Valorant studio head Anna Donlon says Riot Games is taking new steps to address toxic behavior in the game and has delivered a pointed message to the most vicious criminals."If you need to make truly evil remarks under the guise of regular shit stories to enjoy the game, play something else."

The video message (via Kotaku) comes after several instances of recent abuse were shared on social media. In the video, Donlon says that addressing such behavior is Riot's priority and "one of the most difficult issues" Riot faces, and Riot's systems and technologies reduce toxicity

At the same time, she acknowledged that these systems can't catch everything: "At the end of the day, you can't stop worrying about your own anxiety or your own bad habits." There are still some people in this world who want to take out something to some stranger through their computer screen or their hatred or their own day."

"Too often, we need someone who is experiencing the worst behavior — something terrible, something painful, where is the gap between our systems and processes" and that is exactly what we are experiencing and dealing with right now."

Riot has no interest in cracking down on "jokes" and is "not trying to sanitize the game by over-addressing these issues.""But players should not be forced to mute communication or "grow thick skin" to play online without facing abuse.

According to Donlon, most brave players who are sanctioned for bad behavior will never do it again, And "represents a very small percentage of our player base."But the current system is not enough to deter the worst offenders, so Riot is taking further steps to eliminate them. Over the next 30 days, Riot's policies will be updated to allow more serious penalties to be applied more quickly to "the most serious actions", such as hate speech, severe sexual content and threats of violence. New penalties will also be imposed, including temporary, permanent, and hardware bans.

Riot also plans to expand the size of teams that process manual behavioral reviews and to expand the use of voice evaluation systems that collect and evaluate in-game voice communications when disruptive behavior reports are submitted, in response to the expected increase in reports. Last but not least, Riot will "go back and conduct a one-time review of suspected offenders from previous acts and issue penalties accordingly."

Donlon acknowledged that most of these systems work after abuse occurs, but the ultimate goal is "to make sure that people who want to play Val like to play Val.""

The story is cheap, but Donlon's frank comments and approval that there are limits to what the technology can achieve are refreshing and filled with a widely positive response. Some players, of course, hold their applause until action is taken, but a frank assessment of the issue, and a clear step towards addressing it, is at least a move in the right direction. And for the brave players whose action triggered this update, Donlon did not engrave a word.

"If you need to make a really evil statement under the guise of regular shit stories to enjoy the game, play something else. We will not miss you," she said. Then, addressing the brave players directly, she continued, "We can't stop them from opening their mouths and saying something terrible. I wish I could, but I can't stop that part. All we can do is help escort them out of the game space."