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IP bans?

TurboWindex·8/25/2015, 12:47:04 AM·1 votes·559 views

So this is a thought I had. Not saying its something that should happen, just wondering what pros and cons of it would be. Instead of banning accounts, so the person is toxic on another account, what if Riot banned computer IPs if that computer had something like 5 banned accounts? I've heard people say 'I don't report, because they'll just make a smurf and keep doing it.' I think it should be more than like 3, so if you have a friend/sibling who plays on the same cpu, you can't cry to riot that you shouldn't be banned because it was them not you. Riot could also send an email to accounts on that computer saying 'This computer has 2/4 banned accounts, 2 more and you will be IP banned.' I don't know if this would be way too difficult, or if there would be problems with accounts on multiple computers, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the idea,

2 Comments

Atlas The Bird8/25/2015, 12:49:09 AM1 votes

People could get another IP...?

Jubbinaut8/25/2015, 1:20:17 AM1 votes

There's two major concerns with IP bans.

  1. It's ridiculously easy to avoid them. Most people use Dynamic IP, so their ISP changes their IP address periodically. For those that don't, a good proxy will fake it for them - allowing them to maintain access to the game.
  2. It risks a lot of collateral damage. When there's an internal network, the IP address that Riot sees is the external router of that network. So, for example, if Riot were to issue an IP ban against a single player living in a school dorm, they'd be hitting everyone else that lives in that dorm as well.

Between these two, we can see that IP bans are problematic because they run a significant risk of banning innocent players, while allowing the guilty players to continue to play. Which is why Riot doesn't use them.