It doesn't matter what multiplayer game you play, you're going to find harassment, and Valorant is no exception. We've been playing the beta ourselves for a couple of weeks now, and it seems every other game comes with the complimentary jerk who is there to remind you how much of a n00b you are followed by some kind of sexist, racist, homophobic commentary they can muster. Because they're hidden behind a username with no consequences and nowhere else to put their anger except on faceless players in the void. Will they get reported? Sure. But it doesn't really stop the problem as it is more common among the general playerbase of most online multiplayer games than people care to admit. This brings us to a recent set of social media posts that went up this week from League of Legends UX designer Riot Greenily, who posted about all the harassment she got in Valorant, a game made by the company she works for.
Greenily recently livestreamed her experience playing the game, and depending on the kind of gamer you are, the results will either shock you or will be pretty unsurprising. We're just going to post all of them here so you can see what she experienced, and you can join us again below them.
Today's🍵: It's like this MOST of the time on solo queue voice comms REGARDLESS of the game I'm playing. I usually don't give in to this like in the video; I'm silent in an attempt to not incite more. Inevitably you get to a point where you have to mute them. More perspective: pic.twitter.com/7ruWcI78tL
— Tea! 🍵 (@Evergreenily) April 24, 2020
Even just posting this video is taxing because I go through these hesitancy loops where I think about
1. how SOMEONE will judge me just by the gameplay regardless of the harassment focus
2. painting a target on my back in any way
— Tea! 🍵 (@Evergreenily) April 24, 2020
I want to live in a world where this guy doesn't go and ruin other peoples' games. Where people feel safe to speak up. But reality is that in general voice comms land, for a ton of females, their safety mechanism is identifying ppl like this early and remaining silent or muting.
— Tea! 🍵 (@Evergreenily) April 24, 2020
Please don't be this dude who shouted "OH MY GOD IT'S A GIRL" the moment I talked; who called me his "babe"/ acted like I was his girlfriend throughout the whole game. I had to heal this guy because I'm trying to win the game and that SUCKED.
— Tea! 🍵 (@Evergreenily) April 24, 2020
This eventually lead to other developers taking some time to see if their experience differed, and as you might suspect from the previous set of posts, no, it did not. Riot Aeneia, who is part of the Insights & Strategy team at Riot Games, specifically for Valorant, chimed in with her own experiences. Which included a guy proposing to her.
All my life, I've had guys comment about me being a girl "" in online gaming. (For those who haven't heard me, I have a pretty high pitched, musical voice). They usually say something once, I make a funny affirmative comment, and they leave it alone.
Then last night happened.— Riot aeneia (@aeneiaa) April 24, 2020
This dude just wouldn't let up. He kept calling me a liar, that I'm actually a dude. He told me to "save [my] ideas for the kitchen." About half way through the match, he asked if I'm single. By the end of the match, he repeatedly asked if he could add me. He proposed to me.
— Riot aeneia (@aeneiaa) April 24, 2020
All of this caused Anna Donlon to respond to what was going on with her own post. Donlon, if you're not aware, is Valorant's Executive Producer. So when you see a post from her, you know it's coming from higher up the food chain in terms of the game's staff.
Gross, this is creepy as hell. This is why I can't solo. I'm so sorry. We're absolutely looking into long-term solutions for making it safe to play VALORANT – even solo queue!
— Anna Donlon (@RiotSuperCakes) April 24, 2020
Will they be able to find a way to curb the problem? We wish them the best of luck in doing so. But considering this has been on developer's radars since the days of Halo 2, and the best response we've ever seen from companies over the years is to either mute the player or report for a ban, anything they come up with at this point would be lovely.