Boards›Player Behavior

Problems With The Honor System

The Cane Train·11/13/2017, 3:06:23 AM·2 votes·534 views

First of all, I wanna say that I think the Honor system is a great idea. With it's recent revamp, it's better than ever. However, I still can't help but notice glaring issues with it in practice, that may not have been for seen in theory.

Firstly, a disturbing trend I've seen in games is the wrong people getting honored. I realize this is more a problem with player attitudes and understanding of the honor system's purpose, but it's an issue nonetheless. Pretty frequently, most games seem to result in whoever on the team happened to perform the best (carry hardest) generally getting "most honored". This is often not in correlation to, and sometimes in direct conflict with, whoever actually behaved the most honorably. So many games, I've been on a team where someone carried, however was massively negative and even abusive in chat throughout the match. It shouldn't matter how well they do, the honor system should only care about how they conducted themselves. Unfortunately, this seems to often not work as intended. Too frequently the support or other player who were positive all match, didn't tilt at the toxic carrying player, and behaved according to summoners code, aren't the one who is deemed "most honorable" by there team. I understand this is a difficult problem to address, and I don't really have a solution, I just think it's worth thinking about. Having an honor badge, again from personal experience, seems far more likely to correlate with being mechanically skilled than it does with actually behaving positively.

Secondly, I believe removing the ability to honor opponents to be counter-productive. Yes, it can be misleading as you can't see their teamchat and they may be two-facing in allchat, and no, opponent honors shouldn't be worth as much as allied honors, but I believe it absolutely has a place in the system. It's a great incentive for people to avoid being toxic or whining in the all-chat, and I miss being able to honor an opponent who displayed genuinely model sportsmanship.

Curious to hear others' thoughts on the matter.

11 Comments

BubblyRainbows11/13/2017, 3:26:00 AM4 votes

I might bring a different perspective to this problem, as I could be one of those people unknowingly honoring Mr. Toxicguy for carrying the hardest. So, to explain why:

I have allchat disabled. I'm not here to trade insults with people on the other team. And at the start of every game, I mute my entire team and all emotes on both teams. I got sick of people flaming each other and being toxic a long time ago, and I no longer care what anyone has to say. I'm here to play a game and try to have fun. Pings have always been enough for me to communicate my intent... "help me" "targeting vayne" "enemy missing" "defend this inhibitor" etc., even if I can't hear them and don't always notice them.

So, since I don't see any of the flaming or negativity, I can only rely on how the game is going. Now obviously, if my ADC is working great with me as support, or the jungler repeatedly ganks my lane and gets me ahead, I'm going to honor them because they're the one whose plays I noticed. For all I know, they might have been constantly flaming me in chat. I didn't see it, so I just honor the person I thought played the best.

Kei14311/13/2017, 3:11:18 AM2 votes

Honor opponents coming soon™.

I'm a support main and very vocal within my games, whether that is for behavior or for macro gameplay strategies. I don't have problems getting honored.

Krigjer11/13/2017, 3:18:54 AM2 votes

Firstly, a disturbing trend I've seen in games is the wrong people getting honored.

Just going to agree with this.

Most frequently it's whoever carried the hardest or made the flashiest plays. I know it's just me, but I make an effort to only honour people that were actual positive experiences on my games.

Having honour now just means 'I'm a good player' not 'I'm a good person'.

MrHaZeYo11/13/2017, 3:35:00 AM2 votes

I honor whoever I feel like did the best. If they're toxic I pick the next best.

Vizulix11/13/2017, 7:43:12 AM1 votes

Agreed.

AbeForgotZhonyas11/13/2017, 10:30:01 AM1 votes

I wouldn't worry too much about the toxic people being honored. I get that its frustrating for you to see that little flair next to their name in the post game lobby, but if what they said or did in game is actually that bad, just report them (without calling for reports in all chat, 1 report = 9 and its annoying af when people complain all game) and if it's considered toxic their honor will go down anyway.

As for me, the way I choose to honor is this: if I'm adc, I almost always honor my supp. And as supp I honor my adc. The exception to this is if they were toxic (or even just annoying in chat), or someone else was someone I ended up friending after game cause they were so fun to play with. If someone is funny in chat, they're the next person I honor. If the jg ganks my lane a lot, I'll honor them. And then if nothing remarkable happened in chat, I'll honor whoever I felt carried the game the most. So yeah, there are other things that matter more than "who carried?" But I don't think its the worst thing in the world for people who did well to receive honors for it.

With regards to honoring players on the other team, I want that back so badly! I've had quite a few games where someone on the other team has cracked jokes with me or just been a good sport about the plays or given me genuine tips on how to counter them when I'm playing a new champion. Even if it's just something simple, a button next to their name like in the old honor system. I don't think it would make much sense to have rewards for the other team honoring you or anything, but a little notification would be cool, so they would know I enjoyed playing against them.