Abusive behaviour in online gaming has been a hot topic recently. Now Riot Games has responded – by shutting down the /all chat in League of Legends.
You’ll still be able to see the chat with your allies, as well as emotes and CTRL+1-2-3-4 spam. But the /all chat is off, for now. The trial was announced by Riot Games on its website, and explains the reasons like this:
“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. 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.”
As reported by Polygon and Engadget, the reaction on Reddit has been less than positive, with some saying this removes the fun social aspects of League of Legends. Riot Games addresses the disappointment in its statement:
“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.”
is team chat worse?
Many in the comments are suggesting that abuse often takes place on your team chat – with teammates blaming you for messing up in matches. Back in 2019 we wrote about exactly this phenomenon, where a female streamer was abused by teammates in Overwatch. Among other horrible insults, she was told to “Shut the f*ck up and make [them] sandwiches.”
The online gaming space has always been fraught. It does seem like there have been increases in hateful behaviour over the last 18 months. Last month we saw Twitch attempt to curb hate raids on its platform with the introduction of new tools. After streamers boycotted Twitch on 1 September to bring attention to the issue, the platform upped the ante. They’re now suing two streamers who’ve allegedly been instigating hate raids. As someone who quickly realised that I found participating in online gaming too tough, it’s good to see gaming companies taking the issue seriously.
If any of the topics discussed in this article have negatively impacted you, there are people out there who can help.
Safe in our World
The Calm Zone
MIND
Samaritans
Rethink
Mental Health America
Featured Image Credit: Riot Games