Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

At what point is 'being nice' no longer expected?

Kikirino·7/28/2015, 4:35:37 AM·2 votes·485 views

Before you downvote me for this pissy thread please note that I am wanting to have an actual discussion and would appreciate responses.

I had a game recently in which a player intentionally trolled and lost us the match. Near the end of the match I asked my team to make sure to report him. I didn't all chat it because spreading your team drama to the other 5 players is fucking stupid. Anyway, after I asked for him to be reported he said "What for mang?" and 'mang' basically said to me "yeah I am intentionally trolling so what?" and it pissed me off so I said "shut the fuck up" and muted him and my team immediately turned on me saying I was mean and it was uncalled for.

At what point is being nice and tolerant no longer expected? The person intentionally made us lose. Why am I supposed to be nice to him? He made us lose. He WANTED us to lose. Why should we be nice to him? I am not trying to say you should actively be mean to someone that causes you to lose a match or someone for playing poorly... but when a player makes it his goal to make you lose why did my team expect me to not be angry with him and call me out as being the bad guy.

Again, if a player plays poorly or has an off game that is no reason to be mean and I am not justifying raging. You shouldn't berate or be mean to someone for trying and losing. But do we have to be nice to players that intentionally troll us?

5 Comments

Jubbinaut7/28/2015, 4:42:10 AM2 votes

{quoted}

But do we have to be nice to players that intentionally troll us?

You don't have to be nice to anyone. You can be nothing towards them. You can speak neutrally (or civilly, as I prefer to say it) towards them. You can speak politely or kindly towards them.

If we imagine general behavior as a scale ranging from "The nicest, just super, super nice" to "absolute raging douche-hole," the line that delineates what's acceptable from what's not lies between "cold/civil/neutral/disinterested" and "mean." Even then, you'd just be entering the gray zone of no-man's-land, where occasional visits are fine, but extended stays are problematic.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure I murdered all of my metaphors there. Poor things. They didn't deserve to be butchered like that.

OhBoyItsaMegaman7/28/2015, 3:24:52 PM1 votes

For the sake of your other teammates, it is better to not say anything. Nobody enjoys having the guy on their team who gets upset at the troll and enters into a heated rant about what they're doing.

There isn't even a need to say "make sure you report him". Many people don't know this, but multiple reports for the same game do not entail a faster or harsher punishment. If you think this person deserves to be punished, report him. If anyone else also thinks he deserves to be punished, they will report him too, though it will have no additional effect.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the guy really was blatantly intentionally trolling, but please understand that everyone has different standards for this and not everyone necessarily agrees with yours. As an example, if there is an Alistar who did very poorly in lane, does not ult when he runs at the enemy to engage, and twice he headbutts an enemy to safety over a wall, I would probably not consider that intentionally trolling. I'd call that a bad Alistar. You might see it differently. In fact, maybe it depends on your mood. If you're on a 6-game losing streak, or if you're losing your promo series because of him, your perception of him may change. But regardless of your reasoning, I'm likely to report you instead of him if you tell me to report him and then get into a salty shouting match.

Navarune7/28/2015, 7:20:01 PM1 votes

Here's my take on this. A positive attitude is going to make the game more fun for you, regardless of what is going on around you. It will always, I repeat always, be better than the alternative. Keep your head up and don't let others drag you down by any means necessary (whether it be muting, ignoring, etc.). The main focus of your time should be on what you are doing that's working (or failing) and what you can do to make a bigger impact on the game at hand. I'm not saying that constructive criticism towards your team (or even gasp your enemies) should be neglected, but I am saying that if you choose to do so, then do it in a positive manner. If your win condition (look at me using those LCS big words!) is to tilt an enemy or enemies, then you are contributing to the problem rather than trying to resolve it. I myself have been guilty of this personally.

That may seem like I'm skirting the question you asked, but honestly I'm not. Don't concern yourself so much with your teammates faults (whether they are intentionally or not), and just seek out the ways to go above them. An example I'll give you is one from personal experience: a couple weeks ago I was playing in my placement matches (yeah yeah, I realize the season is halfway over :P) and my team had what appeared to be a serious troll running jungle. He was spamming champ select with nonsense and at the start of the match was doing some strange things, but no one called him on it. We had a couple hiccups in laning phase where he tried to stir up some stink on our mid laner, but again received no response. I then roamed mid (was playing support) and was able to get our mid back into fighting shape. Then something strange happened... our "troll" followed up my gank with another, getting another kill and the tower. Suddenly he was being helpful and contributing to the team effort. A couple of "gj"s and "nice"s were tossed his way, which brought his simple replies of ":)". When the big fights started breaking out, we steamrolled our opponents, made possible in some cases by our former troll. I'm not saying I was personally responsible for his conversion mid-game, but I am saying that by not being baited into his trollishness I feel like my team actually convinced him it would be more fun to actually play the game responsibly.

I'm also quite aware of cases where such a team attitude would still not deter the troll, and that's fine. Because at the end of the day the only thing I am responsible for is myself. Do I feel good about my input and my outcome? Win or lose, there is always a takeaway, and it is always my responsibility to find it.

TL;DR Don't feed the trolls (Yes, that includes addressing them while in troll form). Keep all those yummy cookies for yourself and your mates.

Hiemdol7/28/2015, 7:22:56 PM1 votes

There is a large range between being nice to someone who does not deserve it and being mean yourself. It can certainly be hard but as has been said it is better just to ignore these kinds of people. What you say, regardless of provocation, is something you can still be held accountable for so it is nearly always better to say nothing if there is any doubt how it will be received.

I myself do no play with all chat because I feel the extra distraction only detracts from my game experience so I understand not wanting to to share team issues with the other team. That being said if you feel you must ask is someone will be reported I find asking post game if the enemy team finds someones actions reportable is better for a couple of reasons.

The largest being your team has first hand experience about what has been happening and has just as much information and time to decided if a teammate is doing something they find reportable. A smaller reason being the enemy team most certainly will not have the same emotional investment in if someone on your team will be reported.