Online gaming can be fun for people to get together and jam out some rounds of their favorite games with friends. However, sometimes playing with strangers can be stressful and occasionally offputting or even abusive. Riot Games has undoubtedly had that latter issue in its popular MOBA League of Legends and is now taking more significant steps to curb inappropriate language during games.
Riot announced in a blog post today that it’s removing the “/all” chat function in matchmade games of League of Legends, eliminating global written banter between players from both teams in a match. Here’s part of Riot’s official statement regarding the change:
“While most of our focus around behavioral systems in 2021 has been on gameplay-based behaviors like AFKing and inting, we’ve heard from you that verbal abuse has been a rising problem this year, too. We’re working on a number of changes to systemically address this at both the League and Riot levels, but one direct change you’ll see soon is that in patch 11.21, we’re disabling /all chat in matchmade queues.”
The post from Riot notes that “/all” being disabled is the only change being made to the overall matchmaking chat system. According to the blog, “enemies will still be able to hear and see your emotes and champ mastery (unless muted), as well as CTRL+1/2/3/4 spam. End of Game chat will still be cross-team. Allies will still be able to coordinate with each other in team chat.”
While the global conversation in games will be halted, you’ll still have chat enabled with your teammates. Riot recognizes abuse and harassment could also come from within your team. Though the company says keeping lines of communication open between allied players “plays an important team coordination function, so the potential value it brings is much higher, even if it can also host some negative experiences.”
It’s not a perfect solution, but anything that makes pickup games a more pleasing experience is a step in the right direction. Riot has not announced when patch 11.21 goes live but should happen in the next week or two.
