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Reasons Behind the Toxicity

IS1a442cd69a169ed293a39·12/26/2014, 10:40:40 AM·18 votes·1,354 views

Edit: Some people are misunderstanding my points. I am nothing trying to say we should fix these problems. It's the opposite that no one, even Riot, can fix them. People have to accept the system is the core cause, not the playerbase.

I am a decent player who has experience of over 10-year playtime for many games of various styles. LoL is the most frustrating game I have ever played. One might believe the player base of LoL is to blame. However, I believe the system is more likely to be the fundamental problem.

  1. The Game Forces You to Stay Every time you start a game, you have to stay until the very end, either win or loss. If you meet any toxic players, say an intentional feeder, your next at least 20 minutes will go to waste. You cannot simply leave because the system does not allow you to start another game until the current one ends. Though you understand you are playing with a selfish troll with no chance to win, the system even punishes you more if you decide to leave or AFK. This kind of frustration reminds me of the Sisyphus Greek mythology. In many other games, say Counter-Strike, Maple Story, or FEZ, if you meet any troll, just leave the game and join another. If an intentional KSer keeps following you just to ruin your day, just logout and breath some fresh air. There is always an option to disengage the toxicity in many other games. LoL, however, traps you in the current game no matter how ruined it is.

  2. Win/Loss is Everything Personal performance has limited influence in LoL. Even if you have godly skilled carrying ability, it is nothing when a pair of duo Q decides to feed because it is fun. No matter how well you perform, you feel awful because trolls can easily ruin it. Unlike other games I mentioned like Counter-Strike and FEZ, you still enjoying killing people. Losing is no big deal because your high score still rewards you a sense of achievement. In LoL's case, you only feel like, "I am 10-0 and has taken two towers in 10 minutes, but the trolls make my incredible outcome worthless.

  3. Measures Against Toxicity The only counter to trolls in LoL is by reporting. It may be useful in long-term, but hey let's be honest, we want that feeder gets punished IMMEDIATELY. You don't go like "ahh, I have reported and I feel much much better even though I'm not sure if it matters!" You know getting that particular troll banned doesn't improve your game experience in the future, because tons of other trolls are awaiting your following games. This leaves you as the victim helpless with no chance to revenge your anger.

TL;DR: LoL forces players to deal with toxicity with bare hands. Quitting the game seems to be the only option to get rid of it.

PS: Trolls are people trying to ruin others' games intentionally, aka asshole, jerk. Someone asked for the definition.

23 Comments

Saevum12/26/2014, 11:05:58 AM3 votes

No. 4 - The number of people playing this game also improves the chances of getting a troll or a leaver during the matches, without mentioning the unskilled players, the down-talker (or flamer type), among other noxious species. The habitat of the "good/non-toxic" players is minimum, they are in the verge of extinction.

Edit: Now that i think about it, there should be a "matchmaking" where non-chat-banned, non-yet reported players could join. That way, players with a ban or any kind of restriction would be "dodged".

Raptamei12/26/2014, 12:07:29 PM3 votes

I posted pretty much the same thing a week ago and got downvoted.

I agree, the game encourages toxicity by allowing the performance of your team to negatively affect your own, both by making you more likely to lose and by making your KD worse - yes, KD doesn't matter, no, the game heavily encourages having a good KD, hence all the kill messages and your KD being presented front and center.

People want to 1. win (of course) and 2. have a good KD (this is Riot's fault) and their teammates can directly impact both factors, especially the latter.

Not only can you not leave a game where someone is griefing you or throwing the match, but when someone else leaves, you just have to suck it down because even though you signed up for a 5v5, you can't leave after Riot gives you a teammate that then makes it a 4v5.

Yes, by penalising dodging, Riot forces you to play with the people it selects for you, and when one of those ruins your match, you are not allowed to get out or mitigate the loss in any way because that would be toxic!!!

MRMourninWood12/26/2014, 11:18:15 AM2 votes

you use the term troll, But for example lets say you're stuck with mid and your team has every base covered but tank. So you take a tank mid against an assassin, just because your team needs it. Or "Darius mid against a yasao that's troll! but then darius stomps mid how is that troll? it's just a lane, so long as you got your team comp and laners do decently in lane phase none of that "So in so mid is troll! matters" iv seen adc thresh one shot a fizz with his passive and win but apperently that's troll because its not standard.

People say breaking the meta is troll but iv seen double jungle, double mid and lane swapping work. Then there's people who go bot and go full tank because the team needs it, playing a champ like pantheon, voli, sej, naut. or even a mage with alot of crowd control and harrass like brand/liss. AND then you have champions with the lable support on them, such as GP and syndra who are classified as support, but people flip a bitch when that happens. AND If it works what's the big deal? Troll seems to be people declaring a meta crusade and not common sense. Common sense is do whatever is needed and works to win.

Troll seems to be a very ignorant word, no offence.

Please define what you conciser to be troll.

disregardable12/26/2014, 10:45:45 AM2 votes

I agree, if I could leave any game that made me upset, I would be leagues less toxic. I'd also leave almost every single game and screw over countless players. I don't think the game's design can allow just letting people leave.

proud and bronze12/26/2014, 3:36:51 PM1 votes

the way the game is setup makes it so much worse than any other game for your team to be bad/trolls. its a snowball game. so even if you are winning your lane, when the other lanes are feeding your enemies are building items faster than you and eventually will crush you. your own success is more dependent on your teammates than any other game I can think of.

that is why it is so hard not to be toxic sometimes. with every death your teammates are making your enemies stronger and in comparison making you weaker. it effects your personal score in a way other video games don't.

The Whamboozler12/26/2014, 4:03:43 PM1 votes

Downvoted for multiple mentions of counter-strike. LoL isn't an FPS. A lot of the bad attitudes of the players in it comes from what I call the "selfish brotard" mentality that a ton of FPS players seem to have.

I'm kidding about the downvote though... you make fair points. But can you imagine how many MORE games would have afk's and trolls if leaving early cost you nothing?

Spacesuit Spiff12/26/2014, 9:16:41 PM1 votes

I've never seen anything resembling a viable solution to the first 2 points. At least with 1) you can just use the 20 minutes to work on your mechanics and get caught up on some podcasts.

Leblancs Boob12/27/2014, 3:07:50 AM1 votes

I understand why people get angry.. If you see someone make a dumb mistake you will likely get upset about it. But why do people have to verbalize it? I mean they at least have to know that nothing good will come of it. We're only human and everyone makes mistakes.

The second a team starts to call each other out for their mistakes, they stop being a team. I may be upset with my teammates for making a dumb mistake, but they're still my teammates and i need them to win

Deathless81C12/27/2014, 5:26:32 AM1 votes

{quoted}

Edit: Some people are misunderstanding my points. I am nothing trying to say we should fix these problems. It's the opposite that no one, even Riot, can fix them. People have to accept the system is the core cause, not the playerbase.

I am a decent player who has experience of over 10-year playtime for many games of various styles. LoL is the most frustrating game I have ever played. One might believe the player base of LoL is to blame. However, I believe the system is more likely to be the fundamental problem.

  1. The Game Forces You to Stay Every time you start a game, you have to stay until the very end, either win or loss. If you meet any toxic players, say an intentional feeder, your next at least 20 minutes will go to waste. You cannot simply leave because the system does not allow you to start another game until the current one ends. Though you understand you are playing with a selfish troll with no chance to win, the system even punishes you more if you decide to leave or AFK. This kind of frustration reminds me of the Sisyphus Greek mythology. In many other games, say Counter-Strike, Maple Story, or FEZ, if you meet any troll, just leave the game and join another. If an intentional KSer keeps following you just to ruin your day, just logout and breath some fresh air. There is always an option to disengage the toxicity in many other games. LoL, however, traps you in the current game no matter how ruined it is.

  2. Win/Loss is Everything Personal performance has limited influence in LoL. Even if you have godly skilled carrying ability, it is nothing when a pair of duo Q decides to feed because it is fun. No matter how well you perform, you feel awful because trolls can easily ruin it. Unlike other games I mentioned like Counter-Strike and FEZ, you still enjoying killing people. Losing is no big deal because your high score still rewards you a sense of achievement. In LoL's case, you only feel like, "I am 10-0 and has taken two towers in 10 minutes, but the trolls make my incredible outcome worthless.

  3. Measures Against Toxicity The only counter to trolls in LoL is by reporting. It may be useful in long-term, but hey let's be honest, we want that feeder gets punished IMMEDIATELY. You don't go like "ahh, I have reported and I feel much much better even though I'm not sure if it matters!" You know getting that particular troll banned doesn't improve your game experience in the future, because tons of other trolls are awaiting your following games. This leaves you as the victim helpless with no chance to revenge your anger.

TL;DR: LoL forces players to deal with toxicity with bare hands. Quitting the game seems to be the only option to get rid of it.

PS: Trolls are people trying to ruin others' games intentionally, aka asshole, jerk. Someone asked for the definition.

It's why I gave up on League. It quickly became not fun. It became frustrating and boring because at least 80% of the time I knew within the first 8 minutes of the game that it wont matter if I cs well in fact I could almost always be correct that if in the first 10-15 minutes of the game, if I had the best cs on the team, we were going to lose. Doesn't matter if I won my lane, if I bought wards including pinks for objectives. The vast majority of the time I would be stuck with 1-2 trolls and even in the games where it was just 1 troll, you could bet that 3 people would no vote the surrender. Turning what should have been a 20 minute game into a 55 minute game that ended exactly the same way it would have in 20. Then it seemed Riot just doesn't really care. They like to talk the talk but all their behavior initiatives are pointed in the wrong direction. So I moved on to actually FUN games. I hope you end up having fun, no matter what you end of playing. League or otherwise.

Dehorn12/27/2014, 5:28:56 AM1 votes

the only reason people are toxic is because they are childish and immature. make all the excuses you want, but its still a game.

Jamaree12/26/2014, 10:49:53 AM1 votes

1: Because it is a team game sadly, you leaving also punishes the other three people not trolling. Is it fair to you in the slightest? No, no it is not.

2: Pretty much, people say just carry harder, but realistically, some games truly aren't carriable and that is unfair once again.

3: Also unfair, on both ends really, sadly, there isn't a system with a 100% success rate that wouldn't also risk banning innocent people. Because you said it yourself, people in this games are assholes, trolls at that, who will report just because you didn't play how they wanted you to play.

Until they update the Tribunal, it is going to stay this way and likely into it as well, my suggestion, play with friends, and if you don't think it is worth it (and at times, it truly isn't), just take a step back,"quit" and play another game, this one will be here when you return.

Stars Shaper12/26/2014, 11:14:57 AM1 votes

My greatest concern is that 1 single bad player can decide the outcome of the entire match (and not just by intentionally feeding). This leads to the fact that any mistake/troll can't be overcome by the others' teamplay which is quite absurd considering that this is a team game.

On the contrary, a single good playr has 0 impact on the match.

xSYNDRx12/26/2014, 2:38:22 PM1 votes

My take on it is this. There are many factors that lead to the toxicity of this game. I have been gaming for 30 years, and this is by far the worst community I have ever witnessed. I am not stamping everyone with this at all, but it truly is filled with mounds of jerk-offs. As far as RIOT's game structure, and team play counting against you as an individual, and creating this never ending vortex of bad games...I agree it is flawed. I believe that if you log into ranked play as a solo competitor, you should be rewarded as such.

  1. Your point gains, or losses should be based on your ability, and performance alone.
  2. Make the gains less than they would be currently for a full team win. A. Make IP, gains, League point gains 25%, or maybe 50% less than they are now. B. Team wins grant same additional points as they currently do...plus your individual performance points. C. Team loss takes away same points as current. (Individual performance rewards could still allow a slight point gain even in the event your "TEAM" loses.)

If you log in to a ranked match as a full team, the current structure should stand as it is. If you are logging in as a full blown team then you know what you are getting, or should. I understand that RIOT wants to promote team synergy, but in SOLO play that is most often not the case. You logged in as individuals, and the matches are played as individuals in easily 50% of the games I have seen over many years of playing LoL now. Leaving solves nothing, because you get penalized, on a personal level, and it is not going to change anyone's attitudes. My best advice is to do your best to ignore them, and hopefully RIOT will take into consideration a system, or structure like the one I placed above. Just my 2 cents anywho.