The negative communication ban system Valve is testing with multiplayer online battle arena Dota 2 has resulted in a significant drop in negative behavior and number of banned players, as well as a rise in players who improve their behavior, according to a post on the Dota 2 blog.
The system was set up in an effort to discourage negative communication and derogatory speech among players in the Dota 2 community. Valve reports there has been a 35 percent drop in negative interactions since the system was implemented, and less than one percent of Dota 2's active players are currently banned.
Of those who are banned, Valve reports 60 percent of players modify their behavior in the future and receive no further bans, and the total number of reports are down by more than 30 percent.
According to the post, Valve set up the temporary ban system for derogatory speech in chat because the in-game muting system already in place doesn't "provide strong feedback" to the abusive speaker. The first ban a player receives is typically 24 hours, while future bans will usually stack an additional 24 hours on with each offense.
"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," reads the post. "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."
Valve added the system has been working as the company hoped it would, and the number of reports of abusive speech in Dota 2 have dropped.
Valve's full statement on the Dota 2 ban system is available on the game's blog.