I don’t exactly know what answer you want. I can start by putting my “old man pants” on.
Years and years ago, the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s internet game chat was rather new. For the most part, many people didn’t even partake in the chat to begin with. My first game I played over the internet was Socom 1 for Playstation 2 in 2002. In that game there was only team chat, and I was playing the game in the barracks with my fellow soldiers. As crass as we spoke when at work, or even in our off time, that never translated into video games. It wasn’t until years later when I started playing Halo 2 that voice chat began to get a little spicy. Here again though, not everyone was in chat to hear it.
Fast forward to now, and the audience has changed dramatically since I started playing on line games.
Today, players will say anything and everything they can think of to get under the skin of the other players. As much as I have watched the evolution of this, I have watched the evolution of the people who the comments are directed at. Where once it would either be shrugged of, or retaliated against, the players who are in the game now seem ultra concerned about what some random person on the internet says about them. I won’t tell you that what they are saying should or should not be tolerated. My largest concern is where this is leading.
The video game industry has basically only grown since I began playing video games back in 1989. With this growth we have seen how players treat one another year after year. From where I sit, the problem isn’t Blizzard, nor is it the access to chat. It’s not the ability to communicate that is the problem, its the choices the players are making that were never directed into a well adjusted manner by those who were supposed to teach them the difference between right and wrong that is the problem. This isn’t something Blizzard can solve.
Over the last 20 years parents crafted players, who are now young adults, who have zero filter on anything that regurgitates from between their lips. Right along side those players are the other ones who have ears soft as silk. Who feel that words being slung at them is the largest crime mankind can direct at another human being. To be honest, I don’t envy Blizzard’s position. There is no right answer, and the only sure way to guarantee it never happens is to not have any form of communication in the video game at all.
I can just be thankful that it isn’t a problem I share with you, the forums, or Blizzard.