Ubisoft and Riot Games Team Up to Counter Growing Toxicity in The Industry

A collaborative research effort between Ubisoft and Riot Games has been started to address hazardous information in online gaming discussion.

https://twitter.com/UbisoftMTL/status/1592925687366963200?t=lpDXVvXJ7W5gGAYTFVZbkA&s=19

Ubisoft, the developer of Rainbow Six Siege, and Riot, the company behind League of Legends and Valorant, said in a statement announcing the tech alliance that creating secure and compelling online gaming experiences requires teamwork and information sharing.

The businesses cited the study project “Zero Harm in Comms” aims: 

to create a cross-industry shared database and labeling ecosystem that gathers in-game data, which will better train AI-based preemptive moderation tools to detect and mitigate disruptive behavior”.

The initial study phase’s lessons will be disseminated to the entire video game industry by Ubisoft and Riot the following year. 

Disruptive player behaviors are an issue that we take very seriously but also one that is very difficult to solve.

Through this technological partnership with Riot Games, we are exploring how to better prevent in-game toxicity as designers of these environments with a direct link to our communities.” 

-Yves Jacquier/ Ubisoft 

With an existing shared commitment to establishing fair, safe, and inclusive spaces among the wilderness of online gaming, Ubisoft and Riot are already Fair Play Alliance members. Zero Harms In Comms is the approach they have chosen to take in an effort to address the problem of toxicity in chat. The companies said they’re attempting to “guarantee the ethics and privacy” of the initiative, though they didn’t specify whether their research will include text or voice chat, or both. 

Ubisoft and Riot are hoping that their research may be used to build a common database from which the whole gaming industry can collect data and train AI moderation tools to anticipate and react to suspicious behaviour. Ubisoft and Riot are using chatlogs from their respective wide-ranging and online-focused games to train the AI that is at the centre of the Zero Harm In Comms initiative.

However, it is still uncertain whether the research project will produce any significant findings. Whatever the outcome, it is encouraging to see initiatives like these to combat online toxicity in the expanding gaming industry.