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How to Fix The Toxic Community

slendermustkillu·8/20/2015, 11:36:25 PM·1 votes·778 views

TL;DR the report system only makes things worse, and I think the community would be better off without it. Toxic players will never respond well to the threat or the use of the report system, and that will show throughout their future games, ruining it for all the teammates they ever get.

Notice: The following is 100% my opinion, mainly based off facts and the way I interpret the community and it's fine to disagree with me! Just don't do it in a mean/annoying way in the comments? Please. <3

As we all know, a decent percentage of League's community is toxic, there's no way to deny it. A lot of people will say "Just report them." and that's exactly why we have a toxic community. Now I know what you're saying, "wtf srs u nub teh report system is gud it bans teh trollz nd toxic d00ds" and I can understand that reaction from a single-minded League player, but first, give me a chance to explain. Saying "Report (so-and-so) for being toxic" in all chat and actually following through with that is only making the situation worse. Do you think a toxic player responds to this positively? No, they only get more toxic, which creates tilt, making them play worse, and it begins to spread to other players. The funniest part, and the part that makes the effect this has on the toxic players even worse, is the fact that the people who say and use the report system, are just as/more toxic than the people they are reporting.

Now I know a lot of you are saying "Well if Riot removes the report and punishment systems all the trolls will be able to run free!" and yes, you're right! Except for the fact that they just take off the chat restrictions and continue on being toxic. Oh, they got a temporary ban? Now they make/use a smurf and continue making the game worse for the lower-levels, yay! Oh! Their main is unbanned! The cycle repeats.

The report and punishment system does not stop the toxicity! It only makes it worse. Using it as threat only makes the environment even more negative, and players can't play or cooperate well in a toxic environment. Then, since they are on tilt and pissed off, the same thing happens next game. You're just ruining the game for all the future people on their team.

"But, but... what about all the report reasons?" they aren't needed! Why:

  1. Offensive Language: WE HAVE A CHAT FILTER, USE IT IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SOME WORDS!
  2. Verbal abuse: WE HAVE A MUTE BUTTON, USE IT IF A PLAYER SHOWS A NEGATIVE/TOXIC ATTITUDE IN CHAMPIONSELECT/IN-GAME!
  3. Assisting Enemy Team: A.K.A Trolling, the best answer to this I can give you is to make sure you dodge if it's a 100% loss, it sure beats playing 20 minutes of a losing game, especially if it's ranked (lose 3 LP instead of 20-23)
  4. Unskilled Player: This is just a bait for all the players who act negatively towards players who perform poorly in a single game! So basically its to calm down all the toxic players by giving them a lil' button.
  5. Refuses to Communicate with Team: This guy knew what he was doing, because if this report was ever used it was when a toxic player lost a game, and this wasn't why he lost.
  6. Negative Attitude: Read number 2.
  7. Spamming: Is it that hard for Riot to fix ping/chat spamming? My lord. 8: Inappropiate Name: If you are offended by someones username, well, who cares? 9: AFK: This system is automated, pleb, this is just used as an excuse for losing because of 4v5.

All of you're problems and the problems of the toxic players can be solved with one, simple thing, and I know you won't believe this: USE THE MUTE BUTTON! Do you think arguing and insulting the toxic player is going to help you, your team, or them? No! Just mute them, don't fall into the temptation. Want to report them? Don't fall into the temptation. Be a better player.

"So the toxic players will just run around free ruining games?" I bet you that the amount of toxic players would drop down if we all stopped using the report system or it got removed. Sure, the toxic players wouldn't face a punishment, but maybe the removal of the report system will push some people to actually use the mute button and we won't need one! With the report system, the players just sit there and flame each other until the game is over, then they report each other and the cycle continues. #Worf, right?

Do we actually need to use the chat at all? Name one positive thing the chat does to win games that pings can't. Yes, the chat can be funny and cool, and I'm not saying it should be removed at all, but muting a player will not effect your game. Pings can be used to show everything and more you could show with chat. To be honest, the player who mutes the people who were toxic in champion-select or as soon as they act toxic in-game probably has at least a 3-5% higher ranked winrate than the player who flames.

I know a lot of you say that the report system really can't be blamed for as much as I am putting on it right now, and maybe you're right. Maybe this is just a waste of my time and everyone will flame me for it. I just want to see how people will react to it, ha.

Now that I have two-handedly (it takes two hands to type!) fixed the mindset of everyone who actually read this and listened to what I had to say, I'd say it's Riot's turn! Do we actually need the report system? Do we really need to make this toxic community even worse? I think if they removed the report system and put everything I've said into an actual announcement post, everything'd be k like GP.

Now before someone goes into the comments and says, "You toxic noob bronze player who's main got banned for being toxic and is mad cuz bad" just know that no, my main has not been banned, and no, I'm not Bronze. I'm just a chill dude who thinks the community would be better off without the report system! ^_^

Anyway, I don't think this post will get popular because it's such a controversial topic and the people who inhabit the boards are more likely to support the report system! But that's okay, we can all deal with the toxic environment and lose because of it! ^_^

P.S.: I am aware this will probably never happen, because Riot tends to favor towards the people who this post goes against, that's why they allow the report system to wreck havoc! I'm just writing this to maybe get something from Riot or see if people can agree with me! <3

4 Comments

Deep Terror Nami8/20/2015, 11:38:00 PM2 votes

Toxic players will never respond well to the threat or the use of the report system

Tip #1 in reporting; Don't tell people you're going to report them. It will always make it worse for no reason, and doesn't make your report worth any more.

TraakSC8/20/2015, 11:42:51 PM1 votes

RIOT can't control how people act on the internet. There will always be trolling in online games, especially free to play ones. Learn to deal with it.

Dolyna8/20/2015, 11:48:09 PM1 votes

I think Riot should just display what we know about the reporting system prominently somewhere. Things such as:

  • Don't tell someone that you're going to report him. That in itself is considered to be toxic behavior.

  • Don't ask others to report someone. It's pointless. Any reports past the first from the same game don't add any weight.

  • If you make false reports, reports you make in the future will carry less weight.

There's nothing wrong with reporting someone. Too many people don't know how the reports are being handled, though.

ZephyrDrake8/20/2015, 11:57:26 PM1 votes

use the mute button... yeah that will surely stop the feeder from ruining the games, yeah that will surely promote teammates playing together in a TEAM game. That will also surely prevent people from just making new ways to just piss you off. Just use the mute button guys! that report thing? that's worthless! oh look that guy running down a lane and literally jumping into the enemies mouth? just mute him, what could a dumb thing like the report system do against that person? nothing i say! oh what's that you want to actually play as a team and do team stuff like coordinate something? fuck that! just use some random 3rd party thing! i mean why bother having something ingame that makes it so much more convenient and easy specially when you don't have a good mic/don't have one and don't trust giving people you just met your skype name and whatnot, just mute everyone and say FU team coordination... have i mentioned how muting someone also gets rid of their pings? TEAM PLAY!

You sir are a moron, and you should feel bad for it