Boards›Player Behavior

Why does Riot not have a zero-tolerance policy for toxic behaviors?

Auroramancer·9/22/2016, 5:21:39 AM·16 votes·1,955 views

I'm curious why it takes so much for a player to be punished for their behavior.

The amount of players who talk shit in chat, flame their teammates, or intentionally set out to lose a game for their team, is astounding. You put in a report for them (and Riot says it only takes ONE report to flag a game for the behavior), and....

#nothing.

They continue to play.

Now, I get it, Riot says that "players have bad days at times", but what is the harm in giving someone with low occurrences of bad behavior, say, a 5-game chat restriction? It's not the end of the world for them by any means, and it sends the signal "We don't like what you are doing, and this is how we let you know it's not okay. Stop doing it."

It's a lot better to dish out very light and small punishments, in accordance with infrequent toxicity, than it is to wait for a LOT of toxicity to result in anything. Toxic players mock Riot for what they can get away with. Sure, they may have to do it for several weeks, but THAT IS SEVERAL WEEKS THAT INNOCENT PLAYERS HAVE TO PUT UP WITH IT.

39 Comments

Mister Punches9/22/2016, 8:51:24 AM7 votes

They do, but if one offense happens and it is reported, the most there will be for that is a message popup saying "don't do it again". Effectively, it's a slap on the wrist.

If the person continues being toxic, it'll escalate into ban tiers, which are extremely easy to bypass (read: takes no effort, people make new accounts just to bypass the ban, or they go on their smurf account to do so if they get banned).

Also, it seems the general apathy for reporting a toxic player is prevalent. A lot of people don't really report, they just game and move on. While it seems to be in good sentiment, it's also perpetuating the toxicity of the game: If a person doesn't report a toxic player, that toxic player is free to be toxic in other games.

Sarutobi9/22/2016, 5:39:22 AM5 votes

To some extent i can agree with Riot. They believe (especially in this type of environment) people will have bad days. Its human nature to get mad and Riot understands that! No one should ever have their account punished for one bad day/game. Let alone the fact that everyone's definition on the term Toxic is different. To some swearing isnt toxic, Others say its toxic to even recommend/help others because you should play how you want to play, not how others want you to play.

Granted some are obvious when it comes to them being toxic. But sooner or later they'll learn how to cheat the system. Its already happening to people who troll, and to some extent being toxic. but at the end of the day with toxic behavior (as well as any other punishment) it needs to be consistent. People are going to lash out once in awhile, and they shouldnt be punished just for one incident.

ModPrandine9/22/2016, 6:40:35 PM3 votes

The reason is because Riot's policy is Reform First, Remove Second. While there are most certainly zero tolerance behaviors such as hate speech, death threats and the like, Riot understands that people will have bad days and bad games every now and then, which is why it's only those who frequently act up are the ones that get punished. The punishment tiers/levels are like so:

1st offense: 10-game chat restriction. 2nd offense: 25-game chat restriction. 3rd offense: 2-week ban. 4th offense: Permanent ban.

Normally you only go to the next step up when you're punished, but extremely poor behavior such as hate speech, death threats and racist comments will be escalated to a 2-week or permaban status right then and there. If a person truly puts in the actual effort that it takes to reform then they will drop down punishments tiers over time to the point where they'll receive lesser punishments should they be punished again.

For some, all it takes is a wake-up call in the form of a chat restriction or a 2-week ban for them to change their behavior for the better, but for others, they have to be removed from the game entirely in order to learn that acting like a jerk to others is not tolerated here.

69469238DEL19/22/2016, 9:33:33 PM2 votes

Riot wouldn't have any players left if they implemented your ideas, people are going to get mad, especially in lower elos where they blame their team for their own mistakes. We can't punish them all constantly, and the resources necessary to read every game chat for every report is a bit much

Palmeiras SerieB9/22/2016, 9:15:30 PM2 votes

IMO the lack of report feedback is the biggest flaw of the entire report system. As only the people that were in the last match before a punishment happens receive this feedback, most of the people that reported did not receive the feedback and some people never received a feedback even once.

Due to the lack of feedback, eventually more people starts to think that reporting is useless or that Riot does not give a single fuck about this.

MUSHROOM MIDGET9/24/2016, 12:09:02 AM2 votes

they are already losing tons of money for banning 5% of the playerbase. you want them to burn more money?

unlikely.

Mattmanganon9/24/2016, 2:05:27 AM2 votes

Because Toxic players are usually the ones who buy the most Riot Points.

Sad to say that those who deliberately go out of their way to annoy or berate players are given less punishment than those who have problems like sudden internet drops or having to quickly go AFK due to dog getting its jaws on a chicken bone that could kill it, or someone falling down the stares (Because guys that leave the game for reasons like that are actually baby-eating monsters who deserve everything they get.)

Tina19929/22/2016, 9:05:38 PM1 votes

I am a gold 5 player and play few games every day for 3 years. I found that I met lots of flames that makes my feel bad. I am a CHinese player and lots of flamer use Chinese word for verbal abuse. I hope there is a option to mute all except friends. However, they can still tell the ralavate information in chat, like ability cd time and pin.

Didn't you found that 90percent of chat is in a gold match is flaming and blaming in a gold match? Please add this option for a happy game囧

nerak239/25/2016, 9:19:08 PM1 votes

. I guess I agree that instead of letting it build on someone's record you could nip it in the bud and let em know immediately with a very small punishment that they're on a path to bigger punishments.

Are we talking in a game or board setting?

Ada Wong9/22/2016, 5:15:35 PM1 votes

It honestly depends on the issue someone who is "Extremely Toxic" I have seen banned for 2 weeks the first time...

The question I ask is why Riot makes the game toxic "Forced Roles" with "auto fill" a few days ago generating me a negative experience with others, causing hard tilts, and why they don't take toxic behaviors such as "Retar*" or "Ignorance" more seriously as in players who flat out don't use their brain at all I mean come on there is bad play, and then there is being "Stupid" ruining games and plays on purpose giving enemy advantage in a MOBA, and that needs to stop.

nerak239/22/2016, 9:43:48 PM1 votes

Zero tolerance policies have proven to be the cancer of society made manifest, socially conforming people into a powder keg of going apeshit if there are no rules or oversights.

Not sure where your going with this "Cancer" Statement. But, this is part of the problem.

I could engage in a dispute about whether this works in the U.S., but it doesn't because people don't use a Zero tolerance here.

BUT, we are talking about a GAME and Riot is the forerunners on how to adjust a free game to be sure. And, unless a person is totally out of hand the system will find them.

If Not, Please Riot check the boards for such!

ShadowxBlades9/22/2016, 10:06:41 PM1 votes

First of all i didnt read your post cause you are uneducated, I have been banned 20 times. Zero policy, please just stop using the boards, cause you are useless.

Mryoubeencarri3d9/23/2016, 5:35:49 AM1 votes

riot is one, if not the only game that ban people for chat offense.
it's not their job to cover every single person overly offendable feelings.
Toxic behavior in chat shouldnt even be a ban offense. if you dont like what the dude is saying, mute him.
if riot REALLY care that much about peoples feelings (and not the money they get back that got spent on the banned accounts that will surely remake a smurf and spend again) they should simply remove chat from the game and develop the smart pinging even further, or even have a pick and choose premade chat comments.

rtbf2216514129/23/2016, 4:30:04 PM1 votes

I see some people saying that Riot has a zero tolerance policy:

Warframe is a game that has a zero tolerance policy with active moderators. Calling League of Legends Zero-Tolerance is a joke.
One of my acquaintances has actually played a game with Riot players. He intentionally tried to get them angry (a lot of cussing and instigating), but Riot didn't do anything, which goes on to my third point.
Instead of punishing instigators, Riot punishes the one's who react to those instigating. This goes on to my fourth point...
There is a large amount of trolls. The reason is unknown why they can't punish many of those who actually need to be punished. All that is known is the issue hasn't been dealt with after years and needs to be addressed.

You can not say Riot has a great moderation staff. That would be a slap in the face to those who actually have a great moderation staff. The logs do not show both sides of the story either when they send them to you. If they really wanted to prevent toxic behavior, they would show you why you acted the way you did, not just your actions. These lack of logs from other players also prevent you from protecting yourself from false accusations.

nerak239/23/2016, 5:19:22 PM1 votes

Toxic behavior in chat shouldnt even be a ban offense. if you dont like what the dude is saying, mute him.

No!! If you can't behave in a decent manner mute yourself!

Why should I have to listen to trash?

Remember this!! The Boards are a small sample of what Most players want. It's easy to understand why a punished player will come here to bitch about it. Yet, it is well known that a satisfied customer will not call in/post on boards to say what they really think.

Leon Etoile9/24/2016, 3:48:15 AM1 votes

They wouldn't make as much money.

I have a super toxic friend who spends over $1k a year on the game (been playing almost 2 years now). Hasn't even gotten a warning yet.

If curious some of things he has used in game: %%%%%%, %%%got, GG EZ (it is bannable and funny he uses b/c he is carried) and etc. Some of the shit is so bad, I avoid queueing with them for periods of time and have reported them myself.

nerak239/22/2016, 5:25:09 PM1 votes

Except the fact that (at least from what I remember) they do give you warning about your behavior, or at the very least tell you that you've been reported frequently. I'm not quite sure if they still do this,but I would assume so.

This is what I thought also, Is It still true?

Unstoppable Monk9/22/2016, 9:03:21 PM1 votes

Zero tolerance policies have proven to be the cancer of society made manifest, socially conforming people into a powder keg of going apeshit if there are no rules or oversights.

So technically not ethical philosophically speaking.

Morality Coach9/22/2016, 9:03:45 PM1 votes

If you say a lot of key banned words you will get punished pretty quickly actually. A lot of other punishments come too slow though.