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Toxicity has defined league; Does anyone care?

Arctic Phreeze·6/1/2016, 6:30:56 AM·2 votes·411 views

This turned out to be long but I'm not really sorry about that.

I work an average of 6-8 hours a day, five days a week, and spend anywhere between 2-4 hours a day for at least four days a week in a classroom, only slightly overlapping with the work schedule. Between work and studying, I don't have as much time to play as I used to, so that makes playing games after dealing with horrendous customers and a giant workload something really special. It's a time for me to actually be able to sit down and do something I enjoy, and lately, I just haven't.

I had a Zed in my last ranked game who was just downright better than me, and that's okay. I knew I was losing lane and I told my teammates, but since he was Zed, he had to say something. The entire game was a toxic harassment fest. Nothing but insults streamed out of him and literally everyone else in the game encouraged it and took every possible opportunity to bash me for it. It was the first time in over three and a half years of playing that I actually got angry and emotionally compromised during a game of league, it was ridiculously hurtful and I made the mistake of telling my team, which only made it worse.

The most common thing I hear about this sort of behavior is that "it's just how league is". I tried to explain that I don't have a lot of time to play and so every game counts more for me than what it usually does, but what i was told was that I just shouldn't play league if I want to avoid toxicity. For a long time I accepted that League was just a terrible environment, and on some level, it seems like most players do. But they had actually managed to wound me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I could have muted them, but what would I have done then, muted everyone else in the game? I'd be cutting myself off from my teammates (which is a reportable offense thanks to the "zero communication" report), I'd definitely end up playing even worse, and I'd probably earn a 9-way report for doing absolutely nothing intentionally wrong, which is probably the worst outcome.

But I should talk about reports because they are such a powerless thing that it's a mystery why they still exist. The tribunal doesn't, so who is looking at them? I've always reported for toxicity regardless of who was the target, even if I was completely removed from the situation. Even if it was my enemy's team but it was clear that they were harassing a teammate. But not a single time have I ever been informed that any of those toxic players, even the ones who are horrendously, grotesquely offensive, have ever been banned. Ever. Of course there arises the issue of a premade or teammates deciding to report for no reason, but how often does that come into effect when compared to the literally millions of games wherein somebody is obtusely offensive?

Something else I'm tired of hearing is something along the lines of "how could you be offended by something someone says on the internet?" If I were to meet a total stranger who walked up to me and told me, face to face, a fraction of the 'acceptable' things that the average league player types into Allchat, I would definitely feel like shit. Why is the internet somehow an excuse for not being affected by it? I have actual, diagnosed depression and I've had issues with terrible people in the past; so no, some asshole on the internet constantly berating me for my failures for 20-35 minutes is not something that is particularly easy to ignore, and I know this goes for quite a few players besides myself.

So League has this toxicity that just stagnates and nobody does anything about it because Reports are a joke and the community sits back and watches whenever the first spark flies. I've heard that this isn't present at higher levels of play and I believe that, but why doesn't anyone take a look at the numbers for that? What is the highest tier of play's playerbase percentage, something like 1%? 3% for the next, and like 5% for the third highest? Something along those lines? Why does the vast, overwhelming majority of players get ignored in favor of this top 6-8% playerbase? They might represent the highest tier of play but that does not represent the majority of the community.

What can Riot do about this? A lot, actually. Accounts should be banned immediately if they are reported in 2-3 games for the same offense, or have a particularly stunning case of being ridiculously toxic in a game. I work at a grocery store, and we've had people who have yelled and screamed and been profane and violent to other customers as well as staff. What do we do to them? We kick them out and make sure our security has a picture of their ID's, and they're not allowed back. Ever. They upset the peace of the store and were a menace others and they were punished for it, as they should be. Bans have to mean something. Do away with the 'chat restriction'. Allowing someone to play but not allowing them to talk is still allowing them to get away with their toxic behavior, and even worse, they can't communicate even if it's not to be toxic. Worse still, I don't know anyone who's ever been chat restricted for only one time. It's such a laughable punishment that in my experience people who are given chat restrictions repeat the offense and get chat restricted 3-4 times. I'm sure they'll be chat restricted even more.

Don't hesitate to ban for weeks or months at a time, or even permanently, after only a few reports. Chances are, if accounts were banned after only a couple of repeated reports, there would be a very real punishment over player's heads for being toxic. It might just be a game and they may just make another account, but they'll have to spend a lot of time grinding back up to level 30, re-unlock every single champion, re-purchase every rune and rune page and skin, climb the ladder through ranked entirely anew, and lose any benefit from having that previous account, such as limited-time icons or money already spent on the game. Putting money into the game and losing the account for being toxic should be something people complain about, because that means it's working.

How do you review the reports? Sky actually had a great suggestion for this. Allow players to review reports for RP, in any amount. Players would certainly jump up to help out if there was a reward for doing so, even if it was just an icon or something. But Riot Games is also one of the biggest companies in gaming at the moment; you're going to tell me you can't afford to hire people at a very low wage to sift through reports? There might be a lot of them, but a single person could definitely handle a large amount of them at a time by creating a guideline to follow and things to look for in the recorded chat. Toxicity is EASY to spot. Don't lie to yourself like there's some kind of grey area. Jokes that are at the expense of someone else who isn't taking them lightly is toxicity. Offensive slurs and bashing is toxicity. Everyone seems so afraid to call out what the problem is, but it seems pretty clear to me.

There is never an excuse for being toxic. Having a bad day? When was that ever an excuse? If you 'had a bad day' and broke someone's windshield out of anger, you don't get let off the hook by telling them "I just had a bad day". Typing into the chat is ALWAYS an option. That person DECIDED to be a terrible person to the other player, and should be punished for it.

Really, this all boils down to some strange illusion that because it's a video game, people shouldn't or somehow can't be held accountable for their actions. if you want video games to be respected on any sort of legitimate level you have to be able to wake up and face the issue, not skirt around it and make sure the medium stays at an immature level. The harsh reality is that League CREATED this toxic environment. It started in league, it spread through league, and many players are toxic because league pushed them to be. You can actively try to stop this from happening, it's definitely possible.

But somewhere I know it won't. In all likelihood Riot will probably not do anything about it, because as they've shown, they don't really care enough about it to tackle the problem effectively. I guess I'm going to end this by saying that I'm done with League. The experience with the Zed player completely ruined the entire game for me; I left the game tonight feeling angry, upset, and frustrated, emotions you never want your players to experience when putting your game down. Three and a half years of play and quite a lot of money sunk into a game that was conducive to that sort of behavior, and I want no part in it. I posted this because I wanted to get it off my chest and because I don't think enough people call this out, and I do love this game, to some degree. I know nobody cares that I'm quitting but I do, so.

Good bye and good luck.

5 Comments

AeroWaffle6/1/2016, 6:45:34 AM2 votes

Okay, there are several points that I would argue against, but considering the length of your post forgive me if I don't cover all your points.

Accounts should be banned immediately if they are reported in 2-3 games for the same offense

No. This opens the possibility for easy abuse resulting in players getting banned that don't deserve it.

or have a particularly stunning case of being ridiculously toxic in a game

It's claimed that the system already does this. But Riot does have a policy that it's understandable to have a rare bad game, you're human. Consistent poor behavior or just a couple games of extremely poor behavior is what gets you flagged. It doesn't seem like that from your perspective as a player, since you're stuck in the game that they're showing poor behavior.

Don't hesitate to ban for weeks or months at a time, or even permanently, after only a few reports.

Reports alone should never hand out a punishment. And it's already a pretty steep climb to the perma-ban tier. Chat ban -> 14 day -> perma. For the most part, people should have the right to be given at least a chance to reflect on their behavior and stop (given that their behavior wasn't completely out of line like death threats or something).

Allow players to review reports for RP

They tried this with the previous Tribunal (for IP). It didn't work. Correction, it worked but it was far from being efficient. Not only was the number of people who volunteers insignificant compared to the number of reports, but even though it was for pitiful IP, people were using bots to auto vote. RP rewards would spawn a wave of bots voting.

The new automatic system proved to be more accurate (almost no false positives) and handed out punishments much faster.

But Riot Games is also one of the biggest companies in gaming at the moment; you're going to tell me you can't afford to hire people at a very low wage to sift through reports? There might be a lot of them, but a single person could definitely handle a large amount of them at a time by creating a guideline to follow and things to look for in the recorded chat.

You SEVERELY underestimate how many players play this game.

TNHA Baritone6/1/2016, 6:37:49 AM1 votes

Anyone who is playing Zed immediately loses my respect. But anyways, I think you should come back to league later on and just play normals and try to have fun rather than do ranked.

Arctic Phreeze6/1/2016, 7:01:55 AM1 votes

I knew that the criticism I'd likely receive for this would be the accidental or unfounded bans, but I do think that they're a loss that has to be accepted.

There is a severe lack of accountability in League, and no matter how that answer is solved through a system of punishments, there is always going to be backlash for implementing them. Even if it's just more steps to the Chat -> 15 days -> Perma tree, it means that someone who originally wouldn't have been affected is now going to face one of these punishments. It's how the system works, and if you were to contact Riot about an issue like that where there was an unjust ban, it could be lifted. (Things like this have always been iffy at best but I digress).

I also cannot agree with the one-and-done argument, either. Even if you were to play one game out of hundreds of games and be offensive and rude to your teammates and enemies, you deserve the ban. You killed the experience for at least one other person and deserve punishment for it. I really don't think I know of a game that is as lenient as League is; Blizzard is an example of a massive company that has more than one game wherein they have to tackle the issue of toxicity and instead of giving players a light slap, they bring the hammer down. Like I said, there isn't an excuse for being toxic. As a person mature enough to play a team-based game, you should be aware of that.

I guess that's just a difference in opinions, though.