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About five years ago I started playing War Commander an online game made by Kixeye. While my experience overall has been enjoyable the last year hasn’t and it’s due to cyberbullying.

Kixeye has a feature where you can report players for bullying and harassment and I have utilized that feature.  I’ve seen all kinds of things  in chat and yes I realize it’s a war game and that means there’s a certain level of smack talk. Still there are lines that get drawn and are unacceptable to cross, that’s when I will report.

The issue was nothing ever got resolved when you report a player for harassment, which emboldened those who considered me an enemy. When bringing it up with their leader he didn’t believe it and made excuses.

Resolution only came when I had technical issues and I would also report what was going on in the chats. The two players are now thankfully banned, yet surprisingly enough I received communication from Kixeye saying “we will no longer be taking action against harassment reports. We recommend use of the in-game ignore function. If you continue the ticket about harassment you run the risk of permanently losing support access.”

Essentially this is telling me exactly what I thought of their inaction when it comes to harassment reports. Kixye is giving cyberbullies a free pass and that is not acceptable. In one of the reports I was also victim blamed as if I didn’t know a war game wouldn’t mean that there was smack talk.

Yet, here are some of the comments made:

“I’d put a bullet in his head if I ever met him.”

“You should suck on a shotgun barrel and end your pathetic loser life.”

“Pity Hitler missed your family.”

“u need a bulllet in your head in real life.”

“I hope I can give him a bullet in his head in real life.”

“Yeah I would love to round up him and his family and gas them.”

“When I come back to the U.S. your a dead man.”

These definitely crossed over said lines and all got reported to Kixeye with nothing being done. They both also made several other accounts in attempts to troll me. Meaning that the ignore in chat option wouldn’t have worked anyways.

Kixeye has done a terrible job in how it handles cyberbullying and harassment and that is something that needs to get addressed within the company immediately. Hopefully this is the eye opener the company needs.

 

 

3 Replies to “Kixeye: Where Cyberbullying Gets a Free Pass”

  1. Hey Steven,

    First things first, I should start with an apology. The message you received is completely unacceptable and inexcusable. On behalf of my team here at KIXEYE, as the Director of Customer Support, I am very sorry that you received such a cold message in response to the harassment you’ve had to endure from this user. This reply was from an external agent that was not following our harassment protocol and I assure you I am taking action to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m going to reach out to you via the email we have on file so we can chat more and respond to your latest ticket. I’ll respond to the ticket in question so you know it’s me and not some sort of scam! From there I can tell you how this mistake happened and what steps I’ve taken since your first report on this user (another account, previous to this one) in order to address the harassment you’ve reported.

  2. Have to say its a good job you have never played vega conflict holy hell you would not survive bud. first the cms do not help the players Kixeye forces players to coin to enable them to keep up, then the lag issues. you are allowed six ships in your fleet yet kixeye expect you to battle fleets of 15 or more for events. as Paul Preece said if the players are not taking damage the the game is broken. so no skill needed just coin the fleet and carry on. as for cheating Kixeye watches the chinise clains cheat every single alliance wars and events and lets them get away with it why because if they are cheating it causes the other players to try and coin to keep up with those players. No rewards no being looked after especially as a customer forget that if your lucky your be spat on kicked in the nuts and told ITS NOT KIXEYES FAULT its your internet or computer that caused the lag issues or the game drop outs. Try Vega conflict I DARE YOU bet you last a nano second.

  3. Turn off chat, as simple as it sounds… The chat is not obligatory. Also, when there’s an argument, both parts take part on insults. Kixeye can’t deal with checking more than 100 chats at the same time. I have six years playing and have seen worse things, you are very sensitive.

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