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Between Two Turrets - Chat with research manager Davin! [COMPLETE]

RiotA Small Man·8/26/2015, 8:53:51 PM·16 votes·67,310 views

http://i.imgur.com/07lc1jY.jpg

Welcome to the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a new Q&A series from the NA Community team in which we'll connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect an installment every couple weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the boards.

This week, we’ve got research manager davin!

EDIT - Thanks for coming out to chat guys! Gonna go catch my bus, but I'll try to check back later for any new questions. Take care!

Hi friends! My name's Davin Pavlas, and I'm a Research Manager at Riot Games. I work as part of the team at Riot that studies player experience -- examining behavior, attitudes, wants, needs, psychology, and so on! My background is in Human Factors Psychology, I got my Ph.D. studying games, play, and learning. As a whole, research at Riot tackles how to make things fun, how to ensure players' needs are being met, and in general figures out how we know something is good or successful.

In the four years I've been at Riot, I've done research on a bunch of things, but my favorite work has been on champions (including Thresh, my favorite skellington), features (like Team Builder), and player behavior.

I'm a huge nerd for games of all kinds, and really believe in the power of play in people's lives. Naturally, I love the hell out of games, whether it's playing them or making them. Beyond games, you'll usually find me talking about comedy, diversity in tech, and mental health.

So, that's me. In some brief paragraphs. I'd love to answer any questions you might have, and to get to know you all as well! Let's chat!

312 Comments

Hufflepuff8/26/2015, 10:29:39 PM14 votes

Are there any updates on a homosexual Champion? Riot has mentioned it several times, but with all the various champion backgrounds (void, shadow isles, etc) I'm wondering if it will ever be a thing.

Will it be a thing? Thanks sir.

Dylightfull8/26/2015, 9:15:51 PM12 votes

Do you shout "WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE OF DAAAAAAAVIN!" whenever someone enters your office?

If not, I think you should. It would make you look awesome. But not as awesome as Draaaaaven. Nobody's as awesome as Draaaaaaaven.

Sincerely, ~~Draaaaaaaaven~~ Gorillanator.

Kei1438/26/2015, 9:09:37 PM11 votes

Hi Davin, I got a few random question. Answer them as you see fit.

From all the data that you see, what are the top three contributions that lead to people trolling others?
What are the factors you see for making someone tilt?
what are the most common post game report reasons you see? And how does that data help with the bigger picture?
do you ever study the behaviour of ragers on forums qqing about fotm and zed being op? If so, what do you guys normally learn out of reading those threads?
a few riot staff members has been very active on forums recently, responding to us gamers and all. Is there anything you can take away from those interactions?

That's all for now!!

Deep Terror Nami8/26/2015, 9:49:34 PM5 votes

Are there any questions you are wanting to be asked?

snackos8/26/2015, 9:53:17 PM5 votes

Hi, I'm a psychology student extremely interested in studying and pursuing a career focused on player behavior in online communities/games.

It would be great to learn more about your schooling experience, what kind of things you studied to help lead to this career path, and any experiences that helped you along the way.

I try my best to play a lot of games and talk to my friends about why they act the way they do, and I (try) to read a lot of psychology books on similar topics. I guess I just was wondering if I'm going in the right vague direction or not, as your job is basically my 'dream job'.

Thanks! <3

77Sven8/26/2015, 10:18:32 PM3 votes

Hey Davin, I have a couple questions. You don't have to answer them if any are on an uncomfortable topic.

One: How are you today?
Two: What is your thought on some of the balances done on champions.
Three: What is your favorite champion / role to play in LoL?
Four: Have you ever gone to the balance team and asked them what they were thinking with a champion design / nerf / buff? (can be a good or bad "what were you thinking")
Five: How concerned is riot with the opinion and experience of the player, as compared to their concern with the e-sports scene?
Six: Are there any champions you want to see nerfed / buffed / reworked (and why if you don't mind)? Thanks for addressing my comments, hope you have an excellent day! ;D

NoOneCanStopMe258/26/2015, 9:27:21 PM3 votes

Hey Dav (Can I call you that?),

How do you handle being raged or trolled at? It's something that's always crossed my mind whenever it happens.

ShankHealer8/27/2015, 12:25:41 AM3 votes

Hey Davin, I was wondering if some sort of LP loss/Gain system could be thought about - Being bronze myself i find that in many games i get players that flame ( causing me to flame, i will admit ), but more importantly troll to often. So for players like myself who can consistently go positive on KDA and push towers but have my team ultimately not be able to consistently help win the game. So i find that i lose many games and alot of hard earned LP because "my team hold me back" ( I know its the Bronze Stereotype) - So over all i was wondering if there could be a system implemented where if you consistently play well and do your best but lose that you lose less or 0 LP. I get that this is a bit of a big idea, but us lower tier players who mostly play for fun(but sometimes for rank) could have a little bit of an advantage - this way the bad players who actually troll/feed etc. dont hold the seemingly better players back Thanks for your consideration and time I better make like a Tryndamere and SPLIT IT

PT Waluigi8/28/2015, 7:31:37 PM2 votes

What lead to the hud change?

shindigs8/26/2015, 9:14:51 PM2 votes

What does the research process look like for a new champion? What types of answers are you looking for when it comes to a new champ?

Bardic8/26/2015, 10:59:06 PM2 votes

Hello there. I saw this on the client and was immediately curious. You've worked with player behavior before and I wanted to know why Riot/support has the stance is does on being muted upon request. They allow people to terminate their accounts (for what I assume is because of game addiction) but they do not allow any sort of disabling of chat. They will even go as far as to remove a player who is solely toxic in chat from the game rather than simply disable their chat. If I had to try and put this all into one question: Why does Riot not just disable toxic player's chat, why 'chat restriction'?

Thank you for reading.

TinyLindsay8/26/2015, 11:11:13 PM2 votes

If you could be anyone's* support, who would it be?

(*your wife excepted, since that is the obvious and correct answer)

Wildglow8/26/2015, 11:47:46 PM2 votes

Hello, got a question related to reporting(not sure if it fits your area of expertise though); In the reporting selection, one of the options included is "unskilled play".

Yet, encouraging players to report others based on their "unskilled play" seems like a way to encourage the type of thinking that blames other players for your lack of success in games.

Is there some niche use of that option that I'm not thinking of, or is it something that just is still in the works to be fixed/updated(for example, changing the option to griefing, suiciding, trolling etc...)

MC STOJAN x98/28/2015, 10:34:42 AM2 votes

A question.

If a guy if AFK, say 20 mins, the whole game, ragequit or something of that nature, wouldn't it be reasonable to give back the LP to those 4 players who invested themselves and their time in that particular game even though they knew, deep down, that if the enemy team is just good enough, they wont even need to try their hardest to win a 4 vs 5 game. Why is giving an undeserved advantage to the opposing team something you still haven't solved yet?

And i know you' re all busy guys, doing what you're told to by the main bro on top. But you put so much effort and focus on eradicating the negative attitude, verbal abuse, overall all bad "habits" some players have grown since playing and still you dont realize you actually indirectly encourage the very thing you claim to stand against. Giving ragers the ability to threat with: "hell with this. imma afk, team such tards" when you can obviously influence in every way to make that dissapear. It creates negative environment for the rest of the players. How do you get back to those who did nothing, but ended up with a loss? With a report button? That literally seems pointless, since every game if full of ragers, afkers and so on.

Making those 4 players lose League points for 1 player afking(maybe intentionally, maybe because he lives in a bad internet service environment) results in us thinking you wont give us those LP points without us experiencing all the negative sides of playing a multiplayer game.

You kinda created a culture. A rising BM culture.

Draketheoc8/27/2015, 12:02:54 AM1 votes

Hi Davin, on a scale of 1 to 10 what do you feel about diana Diana

Gunnlaug8/26/2015, 9:47:28 PM1 votes

Hey Davin,

Which Thresh skin is the best skin? You may or may not lose a fan if depending on your answer ;) Thanks for reaching out to us! GL;HF

Oztar8/26/2015, 11:29:33 PM1 votes

Do you think there will ever be another skin for Gnar? I love all of his skins but the question is, Will there be anymore for him? Gnar

ErodDragonslayer8/26/2015, 9:27:03 PM1 votes

Hey Davin,

My question is a little different but I was wondering how you got in to the video game industry and what your experiences have been like ever since. How was the process like to get your job, what do you think was the hardest part about getting your job, and what is the most important part about your job.
Have you ever thought about creating a way for toxic players to let out their frustrations?
Finally what is your favorite part of your job?