Riot Games is doubling down on bad "off-platform" conduct and will ban content creators for infringement of its terms of service (ToS).
The video game studio announced that starting Jan. 3, 2025, users who commit an offense will be banned. These offenses include using slurs or offensive language targeted at another player while they are streaming a Riot title. This is even if it was not said in the game itself.
Riot Games' New ToS
The development is supposedly part of Riot Games' latest efforts to combat off-platform conduct and update its standards. The company is hoping that the latest move will further work to eliminate toxic behavior associated with its games.
The studio also gave an example of when the new standards will take effect. This is if a content creator streams a Riot game and uses an offensive term while the game was in the background of their stream.
This would lead them to be bannable under the new policy even if the language was not said in the game's chat, according to the Video Games Chronicle.
Riot Games said that if content creators say or do things to break their ToS while broadcasting or creating content about its games, they can be restricted from accessing their Riot accounts. The studio can also suspend their Partner privileges if they are part of the Partner Program.
It added that the new standards will be taking effect early next year. Riot Games will not proactively monitor everything that happens across social media. However, it argued that it was well within its rights to issue penalties in-game if the content is brought to its attention.
Bad Off-Platform Conduct
Riot Games is also doubling down on stream sniping, boosting, and smurfing in its games. The company said that these are no longer allowed. It is relatively hard to prove that someone is stream sniping in a game, Yahoo said.
The studio said that it was in the "early testing phases" of creating a penalty system that will let players report people who they think could be stream sniping.
Riot Games is also targeting content creators who seem to accept sponsorships from websites that provide boosting and smurfing services.
Boosting is when a highly skilled player is hired to play on someone else's account to reach a higher rank than the original owner is not able to. Smurfing on the other hand is using a different account in order to bypass matchmaking and play with less-skilled players.
The company posted saying that the updates to its ToS ensure that they are evolving with games and the content ecosystem. This was all to help ensure that people have the best possible experience, according to PCGamer.
