Online games have a problem with toxicity and Valorant is no exception to the rule. I’ve barely played the Riot Games title, and it’s practically always been with friends, but the few times I’ve accessed it on my own, and to no one’s surprise, I’ve always found some other morning singer more concerned about looking for reasons for which to insult everyone than for the game we were supposed to be playing.
And no, I do not use the traditional excuse that we are talking about competitive environments, it is easy to distinguish between a punctual heat at a given moment, something that can happen to all of us (and surely has happened to us) and quite another is to justify the one who makes the insult the house brand. That is not a competitive character, that is being an idiot, and justifying it only serves to make it predominate. Be it in Valorant, on Twitter or in the classified messages of Teletext.
Thus, although I know that there are those who interpret this type of action as censorship, I can only celebrate that, as we can read in Yahoo! Finance, Riot will start monitoring Valorant’s voice chat to detect this type of attitude. On July 13, the studio will begin collecting voice data from Valorant matches played in North America.
According to Riot, it will use the data to place its AI model.”in a good enough spot for a beta release later this year«. During this initial stage, the company states that it will not use voice evaluation for reports of inappropriate behavior. but if all goes well with the AI training, we can count on Valorant’s voice chat no longer being a free insult and bullying space from early 2023.
I do understand, of course, the fears that may arise during the implementation of this system. In this regard, unfortunately, we all have in mind how badly Riot did with Vanguard, Valorant’s anti-cheat system that turned out to be potentially about as privacy-friendly as Pegasus. In this regard, Riot has an obligation to be as transparent as technically and humanly possible.
The key, in my opinion, is at that point, where Riot can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the audios recorded in the Valorant voice chat will be used exclusively for identification of toxic messages and attitudes. If so, my congratulations to the company, because personally I think it’s a step in the right direction.
