The Need for Voice Moderation
When Trass Games saw a surge in players for their hit game Yeeps: Hide and Seek, the team knew they needed a robust moderation solution to maintain a positive community atmosphere. With the influx of new players came an increased risk for toxic behavior, and their human moderation team was struggling to keep up with manual review and responses to player reports. That’s when Trass Games started researching tech solutions like ToxMod.
“Being able to tune and customize ToxMod to find the right balance for our game and how we wanted to protect the players was absolutely amazing.”
– Steve Shockey
Customizing for the Yeeps Community
It wasn’t an instant click, as the Trass Games team was wary about the capabilities of a ToxMod’s AI-powered moderation. Would ToxMod automatically ban a player for trash talk? What if they say a curse word once in the middle of a heated match? Luckily, ToxMod’s detection categories are fully customizable, meaning studios can key into certain behaviors more than others, choosing the type and severity of infraction they want moderators to review.
COO and Co-founder Steve Shockey says, “Your profanity detection category doesn't have to be set to high sensitivity, but your racial hate speech category can be up high and your bullying can be up high. Being able to tune and customize ToxMod to find the right balance for our game and how we wanted to protect the players was absolutely amazing.” With assistance from Modulate’s voice data experts, integrating ToxMod into Yeeps took only two weeks, including a switch over from Vivox to Photon Voice. The impact was immediate.
Scaling Moderation Capabilities with ToxMod
ToxMod quickly became an indispensable tool for Trass Games, catching and addressing toxic behavior that would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the game’s vast player base. CTO and Co-founder Nathan Jew says, “We wouldn't have been able to catch everything that ToxMod caught. So by just sheer coverage of ToxMod, we were able to catch things, ban players, and start setting this expectation that toxicity is not going to fly.” After officially launching in the Meta Store in July 2024, Yeeps quickly became one of the top performing free to play games, earning almost 50,000 overwhelmingly positive ratings and cultivating a passionate fanbase. “We wouldn't have been able to manage the community with human moderators alone – It would require something like 1,000 moderators to even come close to being able to moderate all the rooms. At the rate that Yeeps grew, it would have just been impossible.”
Powering Positivity for Players and Parents
One unexpected impact? Parents of young players have noticed the difference, providing positive feedback about the improved community atmosphere in Yeeps. Steve Shockey, COO and Co-founder of Trass Games, says, “One thing I never expected was parents contacting us and asking, ‘hey, why was my child banned? They said they didn't do anything wrong.’ And then I'd talk to them and say, actually, we have evidence that they said, this, and this. Parents appreciated that we were taking moderation so seriously.” Without a moderation tool like ToxMod, Trass Games wouldn’t be able to work with parents to educate their kids to learn how to become better gamers.
“Within the first two days of launching ToxMod, I was beyond impressed at how it had caught things that we would have never caught with even 500 to a 1,000 moderators.”
– Nathan Jew
Reducing Moderator Workload
ToxMod also helped to improve moderator workloads. Shockey says, “Moderators really appreciate it because it helps them do their job.” With ToxMod able to process hundreds of thousands of hours of audio, and generate reports on the most likely conduct violations, moderators were able to protect more players with more efficiency. Jew continues saying, “within the first two days of launching ToxMod, I was beyond impressed at how it had caught things that we would have never caught with even 500 to a 1,000 moderators.”
The success of Yeeps: Hide and Seek’s player safety strategy demonstrates the transformative power of ToxMod in managing large-scale online communities. By seamlessly integrating this AI-powered moderation tool, Trass Games has not only enhanced player safety but also fostered a more positive and welcoming environment for all. Together, Trass Games and Modulate are setting a new standard for voice moderation in gaming, ensuring that online spaces remain safe, inclusive, and enjoyable for all players.
Check out Yeeps: Hide and Seek on the Meta Store.
