World of Warcraft hopes modern reporting tools and social contracts will improve community behavior

Tried to fix World of Warcraft’s Sometimes toxic community a case of too little, too late – or is it a worthwhile endeavor to improve the overall social environment? Blizzard is banking on the latter, as the upcoming 9.2.5 patch will include some initiatives to stem the rising tide of trolls, harassment, and bad behavior.

The studio claims it has “modernized” the player reporting system in the upcoming patch, including follow-up feedback from GMs when action has been taken against offenders. Blizzard also said it streamlined the reporting and action system to allow for faster response time from its team.

Of course, everyone’s talking about the so-called “social contract” that Blizzard has everyone sign and how effective that could be. The studio said players must read and accept it before continuing to play, with the possibility of the social contract reappearing in the future.

“The contract outlines behaviors that will help make your experience more positive and provides an overview of behaviors that are unacceptable in-game,” Blizzard said.

Of course, with this kind of effort, we wonder if Blizzard is applying reporting tools and social contracts equally to the people who work in the studio itself, or if this is a case of “do what we say, not what we do.”

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