Most MMO game makers dedicate a large portion of their time to policing their games' communities and disciplining "toxic players." Robot Entertainment designer Jerome K. Jones believes that this is the wrong attitude towards game's "most passionate" fans.
"There's probably something good about the toxic players showing up and sticking with your game," he argued. "The good thing is probably that it's a good game. It's holding their interest, it's keeping them around. It's making them passionate enough to give a damn."
"They're not going to go away. And honestly, I don't think you want them to. You need those people there," he added. "They're driving the game. They're giving it longevity. They're giving it passion. And when they find something about your game that they love, they defend it to the death. Those are the same people that can go to bat for you."
Jones believes that players who get harassed in MMO games shouldn't fight aggression with aggression. Instead, those players should adopt a more defensive play style or play as support characters.
Jones is currently working on Orcs Must Die! Unchained which is currently in a closed beta.