Riot opens up about not including voice chat in League of Legends, says it is "more damaging to marginalized groups"

Universal voice chat will not be coming to League of Legends (Image via Riot Games)
Universal voice chat will not be coming to League of Legends (Image via Riot Games)

In-game voice chat was something that a faction of the League of Legends community has been requesting for quite some time now.

However, in the 11 years that the game has been out, the developers only included a “premade voice chat” system which could only be availed of by players queuing up for a match together. No voice chat system is available for solo queue players, and they usually have to depend on pings and written chat to communicate with the rest of the team.

However, Riot Games’ shooter Valorant launched with in-game voice chat features that are available to solo queue players as well. This has often sparked a debate in the community where many are clamoring for similar chat functions in League of Legends as well, so that “randoms” are allowed to communicate better with each other.

Unfortunately, League of Legends developers feel it’s not a good idea to include a universal voice chat system in the MOBA, as it could further enable disruptive behavior.

Universal voice chat will not be coming to League of Legends

youtube-cover

To address community concerns regarding voice chat, Riot’s BarackProbama opened up about some of the concerns that developers have with League of Legends and the toxicity that comes with chat.

He suggests:

“Unfortunately what we've seen time and time again is that the richer the communication tool, the more powerful it is as a means for disruptive behavior. Put more simply: It's way worse to be told you're a noob via voice than it is to be told the same through text.”
“And beyond that, voice is more damaging and disruptive to marginalized groups. It reveals more information about them that has been repeatedly demonstrated to increase the severity and frequency of harassment. (Think gender, accent, dialect, etc).”

Though Riot is apprehensive about implementing a universal voice chat system in League of Legends, it is still looking into ways that can bring “richer communications tools” to the MOBA.

A quick chat system might be in the works for League of Legends, as Riot did point out that it was something that they were interested in.

However, for voice chat, that feature is not something that the MOBA will be receiving in the foreseeable future.