Last week, Capcom's highly anticipated new title, Monster Hunter Wilds, rolled out its second free update, which unexpectedly triggered a cascade of issues. Numerous players reported crashes and freezes, leading to a wave of negative reviews due to perceived quality control failures.
However, yesterday (July 5), Capcom officially announced its policy to address "customer harassment" (known as "kasuhara" in Japan). This comes in response to recent incidents involving personal attacks, insults, character assassination, threats, harm premonitions, and obstruction of business directed at employees across customer service channels, social media platforms, and even game store reviews.
According to Capcom's announcement:
"We have always valued customer opinions and suggestions as precious feedback, taking every voice seriously and striving to use it for improving product and service quality.
However, in recent years, we have observed instances of defamation, slander, personal attacks, character assassination, intimidation, threats of violence, or obstruction of business directed at our employees across customer service channels, social media platforms, game store review sections, and submission websites, sometimes even naming individuals directly. Such behavior, which exceeds the 'socially acceptable scope,' not only disrupts a safe working environment for our employees but can also harm their mental and physical health, and further impact the experience of other players or customers.
Therefore, we have established the 'Customer Harassment Response Guidelines,' and we will handle related incidents in accordance with these guidelines moving forward."
▼ Key points of the "Customer Harassment Response Guidelines" are as follows:
Based on the "Manual for Companies to Address Customer Harassment" established by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, if a customer's behavior is confirmed to exceed socially acceptable limits, we reserve the right to refuse customer service and related services. In malicious or severe cases, we may contact the police or legal counsel and take necessary legal or criminal action in accordance with the law.
▼ Examples of behavior considered inappropriate include:
- Defamation, slander, humiliation, character assassination, intimidation, threats, or obstruction of business directed at specific individuals (including via mail, customer service forms, SNS, website comments, etc.)
- Intimidation, verbal abuse, personal attacks, emotional blackmail, etc.
- Repeatedly making the same demands or applying one-sided pressure
- Physical violence or violent tendencies
- Unauthorized visits to the company or refusing to leave
- Unreasonably monopolizing customer service for extended periods or demanding service outside of working hours
- Unreasonable demands for employees to go to a specified location
- Demanding unreasonable or excessive compensation
- Demanding special treatment
- Demanding an unconditional apology without legitimate reason
- Demanding excessive services such as product replacement or monetary compensation
- Invading employee privacy
- Sexual harassment or other forms of harassment
- Demanding unreasonable disciplinary action against our employees
The timing of this statement has led observers to speculate whether it's related to the recent flood of negative reviews for Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam. Many players expressed dissatisfaction with the game's content, causing its overall Steam rating to drop to "Mixed," with recent reviews being "Overwhelmingly Negative" (as of July 4). A significant number of these reviews directly criticized the company or the development team.
Capcom's move is seen as an attempt to establish a defense for its employees and customer service teams, preventing further internal damage from malicious online comments. However, whether this will ultimately lead to a better gaming experience for players and restore their confidence remains to be seen.
via： CAPCOM 官網