plans to do more to combat toxicity . The company is updating its privacy policy to allow it to record voice conversations in-game. Riot says it will only listen to and review a recording after a report is filed – the company will only monitor no voice communications during games. The move fits with Riot’s goal of making its games “safe and inclusive for all”.
The voice log review system is under development, but Riot wanted to give the community a warning. The publisher plans to beta test the system in North America before expanding it to other regions and languages. He’ll share more details about the movement before he starts recording voice communications, including with a message in the game client.
The only way to prevent your voice conversations from being recorded is to turn them off. The policy change won’t make much of a difference for players who only use third-party voice apps such as Discord. These people will likely be in rooms with people they know anyway, and they might be less inclined to set their friends and teammates on fire (at least in a serious way).
Riot only plans to record voice conversations in Valuing for now, although the policy update applies to all of its games, including , or . When it comes to data privacy, “we believe we need to collect the absolute minimum of data to effectively run our games and continually improve your experience,” Riot wrote in . “When we collect data, we will be transparent, we will only keep it as long as necessary and we will protect it as if it were our own.”
Toxicity is rampant in online games, and developers don’t always adequately moderate in-game voice conversations, where much of this abuse takes place. Examining voice logs and taking action against trolls is an important step in making games more inclusive and safer.
In addition to the voice recording change, Riot introduced a for all its games. It details the elements eligible for reimbursements, the reimbursement request process and the rules relating to reimbursements linked to third-party contracts. For example, in-game currency, skins, and emotes are eligible for refunds, while chests, prizes, and gifts are not.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through any of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
