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Upcoming Upgrades to Chat Restrictions

RiotRiot NeuroCat·9/15/2015, 6:35:43 PM·84 votes·188,436 views

Hi everyone! I work on Player Behavior and want to take you through some updates to chat restrictions launching alongside the big instant feedback upgrade. But first, a little context:

Punishments for negative behavior in League should accomplish three things:

Encourage moderately or occasionally negative players to reform
Shield players from negative experiences
Remove players who won’t reform from League

Since we launched chat restrictions last year, we’ve observed a few problems. Some negative players accumulate ridiculously high numbers of chat restrictions, yet use their limited chat to spread negativity without any sign of reform. Others reform their behavior, but still need to work off hundreds of chat restricted games before learning if they’d reformed or continued earning punishments. Still others would receive chat restrictions, but not know what specific behaviors their fellow players found objectionable and subsequently have difficulty reforming.

Here’s how we’re fixing these issues:

Punishments will rapidly escalate for those who don’t reform. Here’s how it works:
- First offense: 10 game chat restriction
- Second offense: 25 game chat restriction
- Third offense: 2 week ban
- Fourth offense: Permanent ban
We’re reducing the delay between action and consequence (which we’ve observed significantly increases rates of reform) by handing out chat restrictions within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Along those same lines, restricted players now receive escalated punishments as they ‘earn’ them, rather than waiting until their restriction expires to learn what’s next.
The offending player now receives direct feedback about their behavior. Players now receive in-client reform cards containing the chat logs their peers found troubling.

One last note: because of the scope of these changes, all chat and ranked restrictions will be reset and past restrictions won’t count against you in the new system. Everyone’s slate is wiped clean (for these restrictions), so this is a great time to turn over a new leaf.

All these upgrades go live over the course of this patch (5.18). Let us know what you think!

EDIT: I'll check back later to answer further questions.

EDIT 2: On the topic of ranked season rewards

716 Comments

Saixos9/15/2015, 6:39:37 PM45 votes

Question: How will punishment "decay" work?

If someone gets to the 2 week ban before it clicks and they reform during their break from league, and then 6 months later they have a series of bad games or it's been so long since a punishment that it doesn't feel imminent anymore, I don't think they should get a permanent ban if they've been neutral/positive for the past 6 months.

KarmaWhore9/19/2015, 8:08:16 PM30 votes

Here's my two cents on this issue, and I've been pushing for it for a while. Riot's new changes focus very heavily on intensifying punishment. I think that's alright (I really don't wanna be throwing out legal shit like Beccaria here). What I do think Riot fails to understand is that getting rid of negative players doesn't make a positive community. It just makes a non-negative one.

I don't know how many people have seen my pushes to get the Dawngate Karma system brought over into League. For those of you who don't know, Dawngate (Rest in Peace) had a system where people can vote on whether or not teammates and opponents contributed positively to the game. The more Karma you get, the better your endgame reward (and this doesn't come at any cost to the voter themselves). Now if Riot gave out 10IP for every vote you receive in the endgame, you could have the potential to get 90 IP extra per game, a pretty significant amount.

This system basically works where the honor system failed. The honor rewards were useless because Riot made it nearly impossible to get one. Furthermore, they were merely aesthetic, and didn't really affect the player in any way. While Riot can and should punish people with negative attitudes, they should also aim to reward people with positive ones. This means that players will work hard to help their teammates and be positive, even if it's for selfish interests.

I haven't seen any Rioter give a definitive response on why such a system can't work, but if anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to respond.

Valenten9/15/2015, 7:02:26 PM21 votes

Silly question but how with the new system determine if a person actually deserves a chat restriction. Cause Ive been reported for actually giving constructive advice but was reported for what I would assume is "verbal abuse".

Cowgirl Ed9/15/2015, 6:37:22 PM13 votes

just remove the mute button if you fear a word of a kid can hurt me.

The Bíg Ticket9/15/2015, 6:40:50 PM12 votes

Pff..I don't take posts from gold players serious.

WLsAtKwV3X9/16/2015, 11:27:31 PM12 votes

imo,

There should be no "Permanent Account Ban" If someone gets to that point, ban them from chat for 3 months - 1 year (they cant type but can still see chat), and if their Behavior improves after that, the ban may get shorter. This is just my opinion!

RiotRiot NeuroCat9/16/2015, 11:15:36 PM11 votes

Hey guys,

A lot of you have been asking about season rewards. I wanted to repost the guidelines Lyte posted on his ask.fm:

Because we've launched Instant Feedback, Upgraded Chat and Ranked Restrictions and Intentional Feeder Detection during the 2015 Ranked Season, we've decided to make some changes to the 2015 Ranked Rewards policy. Our design philosophy focuses on player reform wherever possible; however, a second goal was to make it super obvious whether players would receive rewards or not by End of Season, and to reinforce that sportsmanship is a fundamental aspect of competitive play. By announcing the changes at this time (especially after the restriction reset), the vast majority of punished players should have enough time to reform by the End of Season. Here's this year's Ranked Rewards policy:

Players with ACTIVE Chat and Ranked Restrictions by End of Season will not receive ranked rewards.

Players that have received game bans for cheating (hacking, scripting, Elo Boosting, etc) will not receive ranked rewards.

Players that have received game bans for player behavior (verbal or gameplay toxicity) will not receive ranked rewards UNLESS they have had no punishments for AT LEAST 3 MONTHS up to the End of Season.

Players that have received Low Priority Queues (from LeaverBuster) will not be affected in 2015 because we don't want to punish players for the random DC or hardware/ISP failure.

Ranked Reward eligibility is reset every season. So, if players are excluded from rewards in 2015, they are eligible for rewards in future seasons as long as they are neutral or positive.

Players that are intentionally toxic on purpose for the rest of the season because they are ineligible for rewards will be given penalties up to a permanent ban.

Hopefully that clears up any questions about Ranked Rewards in 2015. For next season, we'll be posting this info earlier in the season; in addition, player behavior systems will inform you in-game when you are approaching ranked reward ineligibility.

Penns9/16/2015, 3:27:18 PM9 votes

Is spamming emotes considered "toxic"/ punishable? :D

44400907_DEL9/15/2015, 9:27:40 PM6 votes

Will i ever be able to lower this if i reform? or do i really spend the next 2 years completing it

Starlighte9/15/2015, 8:10:32 PM6 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot NeuroCat,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Boqd81O0,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-09-15T18:35:43.427+0000)

Punishments will rapidly escalate for those who don’t reform. Here’s how it works:

First offense: 10 game chat restriction

Second offense: 25 game chat restriction

Third offense: 2 week ban

Fourth offense: Permanent ban

Let's talk a bit more about this specifically. You're saying, in an earlier response, that a player doesn't simply have 4 strikes. If they show genuine improvement, and have a temporary lapse months or even years later, that Riot isn't going to just pick up at whichever strike they left off at prior to reforming? So 2 chat restrictions in October 2015, won't mean that if you start being negative in August 2016, you'll get an instant suspension?

Sojourn Aeternus9/16/2015, 9:04:59 PM6 votes

Moral of this story. I will no longer use chat at all. Because players can and will find everything objectionable and will report you. I've been reported for begging my teams to actually play and push some objectives down rather than sit on our side of the map doing nothing apparently.

While I appreciate that my current restrictions will be lift (haven't been playing the game because the punishment system is horrible and players will report you for everything). I might as well be permanently restricted for how I will use the new system.

What's more, I've seen chat logs that were clearly jokes between ME and FAMILY members. Or the context wasn't directed towards any players or being toxic, used as an excuse of my toxicity. In this world of overly political correctness, you will never know what serve as a good enough reason to be banned.

Zxkuqyb9/15/2015, 10:03:56 PM5 votes

Thank you Neuro, and nice work. :)

But just wondering. But if someone had a 2 week ban a year ago (before any of the new systems or automated feedbacks went online) and have not been punished at all (neither chat/rank or time banned afterwards), they get instantly permabanned instead of chat restricted if they mess up and have a tilted day?

PaperMache79/15/2015, 7:29:50 PM5 votes

Why isn't there any bans that last a few days between chat restrict and 2 week ban. Most people I know would consider a chat restriction very benign, but a 2 week ban extreme.

Usernamehere12359/15/2015, 9:27:24 PM4 votes

A permanent chat ban? Why? That doesn't help anyone. If a player is being a consistent asshat in his games, don't permanently chat ban him. That gives him 0 opportunity to reform, and that makes his account quite a bit less useful. If his intent is to go around spreading hate, he'd just make a new account. From my perspective, why would you give anyone a permanent chat ban? Just ban the account permanently. That punishment makes loads more sense than a permanent chat ban. Also, the 2 week ban. That could very easily be a shorter ban than a 25 game ban, depending on how often the abuser plays. Now that might not be a problem, but it is something to think about.

lolipopevelynn8/24/2016, 9:50:51 PM4 votes

you know whats funny? even now they are still emphasizing chat oriented punishments, which can easily be solved just by hitting /mute all or removing the chat. Yet they still do nothing about INTENTIONAL trolling such as lane stealing, intentional feeding, ping spamming, and etc that actually physically impacts the game way harder than a chat box.

Nasi the Nabking9/16/2015, 2:26:44 AM2 votes

I have a question Neurocat. What happens to those who got banned a week ago for 2 weeks? Will their chat and game restrict get wiped out or since their return happen a week later than this patch it's remain?

Biffolo9/16/2015, 1:39:37 AM2 votes

Can you elaborate on wiped clean? Are all my remaining games getting wiped? Or will I just get a new set after playing one game even presuming I'm silent, based off old things? I'm a little confused by this.