Valve introduces to Steam’s chat feature a customizable profanity and slur screen. The functionality is now available via the beta software Steam Test, with plans to make it a universal alternative early. It filters a default list of widely used “heavy profanity” and slurs for “racial, religious, cultural, and other identifying categories,” but users may choose to add or delete unique words or upload complete block lists of terms.
Steam also censors inflammatory content, both in forum threads and comments, through its online site. An alternative profanity plugin for individual games is also introduced, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Destiny 2.
The new functionality functions, as well as licensed games through Steam’s chat service and its blocklists, provide more choices than just activating or disabling the device.
The application isn’t actively removing the profanity or insults, it’s only helping specific users stop seeing them individually, although they may appear to people without the filter naturally. “We don’t want users to be filtered in chat but instead allow them to choose what they see from others,” Valve writes in a blog post. That’s compatible with Valve’s overall Steam management approach — it allows, for example, a wide variety of games on its website, but encourages consumers to prioritize their reviews while browsing.
Valve could also extend the feature to “more user-generated content types.” It also depends on users to help develop their program organically, by sharing their filter lists. That could also keep up on the constantly changing words used by trolls to get through such filters. The new list was created from “a vast sampling of in-game chat,” and Steam claims it will delete about 75 percent of offensive language by selecting “variants of the top five most frequently used highly profane or abusive terms.
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Valve claims that banning terms like slurs would cause collateral harm, noting that in most cases, oppressed people have regained terms that are considered derogatory. On the other hand, that means that if someone verbally abuses you in a conversation with multi persons, other people can also understand what they do.
Conclusion:
Steam’s plan to make consumers select what they see has not always succeeded. Developers shared disappointment on message forums with a lack of clarification, for example, ultimately leading Valve to take a more hands-on approach.
