Call of Duty’s implementation of a new voice moderation system with the launch of Modern Warfare 3 has paid dividends, according to a new blog post by Activision.
In a new blog post outlining CoD’s anti-toxicity efforts, including punishing those who use hateful language in voice chat, Activision said that “more than two million accounts have seen in-game enforcement for disruptive voice chat.” It also updated the franchise’s Code of Conduct “to better reflect” its “commitment to combating the use of our games to promote discrimination or violence.”
“We do not tolerate bullying or harassment, including derogatory comments based on race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, culture, faith, mental or physical abilities, or country of origin, or the amplification of any person, agenda, or movement that promotes discrimination or violence based on the above,” the Code of Conduct now reads, saying that “all members of our community should be treated with dignity and respect.”
The change is reflected in both text and voice chat, which “must be free of offensive or harmful language.” The company closed by saying that “hate speech and discriminatory language is offensive and unacceptable, as is harassment and threatening another player.”
This seems like good news to most rational people. But then there are CoD players, who filled the replies to the Twitter/X post announcing the change with replies like one that said “toxic is what makes CoD, CoD.”
Another post about the change saw replies like this one that said “this is why lobbies these days are an absolute ghost town with no one talking.”
“There’s no social aspect to the game whatsoever,” they said. “The downfall of CoD continues. All I hear is crickets these days.”
CoD’s “downfall” is likely exaggerated here as MW3 was the second highest-selling title of 2023 and, combined with Modern Warfare 2, made CoD the highest-selling franchise in the U.S. for the 15th year in a row.
“I’ll never listen to these rules,” said one player. “I grew up in the trenches of Modern Warfare Search and Destroy lobbies. OK I’ve heard it all.” This checks out because CoD said there was only an eight percent “reduction of repeat offenders since the rollout of in-game voice chat moderation.”
Basically, many CoD players still pine for “the good old days” where they could say anything they wanted in voice chat without repercussion, most likely without realizing that those days were not so “good” for people who may look or sound differently than they do.
CoD wants more reports, though. The findings also concluded that “only one in five users reported the behavior, showing an unfortunate trend that players often do not report in-game instances to our disruptive behavior team.”
So, don’t be shy with the report button if you hear someone spewing sexist, homophobic, racist, or other hateful language while playing SnD.
