Sledgehammer Games, the developer of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, has promised to take action against members of its community displaying what is known among gamers as "toxic behavior."

Competitive video games such as the Call of Duty series or Riot Games' League of Legends have been famous for the level of vitriol some members of their communities are able to spew while playing, and both Infinity Ward and Riot have taken a lot of measures meant to counteract that and to provide a friendlier playing field for their fans.

Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey explain that the dev decided to take a hard stance against any and all kinds of discriminatory or slandering behavior, adding that the community as a whole is very healthy and thoughtful, but that there are always individuals at the fringe behaving poorly.

Sledgehammer takes a strong stand against toxic behavior

He asked for players to come to the game in order to have fun and relax, and urged them to refrain from using abusive language and inappropriate emblems.

"Come to the game to have fun," Condrey told BBC, "come to be social, come to enjoy and build a community and have a positive energy. Toxic behaviors, abusive language, inappropriate emblems, I don't want that around. So for our community, Sledgehammer Games and Advanced Warfare, we have pretty low tolerance for toxic behavior."

Aside from friendly teases and players trolling others with tags such as "Xbox sign out," there have also been cases of more loaded insults, and in light of the recent GamerGate scandal, Sledgehammer opted to be on the safe side and to remind people why they turn to games in the first place.
Unruly behavior has always been sanctioned

Granted, the commitment to come down hard on any kind of harassment that might occur during online interactions is completely understandable for any franchise as big as Call of Duty, with widespread appeal, a huge number of players from all backgrounds and areas of the world, and such a big monetary investment behind it, one that has to be protected from any kind of fallout.

The game features performances from Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey and a lot of other talented individuals, and promises a campaign story that will revitalize the stale single-player component of recent entries in the Call of Duty series, in addition to a lot of new and innovative gameplay components.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is going live today on Windows PC, the Xbox 360 and Xbox One home consoles from Microsoft, and the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 computer entertainment systems from Sony.