Boards›Player Behavior

The Idiocy of Leagues Privacy and punishment system

The Native 192·10/27/2018, 4:32:27 AM·9 votes·3,106 views
What Deters Crime? Comparing the Effectiveness of Legal, Social, and Internal Sanctions Across Countries

League of legends has been known for a long time for its toxic community. Many would like to blame the people who play the game for the toxic nature; however, Riot directly contributes to the toxic community by failing to VISUALLY punish the worst offenders. Just like a man being sentenced to jail in a court room. Psychologically people who can visually see the punishments handed out are much less likely to follow suite.(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744856/) If a person is not notified when punishment is handed out, then a person is likely to go so far as to believe that no punishment has been given. TRUSTING the system will NEVER be a solution! How can one trust the system when so many people remain toxic in games. If this was a brand new system maybe people could begin by trusting it; yet, when every other game a teammate is flaming someone else on my team the system clearly is not working. Now you might be wondering why League of Legends is so toxic.

In order to break it down, I will separate it into three categories.

League of legends has one problem that can never be resolved that will create toxicity in the community. That concept is that when people are anonymous they feel more free will to share a negative attitude creating toxic behavior. Now the easiest way to reduce toxicity from anonymity would simply be to have a VISUAL ban system. You report a player and you get notified that the ghost cleanse nunu was permanently banned you are much less likely to have feelings of hatred to the nunu jungle who is having a bad game 3 games down the line. Although the only perfect solution would be to disclose the identities of people with accounts for privacy reasons that is not a feasible solutions. However, disclosing action has been taken against an anonymous name does not violate any privacy regulations and should not be seen as a violation of privacy.

  • The cycle of toxicity and the lack of punishment for the worst offenders.

Now, almost every player in League of Legends has experienced one or more players intentionally feeding the enemy, giving up on the game, or rage quitting from a game, and most would agree that these players are the worst members of the community. As such, the punishment for these offenders MUST be harsh and VISUAL. As discussed before, if highlighting the fact that a teammate was punished for deliberately ruining a game people can draw the line where someone is having a bad game versus someone is intentional feeding. If I play ten games in a row and I get three 0-8 teammates but one of them gave up and ran it down mid while the others died under tower to a dive most people would still be toxic to similarly to all three players. This just results in more flame and toxicity for all three players. However, if I knew that action had been taken in the past and was likely to be taken in the future I would be less likely to say anything in game and simply report them in the end game menu. This does two important things. First, if less people are toxic and flame people for having a bad game then that person is likely to not tilt as hard in their following game. In fact, people who do intentionally feed usually do so after loss streaks with poor performances inherently showing that tilt is directly contributing to toxicity and toxicity is breaded by tilt. Second, if I feel confident in the reporting system I can focus more on the game rather than on dealing with a troll. If I feel less negative emotion because I know a troll will get permanently banned for intentionally feeding then I will bring less negative emotion and toxicity into my next game. Less inters = less toxicity and less toxicity = less tilt and less tilt= less inters.

  • Make the report system after games longer and add a pregame lobby report feature (before dodging)

I can't tell you how many times people just report people for "intentionally feeding" after the person was just having a bad game. If you added an area where people can maybe put a video link to show them running it down or a place to show screenshots of a ghost cleanse nunu dancing in mid and added a required amount of text in order to submit a report people would be much less likely to submit false reports. Currently the system is over cluttered with spam reports probably making it very difficult to punish the real offenders. Plus, if there was more work to report someone then people would only do so if they had strong feelings about what that player did. Thus, more accurate reports and less useless information to shuffle through. The second aspect of this category is to add a dodge button with an explanation/report area. Lets say for example I have a ghost cleanse nunu saying he is going to run it down. I click the dodge icon in the top right and it takes me to an instant feedback area where I can highlight the player who was about to int my game and report them. You can also add categories such as "I can't play right now" or "I did not like my team composition" or "I did not have my role/Champion". This simple change will stop people holding champ select hostage which happens in ever one out of four games in Diamond elo and I can only image how bad it is at lower ranks.

Ultimately, These changes highlighted are not recommendations but changes that need to happen if League of Legends wants its community to continue on. Toxicity and trolling has long existed in the League community and Riot has taken little to no action to actually reduce the toxicity. As a registered psychologist who enjoys this game I have shared my opinion. Its your choice to listen.

29 Comments

Baby Ghoul10/27/2018, 5:11:44 AM3 votes

Riot used to warn people that they were getting reported too often and need to change their behavior, but I don't think they do that anymore.

mlm olo mlm10/27/2018, 6:44:46 AM3 votes

Transparency won't work because Riot rarely punishes game play. Probably even back fires because the trolls find out Riot won't touch them as long as their chat logs are clean.

The chat system is in desperate need of transparency though. It is unbelievable to me that Riot will collect evidence over several games and never inform anyone. The police don't wait for the criminals to commit multiple crimes before they arrest them. "Oh that was just a one time theft. If they do it again let us know and we might do something."

Quiet Dude10/27/2018, 4:38:21 AM2 votes

Im a registered english major

Imperial Pandaa10/27/2018, 12:42:21 PM2 votes

Hmm. So because people clearly get penalized and sent to jail/prison, then that means no one should be commiting any crimes? That seems to be your argument. Yet, crimes still happen and we are stuck trusting that the system will handle the people breaking the law/rules. That isn't even accounting for "repeat" offenders who get penalized again and again. No matter what, you either trust the system to work and follow the rules, or you don't. Increasing feedback notifications isn't going to make that better.

Sure, get a dodge button; you still have to deal with the dodge penalties of using it though. If there isn't penalties for dodging, then people are likely to dodge until they get a comp/players they like.

Reapery12310/29/2018, 1:39:39 AM2 votes

The hell warning there is 2 or 3 man today that deserve 100% min 1 year ban but what actually you take for staying afk at shop and burning your flash? Type I understand to continue or reducing honor level like this thing (definetly not person) cares. GL HF to improve the most toxic comunity i have ever played in. Indeed i feel the need to see this pure evil elements punished to continue playing leaning on any hope of improvement. I realy feel 80% bad time in LoL lately... I realy like the game but seems switching the entertainer will come soon because of all this toxic (sry i wanted to say TOXIC) society without VISIBLE ACTIONS taken for improvement. Because now bans and punishments are like something that people just talk but not exist irl. And you report report report but its not getting better and you don`t see that someone cares whats going on with you.

Eleshakai10/27/2018, 12:00:07 PM1 votes

These comments always feel to me like someone just wants to get some sick sense of satisfaction out of knowing someone else suffered since that person made them suffer.... and as a player who is rarely, if ever, toxic... these changes would likely make me quit the game, or at least stop reporting someone ever.