Tabletop Simulator has not and does not condone equating sexual orientation/gender identity with fetishes, politics, or anti-family friendly sentiment.Īt this time we have decided to take down global chat as we reassess our moderation process as clearly, we have some shortcomings. The subsequent messaging around why this ban took place does not reflect the beliefs or sentiments of Tabletop Simulator.
Initially, we were misinformed about the sequence of events as well as the full context of the situation that led to this user’s ban. Hello Tabletop Simulator community, we once again want to stress our commitment to inclusivity in everything we do and would like to apologize for the handling of a user being ban from global chat. The second statement Berserk Games released disavowed the handling of the conflict, and announced the game’s global chat system will be taken down as the team reassesses its moderation process. Much of the negative reviews have noted the company’s apparent stance on discussing queer identities, while positive ones are just posting blatantly vile transphobic and homophobic garbage. It then described the behavior that got Allred banned as “disruptive,” following her testing out keywords, then said she “misunderstood” this as a punishment for her expressing her identity, despite the explicit responses she was given from moderators saying discussions of identity had no place in Tabletop Simulator’s chat.Īs word spread, Tabletop Simulator ‘s Steam user reviews (CW: homophobia/transphobia) saw a sudden influx of both negative and positive scores. It insisted the moderation team wouldn’t “censor, suppress or ban users for expressing their identity, race or orientation,” and said it had measures to ban users for harassing queer players.
“Straight” is too ambiguous as a term for automatic filtering and is practically never used in negative connotation. However, the account received a temporary ban for “clearly trolling.” When Allred brought this concern back to the Discord, CHRY said the term “straight” wasn’t solely used to describe a heterosexual identity, thus couldn’t be made a bannable term. So it seemed political terms and straight sexuality weren’t part of Tabletop Simulator’s bannable offenses.
It wasn’t until she posted the word “vore” that a ban came, which falls under the “fetishes” CHRY mentioned prior. CHRY, a Berserk Games moderator, told her “discussing sexuality has no place in global chat,” and went on to say Tabletop Simulator’s chat is not a place to discuss “sexuality, fetishes, politics.” When she asked if CHRY was suggesting being trans was “a fetish or political,” Allred never received a response.Īllred looked further into Tabletop Simulator’s chat rules by testing keywords associated with cishet identities, such as “cis,” “straight,” as well as political topics like “abolish prisons,” and “BLM,” none of which received an automatic ban. The mod’s response referenced bold text in the game’s chat rules, which reads “When using Global Chat, there is an expectation that discussion will be family friendly and centered around Tabletop Simulator, tabletop games and chatting with other players.” When she asked if this meant the game’s moderators deemed gay identity as “not family friendly,” Allred was kicked from the chat room and temporarily banned from using the feature.Īfter an email about the situation went without a response, Allred reached out to Berserk Games through the official Tabletop Simulator Discord server.
The entire situation began last week, and was extensively documented in a Google Docs file by Tabletop Simulator user Xoe Allred, using the screename Xoesheher in the game, who also discussed her experience on her Twitter account After being banned after discussing gay and trans identities, she inquired with a moderator as to why these topics were resulting in a temporary ban. Berserk Games, the developer behind Tabletop Simulator, has come under fire after a user discovered the game’s global chat system would ban players for using terms related to queer identities.