Activision Blizzard’s Johanna Faries highlights the company’s emerging ‘anti-toxin’ strategy TechCrunch

At TechCrunch Disrupt today, Activision Blizzard General Manager Johanna Faries detailed the company’s plan to undo some of the worst behavior in the franchise community, even as lawsuits come and new accusations about its own culture continues to emerge.

Last month, Activision Blizzard released a official code of conduct for the Call of Duty community, including a broad consumer player base and competitive landscape. While the policy is pretty basic – no harassment, hate, or fraud – it’s something the company can point to when enforcing its rules.

“I’m happy to say, especially since you know during my time in the chair, we’ve really raised the bar in terms of paying attention to ‘what should an antitoxin strategy look like? Fares said. “For example, we just released – and it’s already in beta – a world-first code of conduct, which I know may sound like a bet on the table, and in many ways does. it might be – but it’s here now.

Faries notes that Activision Blizzard has teams that are “focused 24/7” on anti-malware, combining automated machine learning solutions with human censorship. The goal is to make it easy for players to quickly report bad behavior, but also to encourage the kind of good behavior that should serve as a role model for the community.

According to Faries, cracking down on toxic behavior – which often disproportionately impacts marginalized players who are still struggling for representation in streaming and gaming – goes hand in hand with the removal of harmful practices. players cheat, according to Faries.

“So there’s a lot more to this, but I’m really proud to see other than Ricochet [anti-cheating tech] and the plethora of anti-cheat anti-hack initiatives we’ve implemented… our anti-malware focus is one of the highlights in this upcoming launch and for many years to come,” said Faries. speak. “We are putting the best systems in place to ensure that players have the tools, but also the incentives, to continue to advance what it means to be fair play and to respect every player in a fair way. integrity. “

Over the weekend, Activision seems to have put its money in its rightful place, allegedly banned top competitor Doug “Censor” Martin from competing in the Fortune’s Keep tournament, citing his interactions with Call of Duty streamer Nadia Amine. Martin previously filmed a joking proposal to the female player, who has faced a firestorm of sexism and baseless accusations that she somehow cheated in the game.

In a tweet, Martin said that Activision “blocked him from competing” in the tournament for harassing Amine, although Activision Blizzard has yet to confirm this claim. If the company does indeed ban the event that draws unwanted attention to another player, it will follow up with a new emphasis on cleaning up the behavior in the notoriously toxic Call of Duty scene.