Dota 2 ban system has helped 60% of those reported to change their ways

Since implementing an option to ban communication from abusive Dota 2 players, Valve has said the game has become a much friendlier place.

According to a post on the Dota 2 blog, when Valve started investigating the reasons why many players had stopped participating in the MOBA, it found the exodus was due to rudeness from other players - not from game issues.

"Shouldn’t players who don’t like what they’re hearing just mute the speaker?," asked the post. "Ignoring the side problems around some players not knowing about muting, and that the damage is often done before you know you should mute someone else, the real problem with the muting approach is that it doesn’t provide strong feedback to the speaker.

"Some of our earlier data showed us that offensive players can be rehabilitated and that they manage to modify their communication so that they don’t cause negative interactions. To be able to do that though, they need to know when they’re producing negative interactions, and the communication ban system lets them know this.

"Our data shows this is working exactly as we hoped – many players banned eventually reach a ban free communication style, and the percentage of players being reported for communication bans is dropping over time."

Since the ability to block all communication from negative community members was implemented four weeks ago, there’s been a 35% drop in negative communication interactions. Yet,. those currently banned only made up less than 1% of the active player base.

Out of those banned, 60% "go on to modify their behavior and don’t receive further bans," and reports are down over 30% "even after accounting for the reduction in the number permitted per week."

"Overall, we're happy with how the system is proceeding," Valve concluded. "The communication ban system was an attempt to remove a specific set of behaviours in the community, and given its harshness and the change in expectations it engendered, it was always going to be something that was met with criticism. As is often the case, there's still a lot of work to do, but the early results are promising."

Read the entire thing for yourself through the link.