One of Riot Games’ eternal struggles is against toxicity in their games. He bad player behavior It has affected the company’s image on multiple occasions and they have made efforts for years to avoid a situation that has been shown to cause many users to avoid their video games. One of the last attempts at improvement was the introduction of a real-time intervention and text analysis system that has been introduced in Valorant in its most recent update. This tool can punish users who use the game chat to insult their teammates during games and it is quite useful. However, its implementation has led to a surreal moment that almost no one in the community has understood Spanish of the video game.
A new Valorant feature is to blame
If you type the word “serrano” in the Valorant chat, you will receive a punishment. This is not a joke. Just sending this text in a message triggers an automatic chat hang. The punishment is much more severe than it seems, since it blocks communications and prevents players from searching ranked matches or use the recently released Premier Mode. It didn’t take long for jokes about the ham to arrive. The situation has given rise to numerous jokes, but, above all, to great confusion in the community. The bulk of users simply did not understand what the problem was. It is normal because, in reality, this is a chain of problems.
The truth is that “serrano” if it is an insult. In Peru it is a derogatory way of referring to people with Andean features. A word that mixes the usual stereotypes against townspeople with racism due to the physical characteristics or cultural customs of the people who are defined by this term. No one in Spain or in most of Latin America uses it with this meaning, being much more common to use it to talk about ham or someone related to the mountains. However, the automated system does not take into account the cultural context or that of the conversation itself. Simply detects that it is an offensive word and applies punishments to the players.
STOP ME, I PUT SERRANO HAM, I’M CRAZY@RiotSupportES look at this and go… pic.twitter.com/ZbVZClBvo0
— RBLS DANIKONGI ®️? (@DaniKongi) August 2, 2023
The rest of the problem has been created by both Riot Games and the community. The developers have sinned from a lack of foresight or knowledge. Although there may be a technical challenge that we’re not considering, avoiding the problem seems as easy as create exceptions per server and make “serrano” not a reason for punishment if you are connected in Europe. The spread of the news through social networks has not helped. There aren’t many reasons to type the word in video game chat, and most users have done so after being trolled by your teammates or enemies.
The only positive part of the situation is that players have the possibility to Submit a report to Riot Games Player Support if they have been punished for using the word disrespectfully to other team members or enemies. At the moment and in the absence of a definitive solution, yes, it is better to keep the serrano as a taboo subject in the tactical shooter.
