Riot Games is now trying to take drastic action against Toxicity in League of Legends.
Riot Games announced on Tuesday that it will soon remove the all-chat feature for all queues in League of Legends. This is the developer’s attempt to combat increasing toxicity in the game. The change will be introduced in patch 11.21.
TLDR – trying a test where we turn off All Chat (team chat still exists of course). Test is driven by rate of negative interactions versus positive ones.
Will see what people think of the experience with it off, assess whether to keep it off or re-enable. https://t.co/Ugru2ClBdV
– Andrei van Roon (@RiotMeddler) October 12, 2021
The ability to communicate with the opposing team in chat has been an integral part of Riot’s MOBA and has been actively used. In a official announcementit says: “Although “Everyone” chat can be a source of social interactions between teams and fun banter, negative interactions currently outweigh positive ones.”
Increasing negativity and insults in the solo cue, in particular, were main reasons for the decision, it said. However, communication between the two teams will not be completely restricted. Masteries and emotes will still be visible and audible across teams if this option is activated. In addition, all-chat is to be maintained in the final seconds of the match to exchange the obligatory GGs at the end of the round.
A few more all chat test details:
– Plan is to test for a couple of patches, then survey player opinion.
– Potential responses then include keeping the change, reverting it entirely, keeping it in regions positive on it and reverting elsewhere, changing which queues it applies to– Andrei van Roon (@RiotMeddler) October 12, 2021
Riot admits that all-chat is not the only source of toxicity in League of Legends, as many complaints about toxic teammates tend to come from within the team. Still, the developer believes the planned path is an effective solution to the growing problems between the playerbase. The loss of the all-chat, for which a manual option to deactivate already exists, is therefore seen as a necessary evil.
Even if we have to say goodbye to the all-chat, the function will remain with us until the release of patch 11.21 on 20 October. So far, the feedback from the community has been predominantly negative, and many are already mourning its loss. However, Riot does not rule out a return.
