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Toxicity and League

ModCaliCoastReplay·11/13/2014, 12:27:06 PM·5 votes·824 views

Hey all...just writing in to state that I still love this game...but, like a lot of people, I'm considering quitting or strongly curtailing my involvement in League due to the community. I know this is not necessarily Riot's fault; the world is getting to be a ridiculously rude, hostile place - a five-year-old girl flipped me off in the middle of the street the other day, for God's sake - still, it's getting to the point where I might literally recommend disabling chat entirely like in Hearthstone.

I would estimate one in TWO games I play in suffers from some kind of ridiculous profanity attack - maybe more than 50% - and more so than that - even when players don't actively curse, few people care to honor a selfless player or even acknowledge one.

This doesn't apply to everyone. I meet a lot of great people playing League; I see a lot of awesome teams that value each other as human beings too.

But, this game does require ten people to play its classic mode, and it seems to be more depressingly hard than I'd imagined to get ten people together who are not sociopaths in some way. :(

Examples of toxicity I've seen lately:

--A Diamond player who blew the lane calls on purpose and then pretended not to speak English. (When I then tried to converse with him in Spanish, being bilingual, it became painfully obvious he was treating us badly just to play the lane he wanted). --A team that insulted my mother repeatedly and with language so foul the chat filter was blocking more words than not, all because I suggested that I had carried the early turret take phase for them and given the team map control (which I believe was defensible, as I helped to win map control in all three lanes) --A premade lobby that jeered and mocked after an early lane win and said the other team was "so bad we could win any time"; then proceeded to throw the game via solo charges and suicide plays; when I reprimanded them, the leader said "If it makes you lose I'm glad". --Countless games where my team takes an early lead, then taunts, mocks, and loses the game and 30-40 minutes of my time due to incredibly bullying, selfish, and in the end foolish play

I'm sure these seem like mild examples compared to what some in the community are going through. But...it's getting to the point where I'm seriously considering leaving because of all the abuse; and I have to think a lot of other honorable players are going through the same thing. And if all the honorable players leave (I do have my crest, and I work hard to try to keep it), it's going to be a pure festival of hatred, with nothing to stop the worst players from dominating the chat and the lobbies. Seriously - what's so hard with some people about having basic human respect for other people? Why are some players so hellish that a simple reprimand ("Can we not do these suicide charges anymore?") leads to comments like "F**k you", "I hope you die", and other really terrible things? And why is the Tribunal not working? Every time I try to judge cases now I get the same "The Tribunal is building more cases" notice.

I'd really just love to hear what the plan is to continue to try to create a less toxic, more friendly atmosphere. I don't think the people who are making death threats on this game are the ones supporting Riot with purchases anyway; toxic players beg a lot and steal codes too. But I do spend probably $50+ a year on League - never regretted it once so far, but if this keeps up I may just have to quit entirely.

Sympathies go out to those with other horror stories to vent. Even if nothing can be changed right now, at least perhaps we can find an outlet to brainstorm responses to the bullying.

14 Comments

Eleshakai11/13/2014, 1:11:35 PM4 votes

I don't see much toxicity in my games. I play LoL a lot - although I've ben taking a bit of a break since the season ended - and I tend to run into more nice people than straight up toxic ones.

I think there are three major causes for the toxicity everyone claims to see...

  1. The illusion of 'toxicity being everywhere' is created by the fact that we remember negative experiences more strongly than positive.
  2. People go into games with the assumption that everyone is toxic. If you assume everyone is toxic, you're not going to treat people the same way you would treat a friend. You're less likely to be nice to them and more likely to overreact to innocuous comments.
  3. People assuming they know better than everyone else. This is a stressful situation, you don't need to put people on the spot by calling out their mistakes - chances are they know them already. By calling attention to them, you're just forcing them onto the defensive, which is what leads to what you described in the OP.

I think people bring toxicity with them into the game and then are surprised they find it there... but if you're just genuinely nice to people, and don't prejudge them, I think you'd be surprised at how little toxicity there really is.

Ada Wong11/13/2014, 12:35:57 PM2 votes

The most type of toxicity I have been matched with all day.

Players (Refusing to Communicate) then getting (Verbally Abusive) in game after refusing to talk at all pre-game champion select which creates problems.

Like Riot needs to investigate reports that players send in for Refusing to Communicate, and Verbal Abuse, and start letting these players know that this behavior is not acceptable, often I find myself waiting 29 seconds in champion select before letting the champion select time out and auto lock me because players choose not to speak, I get matches with players admitting to rolling joints not looking at chat and such, and these games have a huge impact on my LP and where I am trying to advance to so I think something should be done about it.

I have just started filing reports on every player I see who (Refuse to Communicate) and every player who threatens reports after their toxic behavior starts that is only thing I know to do is it decrease doesn't seem like it sometimes I am lucky enough to get decent players who actually try their best and talk but this has been rare lately.

If it were not for toxic's, and the right type of players I think I would have made it from S2 to Gold 5 already but constant loss with toxic players almost every single day.

I am guessing this behavior varies from ranking bracket and such.

Mahnigguh11/13/2014, 12:40:02 PM1 votes

Look man...i usually play with one or two friends leaving only two spots for non toxic people. when they start being positive we just mute th...er i mean, its a video game man. quit getting butt hurt and have some fun. if you don't want to mute them than go into your options and make your ui as small as possible and remove chat altogether. Nothing anyone else types is worth quitting a game you prolly have a few bucks and ten times as many hours sunk into...

in the words of OKGO...get get get get over it...

Mahnigguh11/13/2014, 12:56:26 PM1 votes

Sarcasm and using the lords name in vain...and i am sure you just go around kicking people in the nuts... exemplary behavior (smh)

why is everyone so angry all the time.

you anti trolling people are just as angry as the toxic guys you just think you are justified.

The2ndBes111/13/2014, 8:22:05 PM1 votes

Lol it's real. People in the OCE think they're in the LCS and it sucks balls to have 1/4 games be a reasonably 'fun' one.