Rocket League to Introduce New Language Ban System

Psyonix, the developers of Rocket League, are introducing a new language ban system. The new method is meant to cull abuse in the game. Currently, the list stands at around 20 words and their variants, including racial slurs. The words (and phrases) has its threshold, and players that reach the threshold will get a ban. Each ban will be more severe than the previous one, with a permanent ban waiting for the most egregious offenders.

Rocket League has been around for two years now, and it has amassed 34 million players. Pure statistics dictates that, among that huge sample of the world’s population, you’ll have your share of terrible people. Rocket League players suffer their share of abuse and harassment, and Psyonix knows this. The game has two systems to fight harassment in-game, Player Mute and Report, which you can access mid-match. Psyonix isn’t stopping there.

Pretty soon, they’ll introduce a new automated system to fight abuse – the Language Ban. This new system will ban players that use certain offensive words, such as racial slurs. Currently, the list stands at 20+ words and their variants. The list will grow and evolve to include more words and phrases across multiple languages. Psyonix has declined to make the list public. How will the Language Ban system work? The announcement on the official Rocket League website clarifies:

Each word has its own threshold, and once a threshold for any word has been reached, that player will be automatically subject to a ban. These bans will typically start at 24 hours, then escalate to 72 hours, one week, and finally, a permanent ban.

So, if certain words appear in a report against you, they will probably result in an automatic ban, while others will get you banned if you use them several times. The automated system seems necessary due to the fact that Psyoix receive thousands of reports daily. Either way, I’m willing to bet that this decision will polarize the Rocket League community.