Rocket League Escalated Punishment For Violations To Support Anti-Racism

As the massive anti-racist anti-racism protests swept across the United States and even extended to other areas of the world, Rocket League as a popular game with more than 40 million players also increased the penalties for hate speech to indicate that they’ve played a role in racism and discrimination in and outside of the game. 

As a large-scale online virtual society, the game gathers players from all over the world. Hate speech and harassment are always big problems in the entire game world. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination are often popular through voice and text chats in games, and become a weapon for harming others and the entire gaming environment. In fact, since the game Rocket League released, Psyonix has been committed to combating inappropriate comments in the game, in order to bring players a peaceful and friendly game environment.

This time Epic and Psyonix have increased the punishment rate for hate speech, aiming to strengthen the punishment for racist behavior. The following is an open letter from Psyonix to the global community:

"The past few weeks have led to many conversations inside Psyonix and Epic and have highlighted the extraordinary challenges still faced by people of color and, in particular, the Black community in America and around the world. We’re committed to fighting racism and discrimination in our games and beyond. We want everyone in the Rocket League community to feel safe and welcome, whether they're playing with friends or with others online.

Over the past week, we performed an audit of our ban system to highlight areas where we can do better. We’ve updated the system to more effectively identify and eliminate racist, abusive, and hateful language from in-game text chat. While permanent game bans have always been part of the system, we’ve escalated the rate of punishment for violations, and have further efforts underway.

As a player, you can help by reporting any inappropriate online behavior that you experience via the "Report Player" button in the game pause menu. Once the player behavior is reviewed and action is taken, you will be notified the next time you start Rocket League.

Teams across Psyonix and Epic around the world are working on many other initiatives aiming to bring all people together through positive game experiences and to increase access to jobs and other opportunities in the game industry for people who haven’t had a fair chance to learn, to engage, and to achieve their full potential. Stay tuned for details over time.

Rocket League will always strive to be a welcome and safe place for all players."

Games should be a safe place for people to enjoy their leisure time. They should not encounter racism or gender harassment while playing games, nor should they use your prejudice and hatred to hurt any innocent people. May our world be filled with justice and love.