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The Problem with the Current System

airagog·12/9/2014, 6:08:37 AM·7 votes·1,726 views

After playing game after game of people who intentionally feed and consist of me telling people to stop intentionally feeding or to go in with the team, I naturally got a mute which made me go "Alright I guess then I'll watch my language." About five days after I was unmuted I was muted yet again despite not swearing, the reason why is a rather broken system that at current rate will kill the league of legends player base. Rather than ranting about why it's broken, I thought of analyzing some of the arguments and why Riot's approach to punishment reform might not be the best choice of reform.

First I want to outline there is a clear distinction between racism and abuse and simply, "What the hell was that?" or "Build this, that item really doesn't work for that champion." And while there is a distinction before anyone gets hyped up and typing about how I'm a terrible person, that's not what is going to be focused on and not why the system is broken, why the system is broken is simple. The cases are NOT looked into.

Chances are you've had someone report you for offensive language, verbal abuse, or negative attitude and chances are 8 times out of 10 it wasn't for a good reason, they were just angry that they lost and as such thought reporting you would get rid of some of that anger. THIS is the problem. This is the wrong approach and why in recent history riot has seen a skyrocketed amount of people banned, muted, or chat restricted. This wouldn't be a huge problem, if not for the fact that since there are a high number of cases, these cases are not reviewed.

Rather, the system seems to be instead of the cases reviewed, the number of cases against you is reviewed. This is the problem. This allows people to abuse the report abuse and which is why you see a huge amount of reports in recent history because no longer can riot and the tribunal afford to review case by case. Instead, people are able to send in blank reports and STILL get people banned/muted. This is the problem and this is what Riot is not wanting to address.

The bottom line is, people are able to abuse the report abuse button, and you get a nice little warning seconds after someone reports you and it's instantly counted and the bottom line is that Riot can no longer afford to do this.

So, now that I have outlined the problem, what is the solution? The simple answer is take away some of the report abuses. Take away offensive language and negative attitude. Instead put in racism. That should be riot's focus on what to punish and reform. Not players getting mad at each other because they refuse to cooperate. That will ALWAYS happen any time you involve other people. What you can control and punish however is racism and extreme profanity. Not talking about maybe 1-6 swears in a game. I mean entire paragraphs of just ugly language.

The other solution that needs to be implemented is liability. Make the players who report other players liable for the report. Make it to where if there's no real reason to report and if they only did it as some sort of juvenile revenge, that they get the punishment instead. So far the responsibility is held entirely on the player who is reported even if they did very minor things that shouldn't be punished because, let's face it, we'll all human. We all make mistakes and sometimes we goof up. But whenever you're afraid to say one "swear" because someone will call riot on you and you'll get muted or banned or afraid to even criticize a player for making a terrible decision repeatedly then there's a problem.

What was started with a tool to help combat trolls and help stop negativity has instead backfired and been used to spread it. If you can't handle all the reports because of negative attitudes or offensive language, maybe then that is a problem we can't focus on.

While some offenders may indeed deserve punishment, it's not worth it if someone innocent gets punished as well.

12 Comments

azrolator12/10/2014, 2:12:12 PM2 votes

You mentioned swearing in your post but yet I thought that swearing was not punishable offense but insulting was. I have used swearing. I have not had bans. Maybe I was just lucky. But when I swore I wasn't using it to insult my team either.

Maybe you offer helpful criticism and just say things like 'damn, I thought I was winning that one'. But when I see posts like this I always think of people on my team who starts calling 'noob' and saying things like 'delete this game' to someone who is losing lane hard. The first example contains a swear word while the second is insulting.

Not to say that I report people for one outburst, but I surely will if I have to listen to that crap the entire game. Someone doesn't need to show racism to also show that they completely lack manners. If I see a bunch of complaints backed up with streams to games that show that the player in question wasn't being toxic I will have to consider that riot is muting and banning players unfairly. But if someone truly can't figure out how to treat people decently during a half hour to hour long game then I think they should stop playing games and spend that time figuring out how to be a member of society instead.

airagog12/9/2014, 6:15:17 AM1 votes

There's my Tl;Dr post. Yay. Tried to make it well thought out, sorry if I rambled. It made sense in my head.

linkmastr00112/9/2014, 8:45:22 PM1 votes

I'm going to try responding to each bit to organize my thoughts clearly.

After playing game after game of people who intentionally feed and consist of me telling people to stop intentionally feeding or to go in with the team, I naturally got a mute which made me go "Alright I guess then I'll watch my language." About five days after I was unmuted I was muted yet again despite not swearing, the reason why is a rather broken system that at current rate will kill the league of legends player base. Rather than ranting about why it's broken, I thought of analyzing some of the arguments and why Riot's approach to punishment reform might not be the best choice of reform.

First I want to outline there is a clear distinction between racism and abuse and simply, "What the hell was that?" or "Build this, that item really doesn't work for that champion." And while there is a distinction before anyone gets hyped up and typing about how I'm a terrible person, that's not what is going to be focused on and not why the system is broken, why the system is broken is simple. The cases are NOT looked into.

Chances are you've had someone report you for offensive language, verbal abuse, or negative attitude and chances are 8 times out of 10 it wasn't for a good reason, they were just angry that they lost and as such thought reporting you would get rid of some of that anger. THIS is the problem. This is the wrong approach and why in recent history riot has seen a skyrocketed amount of people banned, muted, or chat restricted. This wouldn't be a huge problem, if not for the fact that since there are a high number of cases, these cases are not reviewed.

Rather, the system seems to be instead of the cases reviewed, the number of cases against you is reviewed. This is the problem. This allows people to abuse the report abuse and which is why you see a huge amount of reports in recent history because no longer can riot and the tribunal afford to review case by case. Instead, people are able to send in blank reports and STILL get people banned/muted. This is the problem and this is what Riot is not wanting to address.

The bottom line is, people are able to abuse the report abuse button, and you get a nice little warning seconds after someone reports you and it's instantly counted and the bottom line is that Riot can no longer afford to do this.

I'd be shocked if they evaluate solely on the number of cases received for a person. I've seen a dozens upon dozens of threads where people have challenged Lyte to prove that they were abusive, and only once have I seen a case of a someone being falsely charged with a Chat restriction(I assume that's what you mean when you say you got muted). While I do agree that "What the hell was that?" or "Build this, that item really doesn't work for that champion." are not abuse in any sense, saying it aggressively or constantly repeated it can be construed as such. If you find yourself reported for trying to offer advice, perhaps you need to rethink how you're saying it? Just to be clear here, I don't think you're a bad person at all. The way you talk in this post doesn't make me think that at all, maybe you just communicate too aggressively with your team?

Also, about the reporting thing where 8 times out of 10 it wasn't for a good reason, I don't believe that to be the case. I know when ever I use that, I feel as though I was honestly offended. Have I lost games, due to others? Sure, but I never report the player for that. Have I lost games due to others and reported someone? Yes, I report players that are abusing my teammates for playing badly. Everyone has those days where they just can't think straight and play, I know I have. I will only report people if I honestly think it's necessary.

So, now that I have outlined the problem, what is the solution? The simple answer is take away some of the report abuses. Take away offensive language and negative attitude. Instead put in racism. That should be riot's focus on what to punish and reform. Not players getting mad at each other because they refuse to cooperate. That will ALWAYS happen any time you involve other people. What you can control and punish however is racism and extreme profanity. Not talking about maybe 1-6 swears in a game. I mean entire paragraphs of just ugly language.

I disagree with this completely. Using profanity is not the same as abuse. You can be offensive without using profanity just as easily as you can be positive while using profanity. Also, I've had plenty of time I've had negative games where I felt abused that had nothing whatsoever to do with racism. Am I not allowed to report them just because they weren't racist? I don't mind losing games and I love to win them, but I hate it when players decide to berate me or any of my other teammates or opponents because it ruins my experience. Am I not allowed to report them when they don't get act in one of the most extremely negative behaviors (racism)?

The other solution that needs to be implemented is liability. Make the players who report other players liable for the report. Make it to where if there's no real reason to report and if they only did it as some sort of juvenile revenge, that they get the punishment instead. So far the responsibility is held entirely on the player who is reported even if they did very minor things that shouldn't be punished because, let's face it, we'll all human. We all make mistakes and sometimes we goof up. But whenever you're afraid to say one "swear" because someone will call riot on you and you'll get muted or banned or afraid to even criticize a player for making a terrible decision repeatedly then there's a problem.

What was started with a tool to help combat trolls and help stop negativity has instead backfired and been used to spread it. If you can't handle all the reports because of negative attitudes or offensive language, maybe then that is a problem we can't focus on.

While some offenders may indeed deserve punishment, it's not worth it if someone innocent gets punished as well.

Honestly, I don't feel people abuse the system. I'm going to direct you to Lyte's post here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/miscellaneous/l3wHwtIl-rewards-for-positive-play Basically, he mentions that 95% of players have never recieved a punishment of any kind. If people were abusing the system as you claim, I believe the numbers would be much higher. I've had games where I felt there has been one player who cost us the entire game by making many, many mistakes. Never have I reported that player just to "spite" them because they cost me a win (That's not to say I haven't reported some for trolling that I felt were honestly trolling). If players were constantly reporting that "one" player, I'm sure that 95% would be much lower.

I know I've played some games where I was awful. I'm only human after all, but if what you're saying is true, I believe I would have encountered some kind of ban/punishment at some point during my time playing League, and I never have.

airagog12/11/2014, 2:06:57 AM1 votes

I would like there not to be so much a focus on player behavior on the person being reported, God knows I'm getting plenty of those replies, instead I would like to focus on the aspect of the system itself and how it lacks accountability for the person doing reporting.