Riot is still missing the point - Player behavior design
We have another article by Riot about player behavior that totally misses the point yet again. I wont repeat my statements in a previous post from their last article, so here it is.
The main problem is that Riot gives exactly zero attention to the root of the problem - the cause of toxicity. The majority of toxic behavior comes from frustrated people. How many times have you heard "I've been getting nothing but trolls so i might as well just not care about this match" or some variation? The issue is WHY people are being toxic.
The 'why' of toxicity is the biggest issue. If someone is trolling for the sole purpose of wasting other peoples time, and has a matchmaking history of buying dumb items and going 0/10/0 every game, it shouldn't take them 3 months to get a ban and then have 2 weeks off. The fact that their whole purpose was to ruin games for people demands an instant permanent ban.
However, if players are constantly getting matched with trolls to the point that their entire morale is destroyed and they feel they cant actually do anything to impact their games, then RIOT is the why for them. Not saying it is right for anyone to troll, but if you think its reasonable to expect someone to devote hours and hours to a game, have them tortured with no options to mitigate that torture, and then stay positive, you're insane. It is inevitable that if you match people with enough trolls, they too will become toxic.
Tl;dr - Riot needs to stop trimming the bush down and actually pull the roots up. Why are players negative? what causes them to be? How can Riot reduce those causes so that negativity doesnt even have a chance to grow?
