Opt-in system

Another possible system is the creation of an opt-in system for online chat in video games. Currently the system is an opt-out system in which you can either choose to take yourself out of chat completely or you can choose to mute certainly.

An opt-in system would be different and would make it so that you have to choose in advance if you  want to hear certain players.

It has the obvious effects of curbing harassment in that it forces the player to choose who they will listen too. Both cyber-bullying and griefing rates would fall as would be “victims” wouldn’t be as vulnerable to random attacks.

This system’s realism comes into question, though.  It eliminates the fact that you automatically don’t talk to random players that may be assigned to your team, which in various games is really important for general strategizing and gameplay.  A feature like this could become more of a hinderance as people want to automatically be able to talk to all their teammates and they get annoyed by having to check people off every time they play.