Game developers are ramping up steps to ensure that gamers won’t use their platforms for incite speech and cyberbullying.
Valorant players can only use voice chat if they opt in Riot Game’s new policy.
Otherwise, they can only use the text chat in the game, according to the company.
Riot informed players in a letter that the company will start evaluating and moderating toxic behavior by recording all in-game voice communications in the first-person shooter game, Valorant.
According to the letter, the new policy extends to all games under Riot but will only be implemented in Valorant, for now.
The game developer currently has four games under its wing: Valorant, League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, and Teamfight Tactics.
“We want all our games to be safe and inclusive for everyone who chooses to play them,” the letter reads. “In order for us to take action against players who use voice comms to harass others, use hate speech, or otherwise disrupt your experience, we need to know what those players are saying.”
In the new policy, Riot will only be able to review the recording if a violation is detected or have been reported.
If no violation is detected or no report is filed in a timely manner, the recording will be deleted, just like how they’ve moderated the text chat.
Valorant isn’t the first game to implement the policy of moderating in-game voice chats.
In 2020, Sony Interactive Entertainment implemented a similar feature that raised privacy concerns for some players.
Sony’s new feature allows the PS4 and PS5 to record voice chat audio, which players can submit to the company for “moderation review” when submitting reports of violations, harassment, etc.
In PlayStation’s Community Code of Conduct, users may not use or promote hate speech, be vulgar or offensive, or encourage anyone to hurt themselves or someone else.
“We want PlayStation Network to be fun for everyone which is why we have a Community Code of Conduct,” Sony’s statement reads. “PlayStation Safety will review the reports to check if there have been genuine violations.”
Toxicity has been a problem in the gaming industry since its inception but back then, we didn’t have the technology and policies to avoid toxic behavior among players.
Now, developers are actively working with players to come up with non-intrusive solutions to ensure their games are free not only from cheating but also from rampant cyberbullying.
Although the system may be new and rough around the edges, it is still one of the ways developers are using to moderate and make the game safe and fun for everyone. (HD)
Tags: #videogames, #RiotGame, #Valorant, #cyberbullying