Improving Zenith’s Community Safety with an Integrated Moderation Tool

Edit 2/16: We've also updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. All users will be prompted to review and accept the updated Terms on log-in once Minor 1.2.2 is out.

Something that players have been asking for for quite some time is improved community moderation in the world of Zenith. We are proud to announce that we are taking a big step towards creating a safer environment for players by partnering with Modulate to deploy a new moderation tool in Zenith known as ToxMod.

What is ToxMod? From a top level perspective, ToxMod flags voice chat behavior that violates Zenith’s Code of Conduct and allows us to take proper moderation action against the offending party. In traditional PC MMORPGs, if an individual types something into the game’s chat that is against the rules, that game’s moderation team will be able to see that chat-log and take action against the individual breaking their rules. As a VR MMORPG, we don't have traditional text chat, so ToxMod gives us the capability to flag and address voice chat behavior that violates our rules and take action when required.

We want to ensure that ToxMod is primarily targeting voice chat behavior that has no place in Zenith, such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexually explicit language and harassment. The tool is also intelligent enough to tell apart friends bantering (even with casual swearing) from toxic and aggressive voice behavior. Also, ToxMod will NOT be automatically taking any action on players for their voice behavior in game - all cases flagged by ToxMod are reviewed by moderation staff, meaning there is always a human determining if any action needs to be taken.

We know that some players will have privacy concerns around the new ToxMod voice moderation process, and this concern has also been shared by many members of the Ramen VR team. To be clear, ToxMod just simply reports things that violate our Code of Conduct to moderation staff, and only the voice data specific to that incident is used in the reports. Voice chat information is not kept long-term, and is deleted once its use in our moderation process is complete. We have also ensured that Modulate and ToxMod have privacy policies & data protections that we can get behind, so players can be comfortable knowing that their voice data is being used only to improve our moderation process and isn’t being sold to 3rd parties.

Currently, our tools for moderating Zenith have been limited, and as our game continues to grow, we want to make sure that we have the processes in place to service a larger population and protect the existing player base of Zenith. Hopefully this blog post answered some questions and alleviated some concerns you may have related to ToxMod. At the end of the day, our only goal with the addition of ToxMod is to provide a safer environment for players inside the world of Zenith, while making sure that users have peace of mind knowing that their voice data isn't being used for other purposes nor sold. We are excited to deploy this new long-term and scalable moderation solution to help make the world of Zenith a safer place, and we hope you share in that excitement!

Have questions about ToxMod? Join our discord server where ToxMod’s community manager will be able to help answer any questions and concerns you may have about this new moderation tool!