Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

My personal opinion on League of Legends in general.

wwf8qhoctm··21 votes·1,864 views

So not being a very big MOBA gamer I decided to try out LoL because of its popularity. After a few months of JUST playing blind pick and ARAM because I wasn't comfortable playing anything else after being constantly bullied and flamed. I have came up with the conclusion that this community is the equivalent to the console Call of Duty for PC.

The list goes on.. Angry flamers, getting reported almost for JUST trying to learn the game, The trolls.. and all of this can't even be prevented because of how the game works. You play for 30mins getting constantly bullied and blamed even when you do good. You have some random Yasuo running out alone and then blaming his team for his death when we ALL died. The entire community is what holds you back if you really think about it. How are you supposed to get better at the game if you get reported for being bad? How are you supposed to learn anything when you get paired up with teams that flame you if you do one thing wrong?

I know this is kind of irrelevant but I felt like it needed to be said. I'm just sharing my personal experience of getting into MOBA games. Mind you I did play bot games a shit ton to figure out how stuff worked and I wasn't just a noob. I wanted to learn to play this game bit more but it's impossible to do so even in against real players.

I know I suck, I know I'm not THE BEST but please, quit being a jerk and just play the game.

TLDR; if you're anything like me and you like playing games because you enjoy them, don't even think about getting into LoL unless you are prepared to be constantly reported, flamed and called bad by everyone you play just because of the toxicity in the community.

26 Comments

chipi996 votes

Try to play with friends. Just keep quiet when people are flamming if they keep going just mute them.

Lately I have only had one toxic team that was complaining over putting down Zz'rot in our base even though the enemy team was pushing to our nexus turrets. I think it is probably the MMR you are at.

Sir ArmaMalum3 votes

I'm sorry you had that experience and I can safely say there are better people here that can make your game a better experience rather than bad, but sadly I will also agree with you're comparison of Call of Duty to a point. League right now is a victim of its own success and attract everyone, bad and good, to play. Topics from smurfing to coaching have been touched on by others here so I'll just say there are good people in the community that you'll run into, and we try to make ourselves known where we can. But we can't be as in-your-face about it by nature. I hope you have some better games in the future.

Kaisha2 votes

Its not a 'victim of its own success'. It encourages trolls at a fundamental level. Trolls are big $$ and hence their actions are ENCOURAGED by riot.

The 'reporting' system is a joke. Most of the standard griefing actions aren't even on the list. How do you report the troll who follows the jungle around stealing the jungle minions because 'they didn't get enough ganks'? The afk'r who sits at the tower the entire game but still gets the odd kill from enemy diving towers and/or nexus out of boredom. The player that refuses to play with the team and just runs off solo farming the entire game? All the choices for a 'report' are intentionally ambiguous and intentionally do not line up with player behavior allowing riot to effectively ignore the reports.

On top of that the game requires teamwork to win, but rewards selfish behavior. Nearly every 'rewardable' action, from killing blows, to gold/xp acquisition and hence item acquisition , to LCS 'big' plays, ect... all focus on the individual at the expense of the team. Even the whole notion of the 'bottom' lane/support is utterly ridiculous outside of the perverse meta-game Riot has constructed.

Throw those two together add in completely non-existent moderation, mix thoroughly, and you end up with the cesspool that is the league community. And here's the catch... THEY WANT IT THIS WAY. Don't believe for a second they couldn't change it. This formula of catering to trolls = big $$$. Trolls will spent a TON of cash if they think for a second it'll give them an advantage. Stable, even tempered, intelligent players are not impulse spenders. They'd rather have one raging buffoon that'll every epic skin on release than 10 nice players who only toss down 10$ here or there. The game is intentionally broken and unbalanced by design, to encourage spending.

The genius in Riot's game design is not in building a balanced competitive e-sport; but in making people believe they did while still catering to the lowest common denominator.

Jubbinaut1 votes

{quoted}

The 'reporting' system is a joke. Most of the standard griefing actions aren't even on the list.

Why overload the options list with individual actions when you can lump them together elsewhere? Assisting Enemy Team and Negative Attitude should cover more-or-less any griefing behavior just fine. And even that doesn't matter, because what you report them for doesn't much matter (well, maybe a bit more now than with the Tribunal, but still). To cover your examples:

How do you report the troll who follows the jungle around stealing the jungle minions because 'they didn't get enough ganks'?

Negative Attitude or Assisting Enemy Team, depending on specifically how he handled it.

The afk'r who sits at the tower the entire game but still gets the odd kill from enemy diving towers and/or nexus out of boredom.

I don't even bother reporting most afks because the system picks them up just fine. But reporting them for Leaving the Game/AFK works as well.

The player that refuses to play with the team and just runs off solo farming the entire game?

Assisting Enemy Team is fine.

All the choices for a 'report' are intentionally ambiguous and intentionally do not line up with player behavior allowing riot to effectively ignore the reports.

Or perhaps they're simply ambiguous to minimize the number of items on the list. There's a lot of psychology wrapped into keeping that list short and generalized. Additionally, it reduces bookkeeping while still allowing for the myriad of possible toxic behaviors to be addressed.

Honestly, I think they could stand to remove a few of those report options and rename others, but I certainly see little benefit to adding more.

On top of that the game requires teamwork to win, but rewards selfish behavior. Nearly every 'rewardable' action, from killing blows, to gold/xp acquisition and hence item acquisition , to LCS 'big' plays, ect... all focus on the individual at the expense of the team.

There's something to be said for aspects of this argument. The big, flashy, reward-center-triggering displays do tend to be focused on the individual, and I strongly believe there should be more reward-announcement type displays for the less selfish behaviors (announced Assist sprees?). But while League is certainly a game that requires teamwork, it also requires solid individual play - and as such represents an interesting confluence of mindsets. That, I think, is what makes it work.

Even so, the aspects of your argument here that bear significant weight aren't limited to League - they're inherent to the MOBA genre as a whole.

Even the whole notion of the 'bottom' lane/support is utterly ridiculous outside of the perverse meta-game Riot has constructed.

Riot didn't construct that Meta. It built itself based on player tendencies - and the slow determination of what worked the most consistently.

Kaisha1 votes

I've played many an AOS (what MOBAs were called before they were renamed because.. well I dunno why really, because we wanted to be cool and rename things) that were not individual based. Tides of Blood was an amazing one. Heck even 1/2 the original league champs were TOB knockoffs (ali, ashe, gp, vlad, ect...). It was not at all player centric and if you didn't work with your team it was GG real fast. That was the problem, it took alot more skill and strategy than DOTA. DOTA/LOL took off while the more complete/complex/balanced AOSs floundered. Not because DOTA was better, simply because it encouraged selfish play. Catering to the baser instincts has always proven to be lucrative. Here there is no exception.

S H A Y C 02 votes

I couldnt help but laugh as i read this....I wrote a similar forum post when i started playing normals, i had the exact same experience, and the the exact same conclusion almost...i said they were worse than call of duty . But as i am sure you will find out, you will be flamed hard here shortly and down voted into oblivion and the irony will be your only comfort.

wwf8qhoctm1 votes

Either way I have really never found such a horrible community on the PC in a long time. Even if people get upset and butthurt over this post it just clearly bumps my point of view on how toxic this is really becoming. I don't even think Counterstrikes competitive was THIS bad.

In the end it's my own opinion so your entires may vary. I enjoy this game but for what its worth it's really not worth it. Maybe in the future if I decide to get into mobas again I will try LoL again.. but for now I think I'm gonna stray away from these types of games because of this entry experience.

S H A Y C 01 votes

i dont blame ya. I got mad one night and downloaded smite :P

PalPlays1 votes

{quoted}

Either way I have really never found such a horrible community on the PC in a long time. Even if people get upset and butthurt over this post it just clearly bumps my point of view on how toxic this is really becoming. I don't even think Counterstrikes competitive was THIS bad.

In the end it's my own opinion so your entires may vary. I enjoy this game but for what its worth it's really not worth it. Maybe in the future if I decide to get into mobas again I will try LoL again.. but for now I think I'm gonna stray away from these types of games because of this entry experience.

I totally agree with you. I feel like Riot is to blame for this. They don't have a good system of accountability and thus... toxicity is almost encouraged by them.

Daen2 votes

I'm going to be brief here because this topic can potentially open multiple giant cans of worms, but here goes.

I think your poor experience is due to three factors, primarily, none of which are apparently being worked on by Riot:

Teaching Tools

League of Legends has one of the least effective tutorials in modern gaming, and for such a complex set of mechanics it's completely inadequate. This doesn't just affect new players; there are tons of people in higher ELOs (some as high as Platinum) that don't even fully understand basic MOBA concepts like last hitting and positioning, and it's doing the entire community a great disservice.

This lack of instructional tools not only makes the onboarding experience terrible, it means that there are a lot of highly unreliable players in LoL. This manifests itself as rage at people playing poorly, matchmaking being bad, and eventually player behavior sucking. A proper learning experience not only helps new players, it increases the overall quality of the community dramatically.

Social Tools

Historically, Riot has released very few tools that can be utilized by the playerbase for the purpose of increasing social interaction depth. The friend list is harshly limited, Riot doesn't curate grassroots community interaction, chat rooms are totally inadequate for actual community-building, Leagues (Karma's Redeemers, etc.) accomplish absolutely nothing, the list goes on and on.

This lack of social tools not only makes building communities harder, it means there are less players that form significant attachment to LoL. Multiplayer games live and breathe community interaction, and not supporting that makes it a lot more likely for people to leave on the basis of not forming strong bonds with other people.

Smurfing

This one's complicated. I don't think smurfing as a concept is bad, necessarily, but I really don't think that new players should be forced to constantly queue with people that are significantly more skilled than they are. I like that it's an option in case someone wants to help a friend get used to the game or help random newbs, but far too often it's used to either crush people that are way less skilled or power level an account to 30.

This lack of smurfing control not only makes it harder for new players to grasp the game, it makes trying to have multiple accounts somewhat frustrating for returning players that don't want to ruin low level games. A possible solution could be a system where each account has multiple logins tied together, but this is definitely tricky to address.

wwf8qhoctm2 votes

Well it's nice to see some helpful tips and such on here! I think I'll keep playing and hopefully get a bit better. It's just rough getting into competitive type games again haha. Thanks all for the support and tips. I didn't wanna offend anyone here because I truly do enjoy the game. In fact I think this game is one of the fewer games I got EXTREMELY addicted and hooked onto in long time! I do understand the complexity on dealing with these things aswell. It's not easy at all! Just wanted a bit of support and feedback to boost my confidence is all. It's difficult to find awesome people like you and hey, maybe it will get better as I play more!

Kazaashi2 votes

Also, reading build guides and champion strats is a good idea. Also check out Youtube. The How to ADC series is good, especially the positioning one. There are tons of resources, its just up to you to find them. I've been playing since season 2 and I still read them a lot!

Also, remember, part of the leveling up process is developing a thick skin and how to use the mute button. Pro tip: The Mute doesn't mute anyones pings, so you can still communicate.

Elf Goddess1 votes

People flame because you are probably playing with people who have been playing the game for years. Therefore; people want to WIN the game, and because it is a team game you are dragging them down because you are new at the game. I;m not saying its your fault, im just explaining why people always flame at you. Like, if you are playing with people who have been playing for over a year, and lets say, you just hit 30...well you are bringing them all down in a sense because of your noobness (no offence here)/ Once again i am explaining why people flame. I'm not saying its right in any way. But like, lets say you just hit lvl 30, only own like, 15 champs, and start to YoLo in ranked. Well you probably just fcked up your whole team because chances are the people you are playing against are smurfs or have a lot more wins/experience with you.

In my opinion, riot needs to make it so when you play games you are playing with people with similar wins. Same goes for ranked. I'v been playing the game for over about 4 years now, have over 3000 hours on the game, and ive been qued in ranked wit a guy who just hit 30. Tell me how that is fair.

Anyway, yes the community does suck. Doesnt matter what elo. Most people just rage at the game. Once again, its a team game and one person can ruin it all. Gotta love team games man. Gotta love em.

ZacsRealm1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Elf Goddess,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=d9YTEnaK,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-03-09T16:45:44.527+0000)

People flame because you are probably playing with people who have been playing the game for years. Therefore; people want to WIN the game, and because it is a team game you are dragging them down because you are new at the game. I;m not saying its your fault, im just explaining why people always flame at you. Like, if you are playing with people who have been playing for over a year, and lets say, you just hit 30...well you are bringing them all down in a sense because of your noobness (no offence here)/ Once again i am explaining why people flame. I'm not saying its right in any way. But like, lets say you just hit lvl 30, only own like, 15 champs, and start to YoLo in ranked. Well you probably just fcked up your whole team because chances are the people you are playing against are smurfs or have a lot more wins/experience with you.

In my opinion, riot needs to make it so when you play games you are playing with people with similar wins. Same goes for ranked. I'v been playing the game for over about 4 years now, have over 3000 hours on the game, and ive been qued in ranked wit a guy who just hit 30. Tell me how that is fair.

Anyway, yes the community does suck. Doesnt matter what elo. Most people just rage at the game. Once again, its a team game and one person can ruin it all. Gotta love team games man. Gotta love em.

This post right here. I just hit 30 not too long ago, and of course I played a ranked game. Played Viktor, went against a Ziggs who had been playing ranked for awhile, whereas this was my first ever ranked game. Doesn't seem fair to me in the slightest.

mvargus1 votes

Find a teamspeak community to join. Then see if they'll take you into games. I belong to one and its rare I don't find at least 3 others to game with and often we have full teams.

Now this isn't foolproof. A couple people in the community I belong to have been mildly unpleasant when I made a bad play, but most have been very supportive and helpful. They will suggest things to look for and often work with you. Yesterday I wanted to play Irelia top lane, but I'm still learning how to survive her early game. My jungler was very experienced and came more often than normal to gank the lane to take a bit of pressure off me. I didn't dominate, but I was able to contribute in both games.

And many of them have been willing to answer questions on champs, builds, runes, etc. It's been a great way to learn more even if I have had a few times where I end up against someone ranked in gold and get dumpstered rather badly during the laning phase. Still its been great fun and while I might never meet the other members in real life, they have become friends over my time in the community.

The Fat Punisher1 votes

fuck smurfs

Chespin20131 votes

its sad that this is true and its not just lol a lot of mobas and online games can be like this whenever u get on like mobas like smite or dota 2 its pretty much the same or even games like starcraft when ppl will call u a n00b when ur just learning the game

Spacesuit Spiff1 votes

Totally agree. The fact that a lot of people play this as a 1v9 and care more about thinking they're gods than actually learning the game is why bronze exists. Having taken a few psychology courses, this community amuses me to no end, and I could rattle off an endless list of the irrational tendencies the community enforces.

wwf8qhoctm1 votes

Yeah after doing some research cause LoL was indeed my first moba (besides some guy begging to get me into Dota 2 but it wasn't really appealing at the time for me) It seems like this is much more than LoL because of Smite, HoN and others have people exactly like this. I can't blame anyone though.. there's always people out there to ruin something for everyone. Especially when things become more popular.

but knowing I'm not alone on this is a relief haha.

Jubbinaut1 votes

A lot of the problems that plague League are inherent to the MOBA genre. Griefing has much more of an impact because the game requires teamwork for consistent success. That same requirement leads others to become aggressive with everyone around them due to their failures.

It's unfortunate, but there's not much that Riot can do about those stimuli without making a completely different game. So their solution is to try to change the mindset of those players - equally difficult, but at least the game itself remains the same (ish).

mauroc01 votes

Learn how to mute people, now that no one can bother you , learn how to play in peace . The matchmaking is really good in this game cause the community is huge, there's plenty of enemies around your skill level, and remember you don't have to kill people 1v1 to win, focus on staying alive and farming if you are not good at dueling your lane opponent yet. When laning is over If you have a champion with a good engage spell ( most tank ults , big cc ults like morgana ult, kennen,ashe,varus) use it to get the enemy team from the shadows. Then try to ping your team to get objectives when it is safe (dragon , towers , inhib , barons), push hard while enemy death timers are ticking then pull back , that's how you win.

DarkLiquidDeath1 votes

Generally it gets much better as your rank gets higher. Playing with friends really helps as well.

Ryu the first1 votes

Considering I never got higher than Silver, I wouldn't know, but my high ELO friends tell me Plat rivals bronze in ragers...

DarkLiquidDeath1 votes

I definitely still see ragers in plat, but I find that it's not nearly as common if you know how to handle yourself. I thought it was pretty bad in plat for a while, but then I played with some bronze players who invited me and was shocked. I had forgotten just how bad the game had been when I used to play at a less experienced level. They constantly yelled about everything and I was reminded of the term "ks" more times than I could count. I find that ragers are less common if they are given less reason to rage and are treated nicely, even if you don't agree with them and they just stole your blue buff for no reason. Playing nice certainly doesn't always work, but I haven't had a ragequit in a long time. Like I said earlier, however, my normal games are mostly played with friends, so it certainly takes away from the amount of ragers I encounter. In the end, while some people can be really frustrating, I've always found that the game is worth the possibility of toxic players. I do sometimes wish that Riot was little bit more strict however. I hope things get better for you and wish you luck in your potential future games.

Ryu the first1 votes

thanks :D

Sirsir1 votes

Accurate.

More from [ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

Open Letter to Parents of League of Legends Players
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous860 comments
2,611
votes
Rewards for positive play
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous19,712 comments
1,337
votes
I don't like Boards
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous324 comments
809
votes
STOP ALLOWING LEVEL 1 ACCOUNTS TO SEND FRIEND REQUESTS!!!
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous291 comments
679
votes
Wanting to do something special for an awesome friend. Riot, please help? <3
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous220 comments
614
votes
People that are telling others to kill themselves has to stop! Please help me get this noticed!
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous605 comments
600
votes