While I’m not sure about DC’s historically funny insistence on what Batman does and doesn’t do in the bedroom, one thing’s for certain—superheroes like the ones in Marvel Rivals don’t typically say slurs and chew you out for your K/DA.
Alright, Frank Castle might look like he’s levelled some slightly harmful terms at my community in the past, but on the whole, screaming at strangers over a crusty mic isn’t something Captain America’d do. Maybe Jeff’s got a potty mouth and has been double-barrel firing some expletives below all those adorable gargles. Okay, and Magneto might have some spicy terms for non-mutants—look, I’m getting distracted.
Anyway, to keep your Marvel Rivals experience spiritually pure while you’re being choked out by Emma Frost, NetEase will be starting to monitor in-game voice chat, automatically screening it and then reviewing any suspect language with “human review”.
“This means we’ll catch more toxic behaviour,” explains creative director Guangyun Chen (Guangguang), “and players using inappropriate language will be penalised—making the game a better place for everyone.”
As to what “inappropriate language” means, I’m sure that’ll be revealed in time, but I’ll be surprised if NetEase starts cracking down on a few curses, given most auto-screeners listen out for tone of voice and context more than the swears themselves. As for privacy concerns, this sort of auto-screening using AI is pretty commonplace in modern games: Call of Duty‘s been doing it since 2023, for example.
Look—I’ll be the first to get hand-wringy over privacy. I’m not exactly a fan of our UK government’s insistence that you need to shove your face in front of a third-party company just to look at adult content (or, in some cases, just content) online.
However, I can very easily swallow the bitter pill of “I am using an in-game voice chat, so the people who make the game are listening”. It’s no different than Blizzard or Square Enix being able to pull up my whispers in World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14, for instance. It is what it is.
NetEase will also be implementing a custom word filter, which is also a sensible addition. I don’t like having profanity filters on in games, since I’m all grown up and swear-words don’t upset me—but I’d like to be able to blot out the randoms hurling slurs around just to get a rise out of strangers. Not because I’m clutching my pearls, or anything.
NetEase has been monitoring chat this way since July 24, but the custom word filter is yet to make it to the main game—instead, it’ll be coming with Marvel Rivals season 3.5.
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