The Current Punishment System And A Possible Change
So I recently read a post by another user (just a minute ago actually) in GD that had a good suggestion for a system to deal with toxicity, it can be found here: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4724797
I would like to say that, while his system does look nice, there are still some flaws. I've been reported due to a toxic player not liking the fact that I asked him (usually politely) to ward someplace (usually receiving "why don't you ward it? I have important [expletive] to buy, you buy the [expletive] ward." for my troubles.) I've been reported due to toxic players that say "GG, NOOB JUNGLER" after they failed to communicate that I was sitting on a ward (not even a ping) and ended up dying due to my lack of knowledge (the enemy laners didn't show any sign that they knew I was there until the enemy jungler came up from behind me). What's to stop toxic people from just negatively voting everyone in their game?
So there is an issue at the onset. Toxic players that have an equal rating to other players would simply ruin the other players' ratings as a means of "getting even" so to speak. This COULD be countered by the rest of the team boosting the player's rating, but it's not a guarantee that everyone would even use this system (look at the current honor system...).
So with that, I have some suggestions that might make this system even better, and might actually reduce the level of "toxic down-rating" that may occur.
First, I think that the amount your rating changes, should depend on how many people vote (if only one person votes negative, and no one else votes anything, you only lose .1 rating, if all 4 people vote negative, you lose 10 rating). This would prevent the toxic players from "revenge down-rating" people and tanking their rating into oblivion.
Second, I think that if your rating drops below a certain point, say... 10 or so, you receive a ban. The author of the post I linked to doesn't think banning helps, but it is very sadly required. Some people just DON'T get it until you take away their game. So with lower rating people's ratings being weighed as far less, if you're toxic enough to drop below the "ban" threshold, you REALLY deserve the ban.
The last suggestion I have would be to make the rating mandatory. After each game, you get a pop-up that would ask you to rate the players of your team, as well as the players of the other team THAT SPOKE IN ALL CHAT. If someone doesn't talk in all chat, you have no means of rating them. However, I'm would be SO mad if I couldn't down-rate a person on the opposing team that was toxic in all chat.
Those are my suggestions for making the system which was suggested in the link I provided even better. Thoughts? Opinions?
I implore everyone to go read the suggestion, it looks like a really sound system with my suggestions, and a fairly sound system without them.
Also, two additional ratings could be added separately for game knowledge, "knows a lot" vs "knows absolutely jack [expletive]" to prevent people from getting stuck with people that cause toxicity through ignorance. This rating would affect matchmaking, but would NOT determine bans.
Thoughts?