Ideas for a Better AoE4 Social Climate

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

Hey everyone,

Love this game and the community around it, but like any online space, there’s always room to improve our social interactions and the general atmosphere. I wanted to share a few thoughts on how we might achieve this rather than getting bogged down by the negativity sometimes seen on external platforms (yes, Reddit, we’re looking at you)!

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Enhanced Mute Functionality:
  • Give players the power to curate their own experience. We need a clear option to mute “All Chat” entirely – in the pre-game lobby, during the match itself, and in the post-game screen. This makes engaging with wider chat truly optional and helps players avoid unwanted negativity if they choose.
  1. A Clear & Reinforced Code of Conduct:

  • Introduce a concise Code of Conduct that players must acknowledge (e.g., click “Agree”) after every major patch.

  • This should clearly outline basic principles: No Racism, No Harassment, No Cheating, No Intentional Toxic Behavior. Keeping it visible and regularly acknowledged reinforces expectations.

  1. Meaningful Enforcement & Consequences:

  • It often feels like only the most egregious of the 10 reportable offenses actually lead to action. We need more consistent enforcement across the board for clear violations of the Code of Conduct.

  • Integrate Chat Bans: For repeated toxic behavior, chat bans (temporary or scaling) should be a standard, effective consequence. This directly addresses a common source of frustration without necessarily removing someone from playing entirely for lesser chat offenses.

  1. Educating on Etiquette (Especially for Newcomers):
  • A simple, non-intrusive tutorial pop-up, loading screen tip, or a small section in a “Welcome to Multiplayer” guide could explain common community courtesies. This includes things like “glhf” (Good Luck Have Fun) at the start, and understanding that “gg” (Good Game) is traditionally offered by the player who is about to concede, right before they surrender. This helps set a good tone, clarifies established etiquette, and makes the multiplayer experience smoother for everyone, especially those new to RTS communities.

I believe these steps could significantly improve the day-to-day social climate in Age of Empires IV, making it a more welcoming and enjoyable place for everyone. We want to improve at this game and share the love for the game with others. People that are disrupting our community should not be given tools to spread toxicity.

What are your thoughts? Any other ideas?

Cheers!

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I don’t own the game or have Gamepass, but I think that all multiplayer games should have an option to mute everyone. People in their thirties, and older, get tired of the idiots really quickly. I’ve often played War Thunder with chat disabled.

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A global chat in main menu with channels that can be created and that people can /join .

The same chat from the civ-select screen being enabled during loading screen and lasting into the game.

An auto-translate feature that you can enable for other languages than your game’s selected one.

The ability to disable profanities if you’d like (seemingly many normal words are censored).

Enable emotes or even new emotes (better than the logos we keep getting for our banners).

The same channel feature being available in your social tab, allowing you to view channels you’ve joined and message people in it if they’ve enabled that.

The game is super bare bones in many ways outside of 1v1. Right now, social features are essentially just neglected with the assumption that people use Discord. And while this is true, I find people hang out in COMMUNITY discords rather than their own. So they’ll join Beastyqt’s discord, or their country’s AoE4 discord page.

Having these features baked into the game means international connections can be formed easier. You won’t have to seek out a larger community outside of the game itself, you just look for groups inside of the exact same game.

These games and companies are afraid of embracing social features because they don’t want to invest into maintaining or managing these platforms they host. It’s a bummer because I think games ought to bring people together, not become an antisocial tool for people to avoid human connection.

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Exactly! Without a “Mute All-Chat” Button I am forced to see the garbage some players type.

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