Call of Duty Elite has improved the behaviour of players, says Activision.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Activision's digital VP Jamie Berger said that participants in the Beta were "behaving very much like people who just want to be social and have fun, not people who want to flame each other."
Anonymity, of course, has long been cited as the reason for why people misbehave on the internet, and Call of Duty Elite removes this veil, allowing members to know each other.
"How can we start behaving as if we live in a neighbourhood?" says Berger. "You try to treat your neighbours with respect. When you create a true community, that, to me, is the difference between social gaming and a community."
And seemingly au fait with his Rousseau, Berger makes the rather grand claim that Elite "creates a social contract," and consequently, "breaks down those anonymous walls and turns it into something where you start knowing each other". And in the process, it removes "a lot of the bad assumptions about what a shooter is."
Call of Duty Elite costs £35/$49.99 for a year-long subscription, although you can use aspects of the service for free. But if you stump up the cash, you receive all MW3 DLC when its released, pro analysis and Elite TV.
Do you think Call of Duty Elite can really reform trash talkers by stripping them of their anonymity? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Call of Duty Elite arrives with Modern Warfare 3. But it will be retroactively incorporated into Black Ops.