Riot Games Is Looking Into Harassment In Valorant After Female Dev Reveals Her Experience
Riot Games is currently looking into “long-term” solutions for in-game sexual harassment in their games like Valorant. This comes after League of Legends UX designer Riot Greenily recently posted a brief clip of her live stream, revealing the harassment she faced by male gamers while streaming Valorant on Twitch.
Today’sðŸµ: 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
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
Greenily’s post warranted a reply from none other than Valorant executive producer Anna ‘SuperCakes’ Donlon, who has promised that the development team is looking to create a safer environment for female gamers, including adding a solo queue feature sometime in the future.
Another female game developer, Valorant insights and strategy analyst Riot Aeneia, also revealed her own harassment experiences while playing. She temporarily solved the problem by simply muting her harasser, which she calls “strategic sabotage”.
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
I didn’t lose it. I tried several tactics to discourage this dude’s behavior, but none worked. He just kept at it. (Muting can be strategic sabotage, so I try to avoid it.)
But you know, there were 3 other folks in comms with us. None of them said anything about it. Not a peep.
— Riot aeneia (@aeneiaa) April 24, 2020
Valorant is currently in closed beta, but is only available in selected countries for now. The multiplayer shooter game recently broke Twitch’s single-day hours watched record in a single game category within its first few hours.
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