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In such a situation, it isn’t the game itself that’s toxic. We choose the words we use and the actions we take, just like we choose the buttons we press. There are options we can take as designers to modify community toxicity. Hearthstone limits player communication to emotes in game. There are plenty of automated policing programs to limit toxicity, including sending toxic players to matchmaking purgatory where they can only play with other toxic players. The most interesting method I’ve heard of, however, was another MOBA called Dawngate.

Dawngate was a 2014 MOBA developed by Waystone games and published by Electronic Arts. One of its most interesting systems was that they didn’t have a heavy hand when doling out punishments, but rather incentivized positive behavior through a karma system. After each match, players voted for the players they thought had positive impacts on the game. Loot, in-game currency, and experience points earned during the game were boosted based on the positive karma players received from the voting. Further, friends and premade party member votes were worth significantly less than votes from strangers to discourage gaming the system.

As Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome”. Because Dawngate heavily incentivized players to help their peers out, the game is rightfully remembered as having one of the least toxic online communities ever.

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