Now, here’s a new gaming innovation we can all get behind: automatic muting of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s more… unsavory players.
For so many of us who enjoy gaming, online functionality has been an absolute game-changer. In just a few decades, we’ve progressed from hauling weighty consoles and a tangle of controllers and cables to our friends’ houses to hopping on and teaming up with them together from the comfort of our own homes. Not long ago, the concept of easily connecting to fellow players around the world would have been unthinkable.
In spite of all of this, online gaming comes with a caveat: you’re not sitting beside your fellow players, so nobody really has any accountability for their terrible in-game actions. Through a mic, whether you’re in the next neighborhood or on the next continent, you can do absolutely anything. This is carte blanche, then, for toxic players to talk smack, troll their teammates or enemies, ragequit or attempt to rap along with Eminem down their mics to their hearts’ content.
Over the years, many different titles have tried many different ways to curb this sort of behavior. Mortal Kombat’s ‘Quitalities,’ in which a kombatant explodes in a grim shower of bloodiness if their player leaves mid-match, are one highlight, but now here comes Valve with another brilliant idea. Watch out, abusive CS: GO players.
As ShackNews reports, the team has been working on a system that will allow players to report unsporting opponents (or allies). This is nothing new, of course, but the whole thing’s a little more sophisticated than you might think. The player perceived to be abusive in coms will get a fair warning first, before the real effect of the system kicks in: auto-muting. It appears that it will take some time before things reach this point, though, so you’ve got a reasonable chance to change your unpleasant ways.
Once a player is in auto-mute status, they can get themselves out by accruing enough XP. Fellow players who do still want to communicate with them can simply un-mute them, of course. While we don’t yet know the full details of Valve’s system, which is being rolled out into CS: GO, there’s no denying that it’s a step in the right direction. There are bound to be teething problems, but any effort to make online gaming communities more hospitable should be welcomed with open arms.
NEXT: After 15 Years, SmithZz Retires From Professional CS: GO
