VALORANT is a highly competitive FPS title currently in closed BETA which has been developed by Riot Games. There has been a lot of hype around this game and a lot of players from around the world have gone head over heels for a chance to have access to the closed beta drops available exclusively on VALORANT Twitch streams.
Riot’s entry to FPS takes a lot of inspiration from competing games like CS:GO, Overwatch and so on. The competitive aspect of the game makes it a fair contender to the current market leading esports titles. But unlike every other competitive title, VALORANT suffers from the same old issues of in-game toxicity. Recently, popular streamer Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys became public about all the harassment she has to face in-game on VALORANT. She explained that she faced a lot of unwanted attention and vulgar remarks on voice chat and asked the developers to provide an anonymous mode in-game.
VALORANT’s executive producer Anna Donlon finally broke the silence and addressed the issues regarding player behaviour and harassment in-game. It was made clear by her that the developers put maximum priority in providing a healthy and competitive environment for all the users.
Donlon said, “While I’m happy with the features we’ve developed to promote competitive, non-verbal communications (like agents automatically calling out when they see enemies with the spike, or our ping system), I still think there is more that we can and should do to protect those who do want to compete with all the tools available (like voice chat).”
On their mission to make VALORANT a friendly and healthy platform for competitive gamers, Riot Games has created a Central Player Dynamics team to deal with the science of fair team play. Riot has also formed a Fair Play Alliance with its partners from the gaming space for the same. To tackle the problems of in-game toxicity a player code of conduct is on its way into the game. This code will set the baseline expectations for player behavior and the possible outcomes or punishment for any sort of violation. When this code will be implemented is still unknown, but Donlon has assured us that it is right around the corner.
