Riot Issues Report on Toxic Valorant Players, to use Voice Recording and Analysis to Ban Players

Riot Games released a report today, on the development of anti-toxic measures in Valorant, as well as the future of such initiatives. The report includes a beta program to record and analyze the voice communications of players reported for abusive conversations.

Last year, Riot revised its terms of service to reflect the change. The company plans to begin a beta rollout of its voice moderation program in 2022. The report was short on details. However, recording and analyzing audio communications for moderation will only be used after a player is reported for toxic behavior.

The report did not address the issue of how many times a player will be reported before they're monitored. Additionally, details of how the punishment and appeal process will differ from Riot's existing anti-toxicity measures are missing.

The report's major focus was on explaining Valorant's existing system for muting inappropriate words in text chat. The report emphasized the importance of player reporting in positively impacting the game. 

 Surprisingly, despite the fact that sanctions are increasing, Riot's player surveys suggest that the perception of harassment in Valorant is stable.

 “…we noticed that the frequency with which players encounter harassment in our game hasn’t meaningfully gone down. Long story short, we know that the work we’ve done up to now is, at best, foundational, and there’s a ton more to build on top of it in 2022 and beyond.”

 It is impressive that Riot acknowledged the discrepancy rather than simply touting the increased rate of moderation as a victory.

Overall, this report is a positive move. The idea of using recorded and analyzed voices against players could make some people uncomfortable. Considering the heinous things we've overheard while playing competitive games, any effort to prevent such conduct is absolutely welcome.

You can see the whole Report by Riot here on toxic Valorant players. What are your thoughts on this report by Riot? Do you think it will help improve your experience? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.