Angry Bishop: Atlas and CoC

Competitive survival games are a unique niche of gaming. Especially in games that try to leave the players to develop the storyline, through every move they make and the things they say in game. Atlas is no different in this regard. Recently, there was a large wave of in-game groups and individuals being banned for a multitude of reasons. Everything from unacceptable speech, to pushing the limits of acceptable play.

Understandably, it is no easy task for the developers and the team who handles investigatory and disciplinary responses from player reports. A widely discussed topic includes what is the appropriate action to take against groups who violate the CoC. Should the individual or the group be punished? Further, how do we protect individuals who have not violated any CoC terms? There needs to be more in order to prevent discouraging players from returning when they didn’t know people were violating CoC.

There is one such player who, just recently, has been involved in the very same situation. They were cleared of any wrongdoing on his part, so we thought he would be a great person to talk to in regards to being caught up in disciplinary action and how the toxicity perpetrated by select individuals affected his gaming experience. This player is a well known Atlas streamer on twitch: Angry Bishop. In survival sandboxes, where and who you play with can dictate your very ability to play the game. We wonder what decisions are needed in order to make an appropriate choice when selecting who we play with? Are the consequences solely placed on individuals that violate? Or are we all responsible for who we play with?

Cursed: What was your experience being in a company that received disciplinary action?

Bishop: There were only the 2 things that I saw that in my opinion did not grant a dev wipe, this also makes me question if any other dev wipe was needed or justified.

Cursed: Do you feel that you, being someone who did not break CoC, deserve the same disciplinary action as those that actually did break CoC?

Bishop: I don't, I really don't. Not only does this show overpowered action, this is not fair for the people that do nothing. I think it's a lazy way to discipline. They seem to not care or have time to simply find the bad player and remove them, they just ban the entire company. It's a lazy way to discipline.

Cursed: If you could suggest a path to disciplinary actions in relation to company wide violations, what would it be?

Bishop: If there is more than 10% doing the bad, whoever it may be, then yes full dev wipe. Or if what they do gives them an advantage to pvp then yes.

Cursed: What is your take on companies not taking action on their player base for using homophobic and racial slurs openly?

Bishop: I don't think it should be the company's full responsibility as they can't control everyone, they can't be on the game 24/7 and police. However, anything bad, they should at least try to deal with it.

Cursed: What does toxicity mean to you, and is up to the individual to combat it or up to the group as a whole?

Bishop: There will always be toxicity no matter what my idea is. Get out of salt, and also add a filter to bad words in global chat to stop the toxicity. In ark they simply make youtube videos winning, not sitting in a base typing chats rage.

Cursed: How can we make survival sandbox games more inclusive for everyone to play? What kind of in-game systems could be used to help mitigate it?

Bishop: In-game global filters are needed, and must be put in place. And a strong community moderation team to watch over people. Not to have the ability to ban, but the ability to monitor is a massive star. Then that's the toxicity sorted. Then they need to community chat with people, like just talk more. It's not hard.

Cursed: Is there anything you feel like you should have done or even could do prior to the CoC disciplinary actions? We all make mistakes but it's important we learn from them, what advice do you give a player when looking to try a new group out?

Bishop: If you see anything you don't like or wouldn't do, just get out. Simple .

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*All opinions stated about the handling of the CoC violations are that of the interviewee.

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*Cursed remains neutral in the actions taken by the Atlas enforcement team. We believe in fair play and those who do the right thing even when no one is looking.

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