the public server load screens. If a complaint is submitted, and upon review of the video was deemed credible, the offending person would get a one-time warning and possible suspension if violation was considered severe. If they are complained about again, and verified, they get a lifetime ban.
I hope it is not the case, and yet expect there to be some vile responses to this thread. Similar to when such behavior is addressed in-game. What I am interested in are responses grounded in an understanding of the issues at hand and ideas of how it can be addressed beyond personally insulting the person who brought up the issue.
Thanks.