Riot announced that they will begin recording voice chat for moderation on Valorant. There is no way to opt out other than not using voice chat.

"We know that disruptive behavior using voice chat is a concern for many players and we are committed to addressing it more effectively. We need to know what those players are saying in order to deal with players who use voice chat to harass other players, engage in hate speech, or otherwise disrupt the play of other players."

It is no secret that multiplayer gaming is a tricky space. The multiplayer shooters I play are toxic, and "Valorant" is one of the worst of them. During the pre-release beta, a UX designer at Riot tweeted a video of the harassment he received in Valorant. In response to that tweet, Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon promised to find a "long-term solution" to curb the toxicity.

That was a year ago. Today, Donlon addressed the new voice chat recording policy in a series of tweets.

"There is a huge problem in the 'culture' of competitive gaming right now regarding voice chat," she wrote.

"If you don't know about it, then you probably haven't suffered the in-game abuse that so many others have suffered. Or perhaps you just don't care."

"I read and hear the behaviors people report. I hear it myself in-game. Please don't say 'just mute it'. This is a meaningful step and one of many steps we all need to take."

Voice chat recording will only take place in Valorant for now, but a new privacy policy will allow Riot to do the same in League of Legends and other Riot games if they choose.

Riot states that it does not "actively monitor" voice chat, but will record and replay voice logs if voice abuse is reported. It is technically possible to prevent this from being recorded, but to do so would require turning off voice chat altogether (something you don't want to do in a team-based FPS where cooperation is required to win). If Riot acts on a report against you and checks your voice log, that data will be made available to you and deleted after the report is closed.

Recording voice chats is uncommon in video games. All major multiplayer games record text chat, but voice chat is generally unregulated (and can be a real cesspool for that reason.) Given that the PlayStation 5 can record and moderate party voice chat, this practice may become increasingly common.

It has always stuck with me that developers pay lip service to punishing in-game toxicity, yet leave voice chat potentially more harmful than text chat. So far, game operators have effectively monitored only half of the ways players abuse each other, and knowing that Riot is recording my voice doesn't seem to make much difference to the expectations I already have that anyone can record a multiplayer match (and my voice) at any time.

So far, the response from players has been positive from what I have seen. Along with this major change, Riot is exploring "other approaches" that they believe can improve in-game interaction.