2021 FPA Summit @ GDC Highlights
George Ng (Chief Technology Officer, GGWP)
We use methods from other domains to help inform our approach to detect and provide context for incidents in games. We share examples from financial services, government and intelligence, and professional sports and map them to analogous problems faced by game developers trying to maintain a positive player environment.
Connie Chung (Director of Policy, Trust & Safety, Twitch), Robert Lewington (Senior Director of Safety Operations, Twitch)
Norms for what you can and can’t do are everywhere, whether it’s a conversation in a game lobby or mask rules for a grocery store. If people are interacting, boundaries will eventually be tested. Clear, thoughtful community guidelines provide an opportunity for companies and developers to share expectations and aspirations for their community — figuring out the right lines for your community takes listening and research. This talk discusses strategies for researching and building policies in a way that considers safety and community expression, demonstrating some of the applicable measures and learnings that can be taken from large scale policy initiatives.
Laura Higgins (Director of Community Safety & Digital Civility, Roblox), Robin Hunicke (Co-Founder, Funomena), Anat Shperling (Co-founder & CEO, Toya), Ashley Scott (3D & Environment Artist, Roblox)
In the past year of physical distancing, people have been increasingly turning to the Metaverse to socialize and connect with existing friends and family members, as well as find new communities where they feel like they belong. The need for inclusive content and environments that represent diverse voices and points of views has never been greater. In this conversation, game industry experts and developers from Roblox, Funomena and Toya will discuss the importance of creating content with diverse perspectives, and representation from a global demographic, how to develop a sense of belonging for all users through content creation, and inspire the gaming industry to set new standards for diversity and inclusivity.
Weszt Hart (Head of Player Dynamics, Riot Games)
Disruptive behavior in games has historically been a post-launch consideration. However, as our understanding of this space has grown, so has the need to focus earlier in development on Player Dynamics design in order to avoid producing systems which inadvertently contribute to player-to-player friction. To help this talk will introduce new tools that Riot Games has been developing for evaluating the negative and positive behavioral potential of existing features and intentionally designing for specific behaviors.
Andrew Hogan (CMO, Intorqa)
As gaming has rapidly grown over the last few years, cheating has become more widespread. If left unchecked this poses a serious threat to the long term future of gaming as it will put off new gamers, drive current players away, and drive up costs for game security. This session looks at how a new approach, based on data and a better understanding of gaming communities offers a practical solution that puts anti-cheat and community management teams on the front foot, protects the player experience and the brand reputation of the game, and supports financial security for developers and publishers.
Philip Rosedale (CEO, High Fidelity), Anita Sarkeesian (Executive Director, Feminist Frequency), Michael Pappas (CEO, Modulate), Eric Goldberg (Managing Director, Crossover Technologies), Kishonna Gray (Assistant Professor, University of Illinois – Chicago)
Today’s games and virtual worlds give players ever-advancing ways to customize their characters, extending not only to their name and play style but also their personal appearance and voice. These customizations are powerful tools for increasing immersion and giving players a choice over what details of their physical self they’re comfortable revealing, but they also entail potential risks of identity impersonation/theft, cultural toxicity, and diversity loss. A prestigious panel of game developers, technologists, academics and community thinkers will discuss the evolving technologies of self-transformation, and consider strategies for maximizing their positive impact on virtual communities.
Kimberly Voll (Co-Founder, Fair Play Alliance), Natasha Miller (Senior Research Scientist, Blizzard Entertainment), Carlos Figueiredo (Director of Trust & Safety, Two Hat & Co-Founder/Executive Director, Fair Play Alliance)
In late 2020, the Fair Play Alliance launched the Disruption and Harms in Gaming Framework, an unprecedented synthesis of what we know about problematic behaviour in online games today. Created for the industry and pulling together experts from game development as well as researchers from academia and civic society, the Framework seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of what we’re seeing in games today, along with a series of resources (the first of hopefully many) pulling together some of the best practices known today for addressing these issues.
This fireside chat is a 101 intended for developers unfamiliar with the Framework and looking to get started. We’ll cover an overview of the Framework, with a focus on the most important aspects to take away that you can start leveraging right away in your designs and beyond.
Kimberly Voll (Co-Founder, Fair Play Alliance), Natasha Miller (Senior Research Scientist, Blizzard Entertainment), Carlos Figueiredo (Director of Trust & Safety, Two Hat & Co-Founder/Executive Director, Fair Play Alliance)
This fireside chat is a chance to sit down with fellow developers to discuss the Framework—how it’s being used, what we’ve learned in the past six months and what you’d like to see next. What has the Framework sparked for you? Where could it be improved? How can the FPA better support you? The hope is to use this session to put together an impact report and to better understand what to focus on next that would best serve the industry.
UPCOMING WEBINAR
We host regular webinars featuring guest speakers and subject-matter experts. You can access recordings and a short summary of select past webinars on our Resources page.
Please stay tuned for our next webinar!