Help, My Game Is Toxic! First Insights from a Systematic Literature Review on Intervention Systems for Toxic Behaviors in Online Video Games

Abstract

Toxicity is a common problem in online games. Players regularly experience negative, hateful, or inappropriate behavior during gameplay. Intervention systems can help combat toxicity but are not widely available and or even comprehensively studied regarding their approaches and effectiveness. To assess the current state of toxicity intervention research, we are conducting a systematic literature review about intervention methods for toxic behaviors in online video games. In this work-in-progress, we report the research protocol for this review and the results from a preliminary analysis. We collected 1176 works from 4 digital libraries and performed abstract and full-text screening, resulting in 30 relevant papers containing 36 intervention systems. By analyzing these intervention systems, we found: 1) Most research proposes novel approaches (n = 28) instead of analyzing existing interventions. 2) Most systems intervene only after toxicity occurs (n = 31) with few interventions that act before toxicity. 3) Only few interventions are evaluated with players and in commercial settings (n = 5), highlighting the potential for more research with higher external validity. In our ongoing work, we are conducting an in-depth analysis of the interventions providing insights into their approaches and effectiveness. This work is the first step toward effective toxicity interventions that can mitigate harm to players.