Microsoft is striving to ensure that they provide a safe and welcoming community. Of course, video games, much like other entertainment mediums, can bring out some toxicity. But there are new measures these days to ensure that toxic players are given some kind of punishment. It’s a means to cut down on issues online from players being harmful to others. But today, a new system is being placed for players on the Xbox platform. Taking to the Xbox Wire, the CVP of Xbox player services, Dave McCarthy, has revealed Microsoft’s new enforcement strike system.
This new system is just another means to provide a transparency measure for players’ accounts. You’ll get to see how many strikes you had when they were submitted, what was the cause of the strike, and ultimately how long you’ll have before services are reinstated. A new system just rolled out today, so every account is free from strikes. But you will find that if your account was suspended prior to today, you’ll still have to go through the suspension period.
Overall, it’s noted that players have up to eight strikes for their accounts. Likewise, strikes will remain on your account for six months. That means even if you get a few strikes and get through them, you’ll need to be mindful that on your eighth strike, you’ll be in jeopardy of losing your services for a year. It’s noted in the blog post that so many strikes will determine the length of your account being suspended. This could be anywhere from a day to up to a year if you managed to hit eight strikes within six months.
Players are encouraged to make reports when needed against accounts. However, no matter the volume, these reports will not result in a strike. So you don’t have to worry about false reports. Instead, strikes are only handed out from Xbox after being reviewed. This should ease some players that might feel that their accounts could be hit by players looking to use the system as a means of griefing.
Again, the system is also a means for transparency. Players can see their enforcement, active suspensions, and their enforcement history through the Microsoft Xbox website. But again, since this just rolled out today, there’s nothing here that would actually show up. Hopefully, this new system offers an easier means to ensure the community is free from toxicity and harmful players. You can read more about the new system on the official Xbox Wire blog post right here.