Cities: Skylines 2 lays out consequences for toxic players after rough launch

Developer Colossal Order has addressed the toxicity within the Cities: Skylines 2 community, implying it could pull back from engaging with fans if circumstances fail to improve.

Despite the city simulator receiving plenty of praise from critics when it launched on PC in October, fan reception has been notably less kind. Cities: Skylines 2‘s Metacritic user score is currently sitting at 3.7/10 compared to the average critic score of 74/100. Meanwhile, on Steam, though most of the user reviews are positive, there’s still a large number of negative reviews, marking the game with a “Mixed” rating.

The negative reception stems from how the game launched with performance issues and missing features, including a map editor which, at the time of writing, still hasn’t been added (at least not officially). Colossal Order is aware the game requires a lot more work, which is why it delayed its DLC plans. Unfortunately, legitimate complaints have been drowned out by toxic behavior directed not only at Colossal Order’s developers but even modders. One modder opted to retire and take down their work because of the surplus of hatemail they were receiving.

In a Jan. 15 post on publisher Paradox Interactive’s forums (spotted by PC Gamer), Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen touches upon the “growing tendency of toxicity” and how it disincentivizes people from participating in the community. “In the long run, this will really hurt not only the mood and the happiness of community members but also discourage creativity and modding, something we would be very sad to see,” Hallikainen said.

She added how the studio’s main responsibility is to protect its team members and while Colossal Order doesn’t want to stop directly interacting with players, it’s clearly something under serious considerations. Hallikainen asked players: “Should we add more moderation or is the only option to pull back our engagement on our end? How can we make sure the community is a safe place for you to share your thoughts and hopes for the game?”

The first batch of responses are positive, with fans issuing well wishes to the team and offering assurances that any toxic players make up a loud minority of the community. However, one player, Licenturion, believes toxicity was unavoidable due to the state Cities: Skylines 2 launched in. “Shall probably continue whatever you do until the game has its ‘redemption arc,'” they wrote. “But if you keep improving things with the thousands of suggestions and feedback reports in the feedback forum you will hopefully get your redemption story for CS2 too and toxicity will probably turn into praise after some time…”

Hallikainen retorted by pointing out there’s a difference between genuine criticism and toxicity, saying all the development team wants is the ability to meaningfully engage with the community. “We don’t want praise, we want a community where we can discuss with the players about the game, what is working and what is not without facing abuse.”