Producer Rae Edwards discussed VALORANT‘s code of conduct in today’s blog, explaining that more players will start receiving chat and voice restrictions.
Abusive and offensive communication is unfortunately a common occurrence in online games. And while Riot had an interim structure in place to combat egregious violators, the VALORANT devs have deployed a new system to improve detection.
“We’ve recently deployed a new chat evaluation system that is running in English, which means you might run into more players who’ve received text or voice restrictions,” Edwards said. “Over the upcoming months, we’re expanding our supported languages and improving our detection so it does more than catch only the most egregious offenders.”
Edwards also said that the “worst of the worst” offenders received communication restrictions today. Those players said something “so obviously bad” that it was easy to detect.
The improved detection system is now running for English speakers, while other languages will be introduced over the upcoming months. Riot also wants to encourage the community to report violators, which is sent to the behavior systems for review.
Riot was under immense scrutiny for its lack of action toward toxicity in its other title, League of Legends, earlier this year. Former pro Voyboy famously sat on his stairs to call out Riot for its inaction that led to the “sad state” of solo queue. The company responded by enacting several changes, including a Champion Select mute and report feature.
“Hate speech, slurs, and any type of threat or bullying is not welcome in our games,” Edwards said. “Players that receive chat restrictions are reminded to use in-game comms constructively—we win and lose together.”
