Season 1 Episode 2: Safe and Thriving Gaming Communities
Learn about prosocial gaming from a leader in player safety who has been innovating with moderation tools powered by technology and human ingenuity for over 16 years, Carlos Figueiredo. Carlos began his career in the company of hundreds of millions of penguins at Club Penguin, and went on to work on the widely used community moderation tool Community Sift at Two Hat Security before eventually ending up at Mojang Studios as the Director of Player Trust and Safety with the responsibility for ensuring the Minecraft community can thrive at scale. During his career, Carlos’s passion for creating safe spaces for play led him to co-found the organization now known as the Thriving in Games Group. We talk about a concept championed by TiGG – prosocial gaming, or the theory that many negative interactions in games can be prevented with game design decisions that encourage constructive behavior and thus head off disruptive behavior. Hear first-hand about what behaviors Carlos sees in game communities at scale and how he approaches design for varied experiences.
Disclosure: While I am a former Microsoft employee, I left in 2018 and Carlos and I did not work together. This podcast is not sponsored by Microsoft and all opinions are my own.
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Featured in this Episode
Carlos Figueiredo, Director of Trust and Safety at Mojang Studios
Carlos Figueiredo (he/him) has a mission to foster healthy and safe online spaces where we can enable the full potential of digital human interaction. Carlos currently leads Trust & Safety at Mojang Studios (Minecraft) where they work every day to celebrate and protect their community’s creativity and passion while ensuring interactions remain welcoming and safe. Carlos started his career in online safety at Disney Online Studios working on the beloved MMO game Club Penguin. He then became Director of Trust & Safety at Two Hat (creators of Community Sift) before moving to Microsoft and eventually Mojang.
Carlos is also a co-founder of the Thriving In Games Group (formerly Fair Play Alliance), an organization that helps game developers foster and maintain healthy and thriving player communities. He has spoken at eSafety Australia, FOSI 2018, Game Developers Conference, CMX Summit, Unity for Humanity Summit, RovioCon, and other global events. Carlos has also been featured in publications by The Washington Post, Game Informer, and Polygon.
Show Notes
Supporting Links
| Club Penguin | Star Wars Takes Over Club Penguin (Variety) /r/ClubPenguin: What did you like most about the game (Reddit) |
| Two Hat | OKGO: Two Hat Security Community Sift (Microsoft) |
| Mojang Studios | Minecraft: Meet Mojang Minecraft: Latest News Cyber Safe: Good Game |
| Riot Games | Play Nice: The Science and Behavior of Online Games (MIT Game Lab) |
| Thriving in Games Group | Digital Thriving Playbook Thriving in Games Group |
| Carlos Figueiredo on Socials | Carlos Figueiredo on LinkedIn |
If you only check out one resource from this episode, make it the Digital Thriving Playbook – it’s designed to help game developers of all levels, disciplines, and regions learn how to build games that encourage stronger social connections between players.
Episode Outline
| Scene | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 1:35 | Early Career Flashback |
| Initial Cutscene | 2:55 | History of Club Penguin |
| Host Commentary | 6:30 | Two Hat Security |
| Level 2 | 7:50 | Career shift to platform tools |
| Narrative Cutscene | 9:05 | Minecraft background information |
| Player 2 Level Up | 10:14 | Director of Player Trust and Safety |
| Tutorial Level | 12:30 | Defining Prosocial Gaming |
| Host Commentary | 17:24 | Self-Fulfilling Career Prophecy |
| Level 3 | 18:10 | Adaptive Player Safety |
| Tutorial Level | 20:53 | Learning from Player Behavior at Scale |
| Host Commentary | 26:56 | Player Dynamics in the Workplace |
| Level 4 | 28:40 | Player Safety as a Game Design discpline |
| Skill Tree Unlock | 32:09 | Combatting Bias in Community Spaces |
| Case Study | 32:55 | League of Legends /all Chat |
| Tutorial Level | 34:28 | Motivators of Play |
| Level 5 | 35:20 | Techniques for Prosocial Design |
| Level 6 | 37:10 | Using Games to teach in-game safety |
| Level 7 | 44:04 | Virtual Friendships and Digital Belonging |
| Level 8 | 48:44 | Skills and Career Advice |
| Final Level | 55:30 | Links and Follow Up |
The Game Development Strategy Guide
Carlos Figueiredo is featured as Player 15 in Cheryl Platz’s new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games that Thrive.
Pre-order before the release on September 16, 2025 direct from publisher RosenfeldMedia.com to receive 15% off, and a free ebook with every physical purchase.
