Ubisoft to prioritize 'toxicity management' in Rainbow Six: Siege

Ubisoft wants to stamp out toxicity from its popular online shooter Rainbow Six: Siege, and will be tackling the issue head on over the coming years.  

In a dev blog on the Siege website, Ubisoft explained toxicity management will be one of its priorities moving forward, with the studio keen to eradicate negative player behavior, manage those who do behave poorly, and eventually implement features that'll encourage players to improve their manners. 

The French developer-publisher isn't the first to hit back at unsavory players, and other big-hitters like Blizzard and Riot Games are also attempting to figure out how to create more welcoming online environments.

It'll be a long-term process, but the company has detailed some more short-term changes that could have a big impact. 

Firstly, the studio is already keeping tabs on how often individuals use "racial or homophobic slurs," and intends to issue bans to those caught in the act. 

It's not a three-strikes and out kind of deal either. Players might be hit with a two day, seven day, 15 day, or permanent ban depending on the severity of their case, and particularly egregious offenders will be permanently banned without any prior warning. 

The company also wants to let players manage their own online experience, and intends to give them direct control over their communication channels.

"We are working on allowing players to mute players individually for each player in the game," reads the blog "For example, you can mute the text chat of player A, the voice chat of player B, text and voice for player C, and neither for player D."

An automated chat filtering feature that will censor text chat in-game based on a curated chat filter list is also in the works, and will replace words that have been identified as offensive while notifying players that their language has been deemed unacceptable. 

Ubisoft will track the number of times players trigger that filter, and will take action against those that seem to be intentionally ruining the experience for others. 

Finally, the company hopes to eradicate intentional team killing by tracking long-term offenders across multiple games and session, with the studio concerned its current system is letting too many people slip through the cracks. 

"These short-term changes will begin to address toxicity, but we do not plan to stop there," continues the blog. "We are serious about tackling the issues surrounding the potential for a negative player experience, and we will share any further changes with you prior to their implementation."