If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Riot Games – the US games developer and publisher (but owned by China’s Tencent) that publishes titles including League of Legends and Valorant, has updated its terms of service to give itself the right to punish users for what it calls “off-platform conduct.” Creators must align their content with the new ToS, which includes this rule, by January 3, 2025. Riot is “defining” what off-platform conduct can occur in the usual, for the wider tech industry, broad terms that are open to interpretation: “The various places that touch (users’) gaming experience.” It is added that Riot will not scour social media, but is instead depending on gamers reporting each other, even when “hateful slurs” are not happening in-game. Much of the ToS changes refer to Valorant. This game’s director Joe Ziegler has said that the goal is to prevent “the sort of toxicity seen in League of Legends.” Eligible for punishment could be a live stream with a Riot game appearing as “the background of the content produced.” Penalties range from suspensions to “Riot-wide” bans, and those penalties will be handed down “as if that behavior occurred in-game,” the new ToS states. If a gamer is violating this or other similar rules, their Riot accounts can get permanently banned. More vague language can be found in the company’s threat of hitting users with bans and penalties for a violation that’s “seriously egregious,” represents “something painful,” not to mention, “problematic” behavior. It’s not only the latest version of the ToS, but Riot execs, too, that “speak like it’s 2021” – Senior Vice President Anna Donlon was caught talking about Riot needing to “do better,” players not needing to “grow a thicker skin,” and such. Riot showed a little more character in a separate statement – although some gamers might easily find it to be, let’s say, “most seriously egregious, and painful:” “Evil statements under the guise of shit talk (are) not welcome here,” the company said. Riot does seem to be doing a lot, if not “better,” to present itself as a company complying with the gaming-centric censorship that has been burgeoning in recent years, and at times spilling outside the confines of games themselves. With in-game infractions of ToS that are seen as particularly grave – as Riot chooses to interpret that – users can even expect hardware bans. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Gaming Giant Riot Expands the Rules to Police Player Behavior Everywhere appeared first on Reclaim The Net.