Sony Online Entertainment says those who harass other players via social media sites risk being banned from its games.

Speaking with GamesIndustry, SOE director of global community relations Linda Carlson outlined the studio’s stance on online bullying, which extends outside its games and forums.

Regarding those who were found to be abusive on Twitter, for example, Carlson said not only would they be banned from the SOE forums, but possibly from all the studio’s games too.

“We do not need those individuals as customers,” Carlson said.

"A very influential player, high up in a huge guild – we'll still ban them... In our games, if you are an exploiter we don't care who you are, how big your guild is, how many people you threaten to take with you when you go.

"We can control anybody who's playing our games... [but] if we know who you are and you're abusing somebody on Twitter, we will ban your game account and we will not accept you as a customer ever again,” she added.

“It's not always possible to identify people [in that way], but we take that seriously."

Those who made death threats or who ran sustained campaigns of bullying generally had a history of doing so, and isolated events reaching that level were rare, said Carlson.

"I don't believe anybody needs to put up with that stuff," she said.

"You cannot deal with it online because there are no repercussions for that sort of bad behaviour.

"I think what developers do need to do is understand human nature. They need to understand that this is normal. You may not like it, but knowing that is normal will help you deal with it. It's not just you - it's everybody, and, yes, they are jerks, but that's normal.

"I don't necessarily like humanity, or the fact that human nature so often trends towards the negative – just because that's how we're wired – but understanding that makes this whole field of study very fascinating to me, and I do consider community management to be a field of study. It's constantly changing, because our online communities are changing."

Sony Online Entertainment's most recent game is PlanetSide 2. It is currently developing EverQuest Next, which is expected to release next year.