I don’t think anyone will be surprised if I say that, with few exceptions, online gaming communities are a very, very toxic scourge. You never know what you’re going to encounter, whether it’s a child spewing racist insults, an adult suggesting you end your life, or, if you’re a woman, two thousand possible ways to traumatize you. “It’s part of the game,” say the psychopaths who insist on doing it. But as they made clear today from ‘Valorant‘, no. It’s not part of anything.
Toxicity out, bad vibes out
After a series of insults went viral through Twitter (which I won’t mention here because I want you to keep living without feeling sick), Riot has decided that it’s time to try to tackle, once and for all, the inherent toxicity in ‘Valorant’.
It’s not that they haven’t tried so far, but in the end automation can’t do it all, and many times bans have to be “painfully manual or rely on player reports”, clarifying that it is a general problem in the industry: “In the end there are people who want to alleviate their insecurity, or their bad day, or their hatred against a stranger through their computer”.
Very well, but besides acknowledging that there is abuse, what exactly are you going to do to prevent it? Well, first of all, update your code of conduct to impose stronger punishments (such as permanent bans) for hate speech or sexual threats with a larger team that can handle manual reports.
Are they going to end this with online harassment? Well, frankly, it doesn’t seem like it. At least they have made it clear that those are their intentions, which is more than many developers: “We are not going to reach a middle ground. If you need to make really mean comments disguised as banter to enjoy your game, please play something else. We won’t miss you“. Crystal clear.
