PlayStation, in a very loud voice, just made a reminder. With the message that read “Please be respectful when using in-party voice chats on PS5 consoles” via their official AskPlayStation Twitter account, they echoed the same message. If you see something inappropriate, they will deal with it and you can report it. A link to a support page about reporting was posted along with the message. The safety conversation is the kind of thing that companies do and most people would think it is true. The response from the gaming community, however, was different from what was expected. Almost like in the past, a massive forum flame war erupted in the replies showing the strong division between Sony’s view on online play and a large part of its customers’ perception.
The tweet is very direct in its wording. Sony is telling the public about the rules again. What they are actually saying is, “Don’t be a jerk even when you are at a private audio party since we can still hear you.” And that does not sound unreasonable. No one is really advocating the right to be a nasty person. However, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details and in this case, it is also in the hundreds of angry replies that came in.
Right away players began to point out what they consider to be PlayStation’s over-enthusiastic and often unclear moderation. A user by the name of Chrisspurl shared a story that hit a nerve. He claimed that he was banned for ‘hate speech’ just because he was trying to calm down a toxic person who had joined his party. He tweeted, ‘All I did was try to diffuse the situation.’ The feeling of being punished for reacting to harassment rather than being the one causing it was echoed more than once. Another gamer, GusDez, told that he got a warning for saying to someone, “Stop being a bully.” He demanded, “Explain that logic.” It gives the impression of a system that is either automated or badly managed which cannot tell the difference between an aggressor and a savior.
And then… the nostalgia. Oh my God, the nostalgia. So, this tweet kind of burst the bubble and let the collective memory flow back to a less regulated and, indeed, a wilder online world. Comments like hanso_lew’s, ‘God help all the snowflakes if they were around in the old MW2 lobbies,’ were highly supported. Another player, KParksYT, grumbled, ‘People are so soft nowadays it is humiliating. I got chat banned in RL for just saying “y’all trash”.’ It seems like the boundary has shifted and the rough and tumble, trash-talking culture that once characterized console games for a whole generation is now slowly being cleansed off. User 2027Hawk bluntly said: ‘We definitely had the free to say anything whatever the hell we want back in the OG days.’
However, it is not only about the absent chaos. There is a concern about privacy and control that is deeper. User randerrtin stated: ‘So now I have to be careful about what I say in private PlayStation parties because Twitter said so, yeah sure guys, alright.’ This brings forth a major question: if you are in a private party with your friends, shouldn’t that be your space? Sony’s policy appears to deny the existence of any area on its network that is really private, and that is causing a lot of bitterness. It is like living under surveillance in one’s own living room.
The backlash even encapsulated unrelated complaints, which is usually a sign that people are using the issue as a loudspeaker for all their frustrations with Sony. One user, Anthony00666639, hijacked the thread to demand fixes for Gran Turismo 7’s penalty system. Another, DaahVla, was asking for Discord screen sharing. It became a place where discontent was shown.
And of course, a current gaming debate could not exclude platform tribalism. The usual ‘PC master race’ jibe was made by abady1245 who merely stated, ‘thank God for PC gaming then.’ Another mocking response to the same user was, ‘your first mistake was owning a shit station.’ It is all part of the show.
So, what is the real story? Is Sony turning into the fun police or are they just trying to make online spaces less aggressive for everyone? Truth is, the answer is probably somewhere in the gross, messy middle. For every upset player who is banned, there is probably another one, maybe a younger one, whose relief is genuine when he/she can report a stream of racist slurs. Sony is in a no-win situation. Yet the high volume and passion of the backlash against this simple safety notice is a clear indication: the players think the current system is broken. They consider it inconsistent, invasive, and punishing the wrong people.
