Riot Games has shared an announcement that can confirm it will begin recording and evaluating in-game voice communications in Valorant next month. This is part of a new game system that Riot Games has implemented to combat disruptive behavior, something that the developer believes could be reduced by collecting “clear evidence that could verify any violations of behavioral policies.” This evidence will be used not only to prompt Riot Games into taking action, but also to help the company explain to a player why their actions may have resulted in a penalty. Valorant is a free-to-play FPS developed on Unreal Engine 4 that launched in the summer of 2020 for Windows PCs following a closed beta period. Riot Games was acquired by China’s Tencent in 2011.
On July 13 we will begin a background launch of the voice evaluation system in North America/English-only to help train our language models and get the tech in a good enough place for a beta launch later this year.
Voice evaluation during this period will not be used for disruptive behavior reports. That will only begin with the future beta. And we know that before we can even think of expanding this tool, we’ll have to be confident it’s effective, and if mistakes happen, we have systems in place to make sure we can correct any false positives (or negatives for that matter).
This is brand new tech and there will for sure be growing pains. But the promise of a safer and more inclusive environment for everyone who chooses to play is worth it.
Source: Riot Games