In-game Voice Chat: Yay or Nay!?

If we could talk to our teammates without having to download, sign up for or even pay for servers wouldn't we all? I must say pings work very well but in addition maybe we should have an in-game voice chat system among teammates only. Salt alert: Possibly taking out what in my opinion, is a sad attempt at sportsmanship, talking to the enemy team out of the game completely?

I feel as if the community as a WHOLE would benefit greatly as far as teamwork and just having more fun playing in general. Think of all the people already involved in voice programs with friends while playing. It's already a must have in the pro scene for precision teamwork. When you talk to people on Skype or TS or whichever program you use, if it's someone you don't know and you're going to be playing a game with them are you immediately going to be rude? Mostly no. Internet personality stays on the internet usually and in my experience people voice chatting don't use a personality even remotely similar to who they really are. My reasoning behind all of this? Well it may or may not surprise you but my account was recently BANNED and It changed my mindset.

A little about me..I think it's safe to say I'm decent at League. I have thousands of matches of experience under my belt over the years and have enjoyed a lot of well-fought matches, playing with friends the whole sha-bang. Don't have to get into the unsportsmanlike games but I'm sure we've all had our fair share. All in all it's been lots of fun and a learning experience. I love the game!

Then.....I received the dreaded E-mail which truly changed my thoughts on punishment and the community.

"This type of behavior is unacceptable in this community. When there is nothing good to say, don't say anything at all. As a community, we also don't believe that retaliation is an appropriate response, so in cases where there is retaliation, both players receive penalties. This is the only warning this account will receive. Further examples of toxic behavior can result in permanent closure of your account."

14 Day ban.... I could go into detail about who did this and why and I said blah - it doesn't even matter. What's done is done. "As a community, we also don't believe that retaliation is an appropriate response, so in cases where there is retaliation, both players receive penalties." Alas, I doubt he was even punished since i logged on another account and he was in-game. Feel the salt yet? Cry me a river? My thoughts exactly.

Either way that line seemed very strange to me. Prior to my 14 day ban I used to get temporary chat bans and didn't think much of them. Many of my friends have gotten them and some explained to me they were possibly automatic responses resulting from minor reports like "Negative Attitude" so I didn't worry.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're getting chat bans because you're toxic! You're the evil troll just like the other trolls in 1/2 the games i play!
Maybe I am... maybe not. :)

Regardless, the punishment system WAS doing the right thing if you're right and I am the evil troll haunting your nightmares in League every night. The chat bans never seemed to stop and I was getting reported. I kept getting more games added on to the chat ban. I thought I could beat the system completely! I decided I'll just stop typing altogether. It's unlikely i'll continue to be reported if I just use in-game pings and communicate that way without typing anything. I also tried muting everyone the second I entered game so I don't see any chat!

When you're being trolled by the most menacing triumphant Trundle and they flame you, your allies, your enemies everybody. You're supposed to just mute them, right? That's definitely going to work! It just HAS to work right!? Well, It does and it doesn't. Your teammates or enemies that didn't mute him are being influenced by the evil troll still or maybe the damage had already been done by what he already typed. Almost makes you think why not just mute everyone you play with before they even start typing? I believe muting everyone is along the same lines as my idea of not typing in chat at all.

The reports I was receiving possibly for being unskilled at the game(what else could they report me for?) weren't being reported as just Unskilled. I was getting reports for Negative Attitude, Verbal Abuse, you name it - All without even typing in-game mind you. I was still being reported! How could that happen? I did some digging because other players were having the same problem.

Lyte Lead Social Systems Designer "If the system is unsure about your current standing (because you never talked in your past sets of games, or you showed both positive and negative patterns of behavior in your games), you'll receive a few more chat restrictions so the system can collect more data."

So what Lyte is saying, by not talking you give the system no information to go off of, so it just gave you MORE chat restrictions. Perhaps that only happens because you already have chat bans. Perhaps not. Either way, in my particular case where I did have chat bans I ran into quite the Limbo of a dilemma. If you type back to the trolls you're punished. If you refrain from typing completely you're punished.

So it got me thinking..How am I going to beat this? After my ban is up and my suspension lifted..what am I going to do to prevent this from happening again, possibly terminating my account permanently. if only I could just talk to people like normal instead of like an emotionless robot that can't do things without a team I might not be in this mess.

You read my story (with rambling) and my thoughts on built-in voice chat. Aren't we at a high enough technology level to put voice chat in?coughWOWcough I ask you! Why no voice chat!? Obviously just make it a setting to turn on and the people who don't want to talk don't have to! Can probably narrow down a huge percentage of players who aren't nice as well because they'll be less likely to be mean on voice chat AND continue typing bad things in-game. I might not be the first to ask about voice chat.. and I'm definitely not the first to complain about their suspension but at least it got my creative juices somewhat flowing! Anyone have opinions on the idea? Maybe some helpful hints/opinions on how to remedy my ban-happy situation of mine? Any reply would be fine~ ... grumble got nuffin' tah do fer effin' fourteen days mates. I'm all ears! haha!! Pirate vulgarity.

Well, Thanks for reading! ~Crimson