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Why largely focus bans on "language" instead of REAL reasons, i.e. trolling/feed/etc?

Bojangles192·11/26/2015, 6:54:01 AM·6 votes·911 views

I took a month break from the game and recently started playing again. In my 3 days back, I've gotten a 10 game chat restriction, a 25 game chat restriction, and a few hours ago, a 14 day ban. I haven't been reported for anything before this point in time. Sure, I deserved the ban and I'm not arguing this case because I did my best to let a few people know they are pieces of trash. I'm not arguing this punishment nor am I attempting to dispute; I want to know the logic behind this ban system.

I play a moderate amount, and I like having fun as much as anyone. I usually am low-key and keep to myself, chatting only when needed. However, when there are trolls, passive-aggressive imbeciles or the likewise on my team, I duly tell them to fck off. Am I in the wrong for telling these people to get the fck off the game, etc? To stop ruining other player's experience? It's universally known that an incredible amount of time has to be invested into this game every time you sit down to play. League is the most time-consuming game I've ever played, and I want to enjoy my time when I'm able to log in, not have it ruined by a dunce.

Let's state the obvious, right at the outset: League's community is very diverse. Over 65 million people play every month. Of that 65m+, 62.5% of League's ranked players are in Bronze & Silver. Therefore, being in this elo I could play thousands of games and never play with the same person twice. Clearly, the chances of playing with trolls and the like are increased exponentially if you happen to be ranked at the lower end of the ranked player base. It's foolish and unrealistic to think that 100% of the people you come into contact with on this game(or any environment) are going to be pleasant, agreeable, and fun to play with. And to my point...

The irony of the one-sided, broken, PoS chat-restriction system is that it doesn't matter who was 'right' or 'wrong' in disagreements, etc in games. The only thing that is looked at is the individual words in a game chat log and the number of people who report a particular player.

These related examples have occurred in the 3ish days I've been playing:

Example 1: Playing adc, support roams, refuses to communicate. I die multiple times in 2v1 situation. Troll support flames me and tells me to stop feeding. I very appropriately get pissed off at the way he's ruining the game for everyone and is saying that candy-ass BS to me directly. He roams all game, feeding every lane. I tell him to F*ck off. Despite his BS, I continue to go to lane and farm so I can help the team, ending up with most farm in game by the end. He tells everyone in the game 9x report me. I get penalized by Riot. Support walks away freely simply because I cursed and he didn't.

Example 2: Playing soloQ, get matched with party of 4. They say in pregame that they're going to mess around. What follows is AP yasuo, Anivia "adc", and duo mid. No jungler. In the span of 25 minutes, they die a combined total of 50 times, intentionally feeding and wasting everyone's time. They proceed to sell all their items & do the unlimited sightstone thing at the fountain until the end of the game, basically afking. In this game, I died once, paid attention to myself and ignore them. I did my part, I continue playing and doing what I'm supposed to. They then all come to top lane to take cs and troll and feed there(at this point in time they've already died a total of 25 times). I tell them to f*ck off, they report me. I am penalized by Riot for offensive language. They walk away free with no penalties because of broke report system.

Example 3: Playing Mundo for like the 3rd time ever. I do pretty terrible. End up getting flamed by whole team, they say 9x report for feeding. I end up with 0 kills, but ironically, our team ends up with a total of 7 kills. I tell team to f*ck off as I'm playing new champ. I get reported and punished by riot. Once again, you guessed it, team walks away free after they verbally harass b/c report system.

I'm not one to mute people or bend over to their will and get f*cked in the arse by a few lollygagging fools. If people are being rude, I'll respond accordingly to them. Sometimes I can be nice, most of the time I'm not. Many of the troublemakers don't deserve that courtesy. There are more examples, but redundancy isn't needed.

The fact that most games last 25-35ish minutes is proof in itself that this game cannot be adequately monitored for good and bad behavior. It'd be a logistical nightmare to have real-time monitoring in games. It simply does not happen. Therefore, people afking in lane or trolling in any of its forms cannot adequately be monitored nor punished. Riot as a company relies on (x) number of reports and (x) trigger words and 5 second reviews by random peers to determine the fate of bans/chat restrictions/ etc. Common sense says that this system is jokingly fundamentally flawed.

Again I ask: What is the purpose of banning for language, but not for things that ACTUALLY ruin games? Furthermore, why ban for language instead of simply muting accounts? I'm 25 and have played games all of my life, and talking smack is part of all of the sports and games I have played. Not once have I been punished in any environment for language on any system or sport other than League of Legends. A large part of it is the fact that my temper has become extremely short as a result of playing with fools over a long period of time. Another large part is that League's community is the worst I've ever interacted with.

Instead of trolling my intentionally feeding support when I played adc, I continued to try to do my best and farm. When I was playing with the party of 4 who died 50 times combined, I continued to do my best and died once. I could've started feeding, etc. as well, but I continued to play. Instead of trolling and intentionally feeding when getting flamed as I learned Mundo, I continued to do my best and play to win. When I was playing a 3v5 because of 2 afks, I didn't bit*h and complain, I just got down to business and did my thing and played my best. When they connect with less than 3 minutes left in the game, I tell them to fix their internet and don't waste people's time. I'm sure they didn't received any form of punishment as a result of being afk for 20 mins.

It's embarrassing, nay, despicable that a company as wealthy and expanded & developed as Riot has to result to a semi-automated system to police the in-game chat logs instead of reasonably going about punishing people who deserve the sentence. The flawed logic of "Hey, if we ban people who say f*ck, the game will become a better place" is foolhardy and imbecilic. I've been a competitive person all of my life, and in the many online games I've played, I've never once trolled or fed or likewise to the extent that it thoroughly ruins the game for other people. I talk smack, yeah, but that's just part of the game.

Riot seemingly SUPPORTS sh*t talking at the competitive level. As a company, they spend time and a tremendous amount of money making videos hyping up LCS to fanatical proportions, and anyone who has seen/attended one of the events knows full well how loud and wild things can be. When Riot representatives interview players, it's not uncommon to hear them curse multiple times and call out other players.

The blatant hypocrisy concerning who can say what is a shameful representation of Riot's priorities in the big picture: Allow sh*t talking where the money is flowing and let things slide if it helps them get a bit of stage time and $. If Riot truly wanted to make their game more enjoyable for EVERYONE, and not just people who make them money, they would be working around the clock to come up with a better solution on how they handle individual player behavior and coinciding restrictions.

When my two week ban is up, I'll return and play the game again. I will still let trolls know that they're scum, they're worthless for wasting everyone's time, and they don't deserve to play the game. If cursing during doing so means I'll get banned, so be it. I'll gladly curse someone out and tell the truth that needs to be told. It will not hurt my feelings to go spend time and money on another game that isn't jokingly policed and handled in this manner.

Thank you for your time and have a good f*cking day. ;-)

16 Comments

Deep Terror Nami11/26/2015, 7:06:46 AM8 votes

They do punish trolling and other toxic game behaviors. That doesn't mean they should ignore toxic chat.

Nahui11/26/2015, 7:03:25 AM4 votes

Because trolling can easily be misconstrued as just not following the meta. There is nothing wrong with ADC Anivia. At all. Riot gives you a list of items to build, a list of champions to pick from that can buy these items. It's unfair that certain combinations of items could get your account penalized.

Language is focused on because it's an active detractment from the game. What one person sees as trolling, another sees as just a different way to play. Sure, some people do troll, but to be honest, most people that "troll" just experiment with the game and are abused for it. However, abuse is abuse. There's no one person sees. Calling someone a %%%got or a retard isn't "To one person abuse, but to another a form of praise." It's also the easiest thing to persecute on. Trolling, feeding, etc has to be looked into and subjectively judged case by case whether it was actually trolling. Again, 0-14-0 Anivia ADC is not a reportable troll unless she did not actively play the game. She tried a different style to a champion and it failed. If she did not try and play the game, then sure, troll, but if she was CSing, moving around the map, participating, she was not trolling. Even if secretly her intent was to troll, that's not something you can ban.

Language, however, is easy to ban. Calling someone a dumb %%%got is easy to look at and ban without any context. Why? There's no context in which that's acceptable. Even counter flaming isn't allowed. Just because someone said they raped your cancer laden sister doesn't mean you have the right to turn around and call them a dumb %%%got. Flaming is simple to target. You flame, verbal abuse, harass, you get reported, bam. Easy ban. No thought, no subjective review, just simply "You weren't nice, you're done." Not "Well she went ADC anivia, let's now review the game to see if she was actually trolling or was legitly playing."

Espy Psyche11/26/2015, 5:31:33 PM2 votes

Actually it is against the rules to build ADC Anivia. There's a metric (sometimes referred to as the AP Garen Rule or AP Vayne Rule or something with a similar name) that's used to judge intentional feeding. It came from the time of the Tribunal and is still used today to ban people for intentionally feeding. Basically what it says is that if you build items that have no benefit for your champion, you are intentionally feeding.

  1. Manaless champions are forbidden from building mana or mana regen items, with two specific exceptions for effects that cannot be obtained without mana (item 3165 item 3057).
  2. Champions with no auto attack steroid and no AD ratios on abilities are forbidden from building Attack Damage or Attack Speed.
  3. Champions with no AP ratios on auto attacks or abilities are forbidden from building Ability Power (where the most common rule names come from, since Garen and Vayne have no AP ratios).
  4. Champions with no sources of physical damage (aside from unimproved auto attacks) are forbidden from building Armor Penetration.
  5. Champions with no sources of magic damage are forbidden from building Magic Penetration.

There's nothing wrong with taking AP Anivia bot lane. There's nothing wrong with building Anivia with tank items. But as soon as Anivia builds a Long Sword or a Dagger, she's in trouble. Anivia has no auto attack steroids and no AD ratios, so if she builds Attack Damage, Attack Speed or Armor Penetration, she's breaking the rules and will be banned for intentional feeding..

AlekosTheSpoon11/26/2015, 11:31:30 AM1 votes

great post and downvote comes...now they come to say to you that they ban trolls and afks too but they are so many trolls and afk still playing this game...they cant detective the trolls or afks and for that riot ban flamers/toxic because riot want tell that to something good for community but the truth is riot doenst give a fuck...more perma bans come for flame and all the trolls be happy for that :)

Hunts and Dips11/26/2015, 4:33:34 PM1 votes

You agreed to riots terms when you made your account. In those terms it says you cannot use foul language in a negative manner or trash talk your team (which is exactly what you've been doing. )

Regardless of what they are doing, it doesn't allow you to tell them to "get the fuck off the game." The fact that you can't understand why that is wrong tells me you probably should not be playing this game.

Another toxic player rightfully punished. Keep it up riot.