The last few weeks have been a massive eye-opener for many people. Among the issues that we are facing include racism, homophobia, and sexism, which is why Electronic Arts (EA) is creating a new set of community guidelines to further create a healthy gaming environment for all the games they publish.
EA's New Positive Player Charter Initiative
According to NME, EA is planning to stop any form of hate and abuse within the gaming community through the Positive Player Charter initiative.
The company has posted the announcement through their website and explained that the initiative is an "updated set of community guidelines with clear consequences for players who engage in racist, sexist, homophobic and abusive acts in our games and channels."
As a start, EA has announced that they have removed over 3,500 player-generated assets that they believe are inappropriate or goes against their existing and new guidelines.
Additionally, the players that posted them have also been dealt with.
The Positive Player Charter has basically four main pillars that are easy to understand: keep things fair, treat people how they want to be treated, share clean content, and follow local rules.
If a player breaches any of these rules, they will instantly be dealt with.
The complete and detailed Positive Player Charter initiative, including examples as well as dos and don'ts, is readily available on EA's official website.
Due to Recent Events Involving the Black Lives Movement
EA said that it was due to recent events of the last few weeks that they decided to take another step to promote a healthy environment for their players, vaguely speaking about the protests that first started in Minneapolis, USA, until it became global.
The protests happened after the death of George Floyd in the hands of four Minneapolis police officers, with one kneeling on his neck and choking and dying.
Since the incident, which was caught on camera and quickly became viral, other deaths of black people due to police brutality and racism have also quickly resurfaced, with much showing support of black people and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Various companies in different industries have shown their support as well.
"We won't tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, harassment, or any form of abuse. We can build better, healthier communities inside - and outside - our games, and that's what we are here to do," EA further said.
Not a Quick Fix but a First Step
The company has also noted that the Positive Player Charter is not a quick fix. However, they believe that it is the first step to a long commitment to the cause.
They said that they would continue questioning and evaluating how they are doing and what more they could do.
Besides EA, several other gaming companies have also taken a step to try and create a better and more positive gaming environment for all their players, including Activision, who, according to GameRant, also took action against toxic players and languages.
The initiative came days just before EA Play Live, which is set to happen Thursday, June 18, at 4:00 p.m. PT.
