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Valorant developers will not accept bullying and harassment

Valorant developers will not accept bullying and harassment

Valorant developers would like to create a community that is free from harassment and bullies.

As detailed in a blog post, executive producer and leader of Valorant's development team Anna Donlon is committed to ridding the tactical shooter of toxic behaviour.

"I'll be super real here: harassment and bullying in games is not a status quo I'm comfortable accepting," said Donlon.

"I replied to a colleague's tweet last month about my fears of solo-queuing, a problem I've had for many years of multiplayer gaming. And I'm not alone. We've learned to mute others who are harassing us. We've learned to mute ourselves in order to keep the peace. And as a result, we have a competitive experience that can feel compromised. We often find ourselves at a disadvantage."

Valorant's development team will get the ball rolling by "publishing our code of conduct as soon as possible."

As Donlon has acknowledged, these issues are embedded in society and will be difficult to tackle. However, she and the team are determined to rise to the occasion.

"This is a very hard space to take on. I can't solve society, and some of these issues are really, really deeply entrenched," said Donlon.

"But what I can say is that Riot takes this seriously—it's why we established a dedicated 'Central Player Dynamics' team to tackle the science and research of what promotes fair team play (it's not always punishments!), and it's why we formed the Fair Play Alliance with our partners in the gaming space."

However, Donlon has stressed that players will not be banned from being over-excited or enthusiastic about the outcome of the match. But, if those boundaries are pushed into the realm of harassment, that is where the team takes issue.

"With any competitive game, we expect spirits to get high and things to get tense—we're not going to ban someone just because they got passionate about winning or losing," said Donlon.

"But I also know that some experiences can go beyond enthusiasm; sometimes they extend into harassment. That's what we're not okay with."

Riot Games has a history of poor behaviour in its games, namely, League of Legends. In February, it was reported that around 79 per cent of LoL players had experienced harassment. Meanwhile, almost all the players have been insulted in-game.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.