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[Debate] Community Fracturing

Sir ArmaMalum·3/29/2014, 8:47:25 PM·4 votes·775 views

Hello and welcome to my weekly (at least that's what I shoot for) [Debate] post. In this post series I outline a subject with LoL, and encourage people to post their own opinions and views about the subject. I hope to spark intelligent, civil and open-minded debate amongst the community. Just in case you don’t know how to do debate that here are the guidelines:

  • Don't dismiss anyone's opinions, opinions are never wrong, you just disagree with them.
  • You are free to disagree with someone always, but always do your best to explain why.
  • Don't get emotional, hopefully we're all adults here, keep it in 'debate' mode. No catfights allowed.
  • Feel free to disagree with my OP as well! I love feedback, but this is a debate thread, I'll respond where I can!
  • There is a comment reply cap! You only have a few tries to rebuttle and argue a point, so make them count!

#Community Fracturing

##What is it?
Chances are you've experienced this at least once within your life. Community Fracturing is a term for when two or more divisions of a larger group of still like-minded people exist. This could be divisions due to physical means, choices or differing opinions/preferences.

##What does this have to do with League?
Good Question! LoL, being in control of one of the largest playerbases in the world, has to be made to account for this in decision making for such a large MMO game. A lot within the community don't realize what Community Fracturing can do when dealing with such an insanely large number of people. It's difficult to explain, so here are a few examples.

##Examples

######Keep in mind these are examples, and feel free to use them as such, but please don't argue about these specific topics, there are other threads for that which I will link.

####CB vs. Reddit vs. VBulletin
###Prime Example
Now as you're browsing the CB, I'm assuming you already see that here we have an absurdly small group of frequent users compared to the other two mediums of communication. Now this is a combination of preferences of the playerbase and of Rioters. This division creates problems of finding proper feedback, Red Info, and naturally frustrates anyone not immediately included.
####This is an example of Community Fracturing creating an issue.

####East Coast NA servers where?
NA East Coast Server! by WhoIsThatPokèmon
Anyone in NA realizes that west cost gets much better ping that East coast due to server location, which makes sense because Riot is based there. However, as you can see with the link, there is a high demand for East Coast servers to fix this. Now, the chief argument (from what I understand) against doing this is the fact that this will Fracture the NA playerbase. This isn't a horrible thing in itself except for the fact that this will also halve the available players in any individual que, which means during a low-peak time there could be absurdly high que times in less popular ques like 3v3 and Dominion for both sides. Which leads to the next example.
####This is an example of Community Fracturing preventing an improvement.

####Small Regions Que Disabling
8 months since LAS/LAN servers came up, still no TT, Dominion, Draft mode are enabled. by Radgost
I don't know if anyone reading this can corroborate whether this is still an issue, but with a game so heavily reliant on a matchmaking system, League que require a certain amount of active players to function properly. Unless, of course, you want to be fighting the same people over and over and over....etc. The above link is a good example because it details that additional ques are enabled during peak times when Riot can allow for the Community fracturing of additional ques.
####This is an example of Community Fracturing actively hurting the game.

####Temporary Game modes
Knowing the above examples, I think you can understand why these cannot be permanent additions. Smaller regions simply would not be able to get them and a new mode will have to accumulate enough consistently active players to allow matchmaking to work properly in its own area. ARAM worked because there were already enough people playing it ion customs for it to justify its own que, but other more FotM ques like One for All and Showdown cannot last as long with the same popularity. There is also the issue of additional ques taking players away from the active playerbase on ques like 3v3 and Dominion, possibly putting under the line for active players. However, bringing them in temporarily can have them profit of their originality and initial popularity without hurting the playerbase balance as much.
####This is an example of working around Community Fracturing

####Forum Sub-Communities
This is literal Community Fracturing, and here it's used practically. Naturally if posts were all jumbled together ala General Discussion style people looking for certain post subjects will usually not find what they want, so dividing the community based on ideas and the use for the posts actually works for the average member. Of course, no division is perfect and there will be gray areas, but the premise of dividing for useful clarity works here.
####This is an example of Community Fracturing being useful

##The Question

I'm going to keep it vague this time around: What is your opinion on Community Fracturing?

If you want/need to get more specific...

  • Did you know about this problem before?
  • Do you consider this a major or minor problem?
  • Should Riot even care?
  • Should this problem be better advertised to the community?

##My Personal Take

Community Fracturing is a unsung villain behind some of Riot's decisions and not a problem that is easily explained, as I myself found out making this post. Anything dealing with people will always be difficult, because quite frankly, people are difficult. So while I think it should be better advertised as a problem Riot faces to the community, I think this will always be an issue for one area or another. While Riot and/or the community could fix one, another will crop up as long as LoL stays an MMO, so always.

##Addendum

I had more trouble than I expected outlining this issue, most notable with "How the hell do I make this a [Debate]?". If I wasn't clear anywhere please tell me so I can better explain both to you individually and in the OP for future readers. Also, if you have any sources on-hand that show more cases for the given examples or an entirely different example I would love to throw them up in the OP if you would like to post them below.

Also don't forget to vote in the poll for next week's topic! I included more in-game related topics as well as I saw that was somewhat wanted. =)

###Previous: Riot and the Community

###Next: Naturally Toxic Game Mechanics

###All [Debates]

6 Comments

melek3/30/2014, 10:13:52 AM4 votes

I have little experience with the above fractures of the LoL community simply because I always play on one server (NA) and only minimally participate in online forums.

I believe that its fine to have multiple forums; they get used for different things. I actually like this beta because it is not so crammed and childish as the old LoL forum/GD. Reddit is intimidating to me, the chances my comments there are even read are just really low, so discussion is something I see other people doing, rather than ever having myself. All that said, I think the forums are fine.

I think I'm more interested in the fracturing of the moba community than the league community. Between DotA 2 and LoL there is already a rift among my gaming friends; Most of us abandoned DotA for LoL years ago, but recently the improvements to DotA, along with the nostalgia and excellent implementation by Valve, has serious draw for many of us. I try to play both, but this genre takes so much memorization that it is hard to be any good at each game unless you can devote a lot of time.

Another recent rift is beginning to develop because of Smite. While it baffles me personally because the first person thing seems to detract from tactical precision so prized in the genre (At least for me), several LoL players I like playing with are beginning to vanish. With Blizzard's MOBA coming soon, I wouldn't be suprised to see another chunk of my friends begin experimenting with that.

I don't like this because I don't want to re-learn a new MOBA. Each has dozens of heroes, hundreds of abilities and items, and quirky differences in control and mechanics that are just different enough to make hot switching between games, at least for me, not really worth it. I don't like this plurality of good MOBAs because they severely fracture the groups I play with.

From an E-Sports perspective, it feels like one sport that has been broken into several competing rulesets. Its hard to keep track of the different leagues and tournaments in all of them, understand all the different games well enough, and you can't hope to see your DotA 2 pros frequently face up against your LoL pros against your Heroes of the Storm pros (someday, they'll exist!). Its like if Baseball was separated into 4 or 5 different major leagues that are just different enough that they can't play one another.

So, in the vein of the debate, that's my contribution. The freshness of the MOBA format has led to a lot of innovation, but in the short term at least has led to a fracturing of the broader MOBA community, which has personally impacted many gamers and their networks of players more than the fracturing of the forum communities for LoL or any particular MOBA - at least in my opinion.

Snailed3/30/2014, 7:51:08 AM1 votes

Forums VS Reddit

It's pretty simple answer to me..Just Relinquish this one and use reddit as a base.. It is where 60-75% of the community is anyhow..And the thread format there beats any other forums format 100% every time.

East vs West Prety simple to solve.. Allow servers in East to sync with Servers in West, Allow people in East to queue priority with server near them unless queue drops below a certain size in any of the zones then move the queues around accordingly (done before on other games successfully already)

Queues on smaller servers

For me OCE is a joke with regards to playerbase toxicity. A Small playerbase..resticts playing time to between 3pm to 12pm Australian time. Outside this time you have a 2-3 hour wait for a game. 9 out of 10 games your get either a feeder/afk or just flat out rude peoole on purpose.

I beleive 80-90% of toxicity would be resolved simply by having voice chat..

How to proove??you ask.. Simple..

How many times have you had a kick ass game.. the team communicated well, there was a few grumbles from the lane that lost heavily.... ie. bot lane fed the enemy adc, but luckily jungle and top lane got fed more and overtanked/outplayed the enemy adc by diving him.. top lane called adc a useless ass.w.pe wetc.) but at the end of the day, you all pilled together and all fought the enemy and ended up finishing the game convincingly in your favour.. as a team and everyone was happy..

Now in post-chat someone types.. Lets queue again?? so next thing skype is up and wammo your a 5 team in Normals having fun.. Yu win the next game,, no-one rages at all as your in Skype..You lose the 3rd game however, people go quiet during the game, not talking about whos fault it is.. and then when the match finishes everyone closes skype and moves on their merry way..

This is a normal experience that more than likely almost every player would have had in LoL. This is why Voice chat stops a lot of Abuse/raging etc.. you communicate in a way that people have been communicating for more than 10,000 years. It's not normal to type. you miss read people in chat very easily,, next thing a small ribbing by one player is seen as abuse by another as voice inflection doesn't occur with the written word..This is why I feel LOL in itself is toxic to the players as a program to itself.

I played Counterstrike with a voice chat in it for Over 15 years.. Sure some kids were abusive and annoying, but they got shut down by competent admins very quickly (sure there are examples of bad people, but then again, a person is killed every 6 minutes in NY.. does that make all NY citezens toxic gun toting killers?? Of course not..the majority are nice people just living their life) Also Counterstrike has normally 16 or 32 people on one side at a time, but still the kids that were abusive weren't a problem on decent servers.. LoL only has 4 people in it you need to communicate with.. once someone gets muted they lose 25% of the people they can communicate with... if 2 people mute them then 50% of the people on your team won't hear the toxic player.. Next game they will think twice about doing it again..you can be assured of that.. toxicity won't be a problem.

Anyhow.. Riot need to make a web-based voice chat that ties in with this game, will reduce toxicity to a more manageable level. I think Riot should take the lead and make it part of the game lobby. It just needs to display a web-link that opens up your browser in the background and logs you in to an anonymous room with the 4 people on your team. Hell there is about 30 websites out there that do it right now.. It can't be that fuckn hard to do. Hell get Curse to set it up for you if think this isn't something you can do properly. I am sure Curse would be more than happy to support LoL in that..

my 2c..

TL:DR: read the post its'' entertaining at the worst..

Remlap12233/30/2014, 2:55:02 PM1 votes
  • I would definitley like to see naturally toxic game mechanics debated next. I think that this is an issue that's been sitting on the backburner for far too long, and the ugly results are coming from it (examples pre 4.4 Kassadin, the pull on Blitzcrank, the spears on Nidalee, the natural sustain at no cost on Gragas, her ridiculous early game, and how it doesn't "fall off" when she's fed Leblanc, his turrents before and after 4.4 Heimerdinger, etc. etc. etc.) I think this has also caused a problem with Olafing champion due to the fact that Riot has presumed that a champion is overpowered due to some aspect of their kit, and either nerfing them to oblivion, or reworking their kit in such a poor way that they aren't viable anymore (examples post 4.4 Kassadin, Aatrox Ahri Evelynn Galio Gangplank Hecarim Irelia Jayce MissFortune Graves Olaf Rengar Sejuani Shaco Sion Skarner TwistedFate Urgot XinZhao)