Riot Games Lays Out Plans to Curb Voice and Chat Toxicity in Valorant

Riot Games’ Valorant Producer Sara “Necrotix” Dadafshar and Insights Manager Brian “Riot South Korea” Chang shared their thoughts on the current state of toxicity in Valorant, and revealed the publisher’s plans to control bad behavior. The developers are working on systems to deter behavior such as insults, threats, harassment, or offensive language.

Current state of Valorant’s anti-toxicity systems

Riot Games shared that over 40,000 players were banned in January alone due to toxicity. But the publisher is aware that the numbers are indicators of behavior that was detected by the system, and it does not indicate that toxicity has been curbed.

Riot revealed in a blog post, “when we surveyed players, we noticed that the frequency with which players encounter harassment in our game hasn’t meaningfully gone down.” Riot will continue to develop its detection systems throughout 2022 to improve the player experience for its audience.

Upcoming changes to Valorant’s systems

Riot is trying different ways to engage with the player base this year and has the following changes lined up for its communication systems.

Harsher punishments for toxic players

Riot Games will increase the severity and escalation of penalties for players who are toxic. Riot considers the punishment handed out so far as “moderate” and we can expect more strict action taken against the bad apples of the community.

Real-time text moderation

Currently, there is a system which detects “zero tolerance” words when typed in chat but players are not punished until the end of the match. Riot is looking into ways to administer punishments immediately after they happen.

Voice moderation changes

The developers are working on voice chat moderation but it is still being developed. Riot has promised an update on the new system around the “middle of this year.” There are privacy concerns surrounding continuous voice moderation in Valorant and it remains to be seen how the feature is implemented once it goes live.

Regional Test Pilot Program

Riot Games launched a new program which offers players a direct line of contact to Player Support Agents. The system is live for the Turkish community and we more Player Support Agents will be deployed for other regions soon.