Gaming Trust and Safety: Our Why

Hello, fellow gaming enthusiasts and industry professionals!

I’m excited to share with you a series of stories that are close to my heart and deeply woven into the fabric of our Trust and Safety team at Microsoft Gaming. As we continue our mission to create safer online player communities, I want to welcome you into our world, highlighting the passion and dedication that drives us every day. I have come to this work in a circuitous way, having been a classroom educator, contributing to a team focused on US Education at Gates Foundation, and then joining the Minecraft Education team as my first role at Microsoft really helped me learn and appreciate the beauty of gaming communities.

It was during my time on this team that I came to appreciate and better understand the power and joy of learning through games, students who struggled with the same old homework assignments, lit up when they had the opportunity to learn about science, math, and design by building energy efficient homes in Minecraft. And then to be able to build classroom connections across the world through the Global Minecraft Mentor Program I helped run only solidified my passion to support gamers of all ages to find the communities they want and need.

Our Why

Gaming isn’t just a job for us; it’s a lifelong passion. Many of us on the team grew up with controllers in our hands, embarking on countless adventures, solving intricate puzzles, and building vast virtual worlds. These experiences shaped our lives, fostering friendships and teaching us valuable lessons along the way. Take for example the work of our Technical Program Manager, Warren Lovell who shared his passion for this work and how it is based on his lifelong love of gaming:

For me gaming started when I was probably four or five with the original Nintendo home entertainment system. It was given to me by my cousins as a hand me down and I instantly fell in love with all things Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt and other games that would later become iconic. I grew up with Gameboy and Pokémon, and then moved on to the N64 and GameCube as it came out.

One of my fondest memories when it comes to gaming came in early 2006 when I received my first Xbox 360. With the release of the Xbox 360, I couldn’t wait to get my own. When I got one and set it up at home, I remember signing into the console for the first time and being asked to create my gamertag which at the time seemed like a simple task that was just creating a username for myself. Fast forward 17 years later it is now an identity that I still go by in my online games and communities. I played countless hours of multiple titles from Halo 2, Ghost Recon, Rainbow 6 Vegas and Gears of War. I made countless friends through my online interactions and still play with many of them to this day. From my parents’ point of view, I grew up on Xbox Live.

In 2018, a former coworker gave me the opportunity to join the Community Sift team. Everything was under NDA, and he was not able to share who or what I would be working on but told me I would love it. I trusted him and signed up. I was made aware that my first client and large project would be integrating Xbox into the Community Sift platform. It seemed like a dream to be able to work on a system that was going to affect a platform that I care so deeply about and wanted to make sure that it worked perfectly for my customer and for the people like me who have played on this platform for so long - knowing I would have a hand it ensuring the player experience remained a positive one was and remains my why. For people like myself who have played on the platform for so long could better their experience while also making sure that the fun banter and competitive talk could continue in a positive experience.

Warren is not alone in his passion for this work. Our Senior Technical Program Manager, Juliamarie Deckle who leads many of our Safety Operations efforts also shares her journey and why the work she does matters so much to her:

My journey into the world of gaming began unexpectedly when my brother brought home an original Xbox. I remember watching him set it up and the moment Halo's title screen appeared, and the music played, I was completely captivated. Spending hours watching my brother play, I eagerly awaited my turn. My gaming interests expanded from Halo to Fable, igniting my love for story-driven games and RPGs. Over time, my passion for gaming led me to explore various platforms, from PlayStation to a gaming PC, and my collection of games and consoles grew. The release of MMORPGs, particularly World of Warcraft, marked a significant chapter in my gaming life, connecting me with a diverse community of gamers and fostering lasting friendships.

This deep-rooted love for gaming sparked my desire to work within the industry, though I quickly realized that my strengths lay outside of creative design and coding. Instead, I discovered a talent for operational management and investigations, leading me to a career in Trust and Safety. Here, I found my calling in developing policies, processes, and tools aimed at creating safe, harassment-free environments for communities. My opportunity to join Xbox as a Trust and Safety Operations Manager felt like destiny, allowing me to combine my passion for gaming with my commitment to safety.

My experiences in World of Warcraft, especially the support and camaraderie of my guild, significantly shaped my approach to safety. They provided a welcoming introduction to online multiplayer games, transforming a potentially intimidating experience into a positive and enjoyable one. This sense of community and support is what I aim to replicate for others, ensuring that everyone can experience the joy of making lifelong friends and having fun online. Through continuous improvements to our tools, policies, and processes, the Xbox Safety team is dedicated to making this vision a reality. I am incredibly proud to be part of a team that shares my passion for gaming and commitment to keeping our community safe.

Why Safer Online Communities Matter

The gaming world is vast and diverse, bringing together people from all walks of life. This vastness and diversity is one of gaming’s greatest strengths, but these communities can also be challenging to maintain. As online platforms grow, so do the risks of harassment, bullying, and toxic behavior. What sets us apart in our work is that we are using Community Sift, our generative AI-enabled content classification and moderation solution, to create, nurture, and grow our very own community of Xbox players across the world. Through this experience, we are quickly learning about the needs of our customers first-hand, and those insights then get weaved into our product and aim to make every gaming community safer and more welcoming. What we offer through Community Sift is a partnership in community building, that grows with your players, leaving space for positive interaction, inclusion, relationships, and joy. 

Creating safer online communities isn’t just about implementing advanced technologies and policies; it’s about understanding the human side of gaming and welcoming people into new communities. It’s about recognizing that behind every avatar is a person with their own story, their own struggles, and their own joys. Our team’s personal connections to gaming drive us to make a positive impact, to protect the spaces where we’ve found so much joy and camaraderie.

Our Commitment

As part of our broader Microsoft Gaming mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, we’re also dedicated to leading the charge in promoting trust and safety across the gaming industry. Our team combines technical expertise with heartfelt commitment, striving to develop solutions that make a real difference. We’re building infrastructure for the gaming industry that we believe in and use ourselves. Our partnerships with some of the world’s largest gaming organizations continue to be foundational to our pursuit of a safer, more inclusive gaming industry. Please join us on this journey and add your unique voice to this vibrant community.

We believe that every gamer deserves a positive and respectful environment. By sharing our stories and our passion, we hope to inspire others to join us in this mission. Together, we can create a gaming world where everyone feels welcome, where every voice is heard, and where every player can thrive.

Stay tuned for more stories from our team and insights into the work we’re doing to protect and enrich the gaming community. Let’s make gaming safer and more enjoyable for everyone. We invite you to learn more about our innovative work in AI-enabled content moderation. If you're interested, please contact us via the official Community Sift page.

Game on!