By Todd Russell
PGM member and Twitch Vtuber streamer Sonic321Master (https://www.twitch.tv/sonic321master) chimed into the Discord with this:
Curiously, I started reading Steam reviews for the game Among Us 3D (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168600/Among_Us_3D/), seeing reviews like this:
One Steam review doesn’t condemn a game, but reading more of the overall mixed reviews and others are saying they were banned within hours for their speech in voice channels while streaming/playing in private games with their friends. These do not appear to be public matches?
Sorry to those under 18, but my suspicion with this game is there are minors playing, sort of like Roblox. Rather than police the voice chat with human moderators, to protect minors, they seem to be, allegedly, using AI. Reading further into the reviews:
Clearly, this is a game younger players enjoy and adult game companies legally have to protect them. It’s the reason here at PGM we’re 18+. I don’t want to play games with minors. The only exception would be our grandchildren and perhaps their friends with the grandkids to make sure they are in a safe situation and not playing with any shady adult gamers.
Child protection is a real thing, but using AI to scan private voice chats just sits wrong with me on multiple levels.
If this is the case here with Among US 3D, and not going to spend $8 while it’s 20% off on sale to research, but I do not like the idea of using AI for voice moderation to ban human players in games. For 25+ years human mods, often volunteer other active games have been mods in games. Let’s not get rid of humans making moderation decisions on other human gamers. I think using AI to help human mods make decisions would be fine, but gamers should not be autobanned by AI.
It’s Skynet in gaming. Totally.
There is also something known as a mute button. Allowing gamers to mute other players with offensive language is another way to let gamers moderate other gamers. Personal responsibility goes a long way in gaming and life.
Those that watch the thousands of hours of my streaming know that I rarely use profanity. Also, PGM is an 18+ community, so it’s not a case of me wanting language that is more friendly to minor gamers. And it’s definitely not that I’m any kind of prude, but PGM streams are typically scheduled during the work day in America and we want most of our streams to be work-friendly, as far as language used. That said, I don’t have a problem with gamers or other streamers swearing. I watch other streamers that frequently use profanity. Personal choice.
Also, I’m a writer. I have a large dictionary of words to pull from to describe how I feel and profanity to me is often overused, abused and, thus, weak speech. It’s more effective when used sparingly. The more one swears, the less it means. This isn’t a soapbox, it’s how I choose to communicate.
That said, AI is a horrible moderator. It might be acceptable as a mod assistant, but we don’t need no stinking AI bots making autoban decisions. That’s my position on games that adults play. I’m a little more relaxed on this for games where minors are playing. I get that if a company is focusing on younger gamers, they need to be responsible with voice chat or, wait, here’s an idea: just don’t include voice chat!
Minor gamers can use Discord with their friends while playing. Most games do not need their own voice chat system. Maybe that’s the answer, game developers and publishers: just don’t include any voice chat system in your game.
What do you think, readers? Is this a non-issue? Should AI mods be a thing in 2025 and beyond?