CS:GO Will Start Muting Abusive Players By Default

Valve has announced an important new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive feature that will make the game more enjoyable for some players. Going forward, players who are deemed abusive by other players will eventually be muted by default, preventing them from directing their abuse at others. The players will be given a warning and a chance to prevent the penalty before it happens, however.

Valve announced the change on Thursday, explaining that the new method for dealing with abusive players will help prevent regular non-abusive players from being blocked by users who want to preemptively avoid any toxic communications. The new muting penalty will depend on user accounts, according to Valve, which says that it will monitor for players who receive more abuse reports than other players.

Once this system is live, players who receive 'significantly more abuse reports' than everyone else will be notified in the form of a warning. If they change their behavior and stop getting reported for abuse by other players, nothing will happen. However, if they continue acting abusive (as determined by additional abuse reports), Valve says they will be set to 'mute' by default.

In order to remove the mute penalty, players will need to earn a certain amount of XP, though other players will have the option of manually unmuting the auto-muted player. Valve points out that with this new system, players are able to 'establish their own standards for communication and ensure that their fellow players receive anonymous feedback when they're out of line.'

According to the company, it has already started tracking these reports using its new system. In order to help this new feature work properly, Valve is encouraging its CS:GO players to start reporting players when they are abusive using the 'Abusive Communications or Profile' option. Reports from frequent players and players have don't report very often will be given more weight than reports from players who don't play often or who spam the report function.