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Gameplay and toxicity

Exanterith·3/20/2018, 2:47:42 AM·4 votes·417 views

Here's the core concept: You can mute to stop experiencing verbal toxicity. However, you cannot mute to stop an inter. So what do you do?

Most verbal toxicity I have seen stems from one player intentionally throwing 300g to a teammates lane opponent as an "F YOU" and other players RESPONDING with a verbal "F YOU." Which is worse?

Now lets talk about competitive meta and game design. Competitive sports are traditionally filled with adults who are oozing with adrenaline and sex hormones, amped up to increase their reaction speed and above all the WILL TO WIN. Some are more mature than others, the difference between good sportsmanship and poor winners and losers. However, the design of the game controls the actions of those players, lest they are ejected, or punished by coaching staff for harming their chances at victory via penalties, or removed from the team/banned for their inability to adapt, therefore they have accountability. The rules govern action.

In League of Legends, many punishments and bans come from verbal interactions with other players, as can be evidenced by all the support tickets contesting bans for toxicity, and forum posts of players complaining about unjustified bans based on chatlogs, however there are FAR fewer of these instances by inters, despite the fact that they are far more memorable. However, as I pointed out before, the mute feature COMPLETELY solves this issue as soon as it is encountered and your gameplay is no longer affected. The only behavior that cannot be muted is intentionally throwing games, which is a far more toxic behavior.

The first time I encountered a player who bypassed the AFK buster, I looked him up and he had an AMAZING KDA with a ridiculous vision score who also had a completely horrendous win%. I spectated his matches and found out why: if he didn't get ahead early and go 8/0/5 to win, he would sit AFK in base until he could free push a lane or farm the jungle without risk of dying because the enemy team was taking free objectives, so despite being behind in CS and completely useless to his team, he would not trigger an AFK buster. Sometimes he would use that gold to spell out "F A G" with a sightstone refresh in fountain. You can be sure he was often reported, but these games went on for a long time.

I encountered an even more toxic player who played rammus ghost/teleport who had 0 kills / 30+ death records in EVERY GAME except when rammus was not available, at which point he would pick trundle/anivia with max CDR to knock his own teammates out of recall animations so they had to run all the way back to base every time they needed to regen or buy, and when they tried to CS he would wall them into the enemy team for free kills. After he deranked, he would powerlevel back up to mid/high Gold with booster strategies before starting this cycle over again. I monitored this account which had a LONG history of nothing but these games for weeks, and he went without punishment until I quit league for a while because I encountered too much of this sort of behavior for my taste (inb4 "git gud" aka get out of Gold/Low ELO, my normal MMR is Plat and my friends in Diamond state inting as their worst hate in League, so it exists in high elo too.)

So to my main point, the answer to the first question I asked at the beginning of the post, which behavior is worse, according to Riot Games? It seems they spend far more bans on verbal toxicity which is often a response to toxic behavior, than they do on banning the instigators of this toxicity. Isn't that like punishing the victim, rather than the perpetrator? Isn't this why Dunkey stopped playing League of Legends? Why aren't people banned in games where they INSTIGATE the person saying "mean things" out of frustration? Sure you can say that they are wrong for toxicity, so at the very least ban both.

What is the solution to this gameplay issue? How can we rally for Riot to enforce more bans for inters, or at least take a closer look at WHY PEOPLE are being reported for toxicity? This is why my real life friends have all quit League, because despite having a good time together, all the fun is spoiled when a random gets qued as support or feed and proceeds to feed and counterjungle our camps between respawn timers and ulting minion waves away from carries.

Sure words can hurt feelings, but if you asked me what hurt me worse, the depression and hopelessness of sitting for 20-30+ minutes wasting my life (the troll votes /noff and there's always at least one tryhard who will do their best to win a 4v5 anyway) in a completely unwinnable game, CONSTANTLY FIGHTING THE URGE to remove myself from the situation of interacting with this EXTREME level of toxicity by going afk or ALT+F4 because I have someone following my champ around dancing around my teammates after having fed every lane and ruined the game, but also knowing that I will be the one punished if I AFK, versus someone calling me "stupid" or "trash?" What is my answer to this question, of which is worse? Let me tell you, I could NAME several players who have inted in my games (I won't since it's against board rules) but I cannot even remember the name of a single one of those immature kids who I muted for shit talking. So I think you know what my answer is.

6 Comments

Im Darvan3/20/2018, 3:26:29 AM2 votes

I've been chat restricted and i support this message [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

OUTtheboxSIDE3/20/2018, 3:36:59 AM2 votes

Some people give up way too early. Someone dies at a minute or goes 0/3 and it's automatically GG, I give up. Surrender or I feed or flame.

Sometimes it's not trolling and people call 0/3 lane inting but it could be someone being outplayed or having a bad day. You're not helping by bringing it up and assuming they're inting. Be constructive in chat. If you can't be constructive in chat or are being triggered by their chat, mute or don't chat. All this "I'm going to report you" bull just feeds the troll (if they are trolling) or counts against you because they're not report-worthy and you're now instigating too.

Chat is the easiest way to prove bad behavior with millions of people playing league. Computers and algorithms aren't perfect. You can show trolling via chat far more easily than via gameplay. Because you sat through a 30 minute game, you know when a person is trolling. Riot can't store and look at every gameplay footage even for the current amount of reports. They're going to use chat logs because that's an easier way to detect trolls. That's not to say there aren't already ways to detect gameplay trolls (like the AFK and LeaverBuster systems). They're just harder to implement and prove or involve more manpower.

Don't drop to their level of trolling. Would you really act that way if you were talking to them in person or on Discord? Anonymity of the Internet doesn't mean be an ass even if you were instigated upon.

If you get triggered it'll affect the rest of your teammates. You're just as much as fault if you spread toxicity around instead of supporting those who want to continue. Sometimes it is possible to 4v5 and win. Not everyone is challenger or diamond or plat. People make mistakes.

Riot's a private company. Just like any other company, they can do whatever they want and resolve issues however they think is right.

Moar SD3/20/2018, 11:49:09 PM2 votes

Thumbs up!!! Cheers

Exanterith3/20/2018, 2:59:46 AM1 votes

In pro sports, it is a well documented and socially acknowledged phenomenon across all leagues and games that the instigator is rarely seen by a referee, while the person who reacts is almost always punished.

However in an internet game, the actions are not the same. A shove is not met with a shove. Retaliation in league is usually not met with mutual feeding. Words are the only way someone can psychologically regain some feeling of control over the world around them. It is human nature. Riot is punishing people for trying to regain equilibrium, while facilitating an environment where people can instigate without repercussion.