Question Riot Begins to Record Valorant Voice Chat to Find Toxic Players

Status
Not open for further replies.
Apr 30, 2021
1
34
10
Visit site
Personally, I don't see how this is too much of an issue. Your voice data was already passing through Riot's servers, and anyone in the game can record your voice already.
Of course, as Speerk25 pointed out on the webpage, now Riot is definitely storing your data, where it can pretty easily be leaked (even Google is pretty unreliable when it comes to keeping data secure, so data leaks are a bit of a problem).
Currently, I'm trying to build a speech-to-text-to-speech program to make my voice sound as monotone as Alexa, but I'm discovering that you need a fairly decent microphone for this to work (an asset I don't have at the moment).

I mostly have some privacy concerns about this. People tend have FAR looser lips than fingers.
That, and it is fairly easy to trace people from voices, if you know what you are looking for. I'm pretty sure voices are considered "personally identifiable information."

Actually, a lot of people don't see the point of doing this if people can just mute the toxic players. However, I suspect that Riot wants to do this primarily so that they can analyze the records and see if reports are valid before banning them and preventing others from hearing it in the first place.

Of course, an alternative approach would be to monitor how often a player gets muted, and then start automatically muting them if the number of manuel mutes become exorbitant. Granted, this "self-governance" feature is theoretically open to abuse, but keeping the numbers hidden from everyone should make it a little more difficult for this to happen.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't have much of an opinion on the remedy, but just the fact that Riot is taking action indicates that they see:

1. toxicity as a major issue in their community

2. it's hurting their bottom line

It's similar in my mind to Valve punishing griefers in CS:GO, however Valve offloaded judging those cases on the community with Overwatch, and from what I'm seeing here, Riot will be handling reports themselves on a case by case basis. I don't know what that job pays, but it's not enough.

Will it work? Might do. Honestly it depends largely on their back end and how they process reports. Then again it just might force toxic players to button up and just quietly grief their teammates with the plethora of non verbal tools the game provides.
 

SHaines

Community Manager
Staff member
Wait, our voice comms on proprietary software weren't already being monitored?

I think some places may use AI for some general monitoring (or are trying to implement this), but this is specifically about actually recording and storing the raw audio, for at least a period of time.

I have found that just announcing this kind of feature can have an impact. Folks who are invested in a community don't want to be tossed out of it. While many people will simply ignore this and then post angry comments when the ban comes down, fear of accountability can at least sway folks who aren't entirely committed to spewing hate and toxicity.
 

spvtnik1

Community Contributor
Jan 13, 2020
186
415
1,970
Visit site
this is specifically about actually recording and storing the raw audio

And for the purpose of that audio being actively reviewed. I agree this is a new territory we're entering.

Imagine you just accepted a new job, and they hand you something similar to a non-disclosure agreement, except you're agreeing to be recorded and evaluated at all times? Amazon probably already has a document like this.

Often employees are being recorded, but NOT for the purposes of evaluation.

Oddly enough, isn't the Supreme Court also handling a case that involves monitoring student speech in the home?

What an interesting time indeed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS