This isn’t the first time Riot have had to make changes like this to cut back toxicity. Heck, they started recording voice chat in Valorant this year to try to tackle hate speech. With League, Riot say verbal abuse has been a rising problem this year, and they’re working on a number of changes to address it. The first of these is ditching /all chat in the 11.21 patch that should go live later this month. “While /all chat can be the source of fun social interaction between teams, as well as some good-hearted banter, right now negative interactions outweigh the positives,” they say. “We’ll evaluate the impact of this change through verbal abuse reports and penalty rates, as well as surveys and direct feedback from you all.” I’ve heard many stories about the nastiness that goes on in League’s chat, though I’ve only dabbled in the game myself and (luckily) haven’t seen much. I have, however, experienced how awful Riot’s tactical shooter Valorant is when /all chat is switched on, and it absolutely sucks. Sometimes, chatting with the enemy team can be fun. You occasionally see an enemy player complimenting a teammate, or saying something daft to start a bit of banter. But I’ve found this is so rare compared to folks using /all chat to say horrific things to each other. Riot recognises this too, saying: “We know this sucks for those of you who just want to compliment your lane opponent’s skin, or ask for a dance party in Baron pit. But we believe the tradeoff is worth it to cut down on the growing negativity /all chat has been creating in your games.” Thankfully, both League Of Legends and Valorant don’t force you to see enemy chat. /All chat in League is actually opt-in (which says a lot about the sort of people who go out of their way to use it). Unfortunately, in Valorant, even if enemy chat is switched off, you still see your team’s responses in /all chat. I permanently have enemy chat switched off, and it’s sad seeing squadmates get sucked into an argument you can only see half of. And they won’t turn it off! They don’t want to turn it off. They say they’re not affected by the unpleasant things other people say, then they’re roped into saying unpleasant things back at them. Ultimately, even as someone who can’t see /all chat, players tilting each other there affects the match anyway, because they get so worked up they start doing daft things in-game. So, I’m over the moon that League’s /all chat is going to the grave, and I hope Valorant’s follows.
