Boards›Player Behavior

Toxicity and where it starts.

Arrow65714·12/1/2015, 6:36:48 PM·30 votes·3,355 views

Hello all,

In my revelation to move from Dota 2 and thought I would give league a try, I must confess I am completely ashamed of a small part of this community but moreover Riot as a gaming company.

I have read tons, watched a ton of videos on different champs, what the abilities were, played a ton of bot games. And though this will be the day to try out ARAM or to even see how a low level 5v5 feels.

What I was not prepared for was the unending trolling, being called noob (even after I said i was new), being told to kill myself, my mother needs to be raped or killed for birthing me, or just being called the "N" word repeatedly. Alright trolls i understand just ignore/mute etc etc.

I did find a nice player that I played a few matches with and spoke to at length, he explained the reporting process and his opinion on the game as long term. Least to say it wasn't positive.

So back to leveling, same thing. Ragers, trolls, and just plain mean people. So I started to report them, then i start getting reports of verbal abuse? SO yeah that got me pretty upset, it almost feels like toxicity is the norm in low level game play. I felt myself being sucked into this captain negative of game play. I can very well see where this would change a persons habits and carry on with them into further matches.

I noticed that there was a message on the start up screen that Riot has reformed "XXXX" number of players, but whats stops them from making another account and continuing this process?

-conclusion I am sorry but I cannot in peace of mind continue to play a game that has zero recourse to curb this type of negativity in a social game. Moreover the whole idea of just muting every player in a game that requires communication (in some fashion) Pinging drag doesnt necessarily communicate to the team to place a ward there or that they are in fact doing baron to everyone is completely absurd.

I guess this will get down voted and lost into the abyss, just my opinion on trying something new.

53 Comments

Mimy12/1/2015, 6:50:32 PM8 votes

New player.experiance has always been a problem due to smurfing.

The only thing you can do is find other new.people who.are nice and form a team together as you hel eachother grow.

Or make friends with some nice.level 30s. Who dont care weather you do bad. And are.willing to have fun. Teach and also learn themselves while helping.

I may be bronze level 30 but ill be willing to friend you im pretty chill I main normals dont care much for ranking. But just having fun.

You need to make.friends with similar.intrests to thrive on here. Yes majority is toxic. Its in every elo im afraid and sometimes may be worse the.further you go up.

Ive tried dota 2 it was good but I never connected with a charactar and playing unlocked is still hard. Slowly getting there.tho. I lock and unlock it at times.

Its probably a good moba its.just not.for me.

Zyorhist12/2/2015, 7:05:57 PM4 votes

I must live in a small segmented corner of the game, I almost never experience the rage that people describe here. I never have really, and the few times I did I just clicked that little ignore button and went to the next game. I'm not sure why my experience has been so much different, but it has. I guess if you want someone positive to play with send me a friend request, I will try to have what fun I can when you're on.

Kazaashi12/2/2015, 7:00:45 PM3 votes

Riot didn't create Toxicity for online games and they sure as hell won't be able to fix it. Stop blaming Riot for people's actions.

If you don't respond to toxicity, you cannot be punished for toxicity. Why does no one understand that a Toxic player's goal is to:

Make themselves feel better by putting other people down.
Make themselves feel better by getting other people punished.

Do you know the best way to prevent that from happening? Muting them and communicating with pings and dragon/summoner spell timers will pretty much make you unpunishable by the system. Now, when you meet a a Toxic player they won't be able to bait you into a fight nor put you down and when they try to report you at the end of the game, their report against you will be false and they will lose credibility to the system.

Think of it this way:

Someone comes up to you and says something to the affect of "you are shit and should kill yourself". at that point you have a lot of choices to make, but you are the only one responsible for what that choice is. You are completely free to punch them in the face and tell them to get away from you, but they can now charge you with assault and sue you for damages. And they would have a good case against you. By responding to toxic people, that is basically what you are doing. The Toxic person was originally in the wrong for what they did, but the way you responded was also inappropriate and both of you should be punished.

Jingerbeardman12/2/2015, 5:02:46 AM2 votes

muting someone doesnt mean they wont see what you say in chat

zkookz12/1/2015, 7:25:27 PM2 votes

You think that is bad? Ha, you are to sensitive and Rito doesnt want you play here anyway. You think your few dollars is going to change the way Rito moderates this game? They dont care about you, him, me, or the trolls, ragers, racists, or the people that throw random threats around.

I suggest you get some thick skin and follow the sheeples here and learn to use that mute button and do your own thing. <----- this is exactly how Riot wants you to be and throw money at overpriced skins, they afterall need to take all these kids lunch money before the next big thing comes around.

shyv12/1/2015, 9:20:45 PM2 votes

at low levels, toxicity is probably the worst you'll experience. of course, even at max level, even in diamond rank there is some toxicity, but the people you're playing with right now are likely experienced league players on a second account. could even be due to getting banned on their main, riot has no way of stopping anyone from making a second account. hell, i did it when i got banned, but i'm working on changing my attitude instead of just continuing to be an asshole. these people can be as awful as they want, because they know in the end it doesn't matter if their second, third, fourth accounts get banned, as they have invested very little time and probably no money into the game. lots of smurfs use their second accounts as a way to be toxic without being punished for it, so they can wreck low level players and boost their egos. it's kind of sad.

if you like the game and want to stick with it, definitely make use of the mute button. I know it's harder to communicate with your team, but it's worth it to stop yourself from getting angry & saying things that could get yourself reported too. riot punishes people retaliating to toxicity just as much as they punish the instigators. all i can recommend is mute, report, move on with your life. even for a loss, normal games will still grant you some IP and XP, so it's not all bad

if you want to add me, i have a level 20~ account that I use to try out new champs and 1v1 my friends, so I don't have to take it as seriously. i'm pretty good at dealing with toxic people and i can help you out with some stuff if you'd like

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Shyvauni12/1/2015, 6:43:01 PM2 votes

Low level play has more toxicitt becuase Riot continually bans the toxic players. Stick it out and hope it does not change you. You will still run into toxicity at higher play but it will be significantly less.

I tried out DotA 2 and stopped becuase I found the community there was not willing to even talk to a new player at all. Which led to feeling Isolated in a game that has many mechanics I forget about. (Like not having to go to the shops to buy cus of the mule thing )

Hyrum Graff12/2/2015, 4:34:02 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Hello all,

In my revelation to move from Dota 2 and thought I would give league a try, I must confess I am completely ashamed of a small part of this community but moreover Riot as a gaming company.

I have read tons, watched a ton of videos on different champs, what the abilities were, played a ton of bot games. And though this will be the day to try out ARAM or to even see how a low level 5v5 feels.

What I was not prepared for was the unending trolling, being called noob (even after I said i was new), being told to kill myself, my mother needs to be raped or killed for birthing me, or just being called the "N" word repeatedly. Alright trolls i understand just ignore/mute etc etc.

I did find a nice player that I played a few matches with and spoke to at length, he explained the reporting process and his opinion on the game as long term. Least to say it wasn't positive.

So back to leveling, same thing. Ragers, trolls, and just plain mean people. So I started to report them, then i start getting reports of verbal abuse? SO yeah that got me pretty upset, it almost feels like toxicity is the norm in low level game play. I felt myself being sucked into this captain negative of game play. I can very well see where this would change a persons habits and carry on with them into further matches.

I noticed that there was a message on the start up screen that Riot has reformed "XXXX" number of players, but whats stops them from making another account and continuing this process?

-conclusion I am sorry but I cannot in peace of mind continue to play a game that has zero recourse to curb this type of negativity in a social game. Moreover the whole idea of just muting every player in a game that requires communication (in some fashion) Pinging drag doesnt necessarily communicate to the team to place a ward there or that they are in fact doing baron to everyone is completely absurd.

I guess this will get down voted and lost into the abyss, just my opinion on trying something new.

Unfortunately, this is worse for you since you are not new to MOBAs. Since you're better, you get placed against other high skill, low level accounts. Unfortunately, as you've said, nothing prevents a banned player from making a new account and many do. Therefore, a high proportion of high skill, low level accounts -- the people in your games -- are in fact toxic players.

I have a smurf. It's now level 18 and it was in the last couple levels that I noticed toxicity has decreased significantly. So, if you can stick around until then, hopefully things will get better for you.

A word about reporting: here's a very simplified version of the report system: it looks for patterns, like, 'When a person says "ggez" they get reported 1000x more than people who don't say ggez.' It then decides that 'ggez is a toxic phrase.' Then, if you report someone, it searches their chats for toxic phrases. If it finds them, it will punish the person you reported. If not, it will consider your report invalid and make your reports worth less in the future.

So, when you report someone and they turn around and report everyone back for it, they will end up getting punished, AND their reports will become less valuable in the future, unless you or someone else they reported were toxic. So basically, if you haven't received punishments from Riot, you don't have much to worry about.

Korillo12/2/2015, 4:38:27 PM1 votes

I've played over 1,000 bot games while leveling 4 accounts and can count on 1 hand the amount of times anyone has trolled in a bot game or been toxic. Has your experience been in bot games or 5v5s? I could understand if it was 5v5's it's unfortunate but happens all the time, but if it were bot games that would be really surprising.

BastionKross12/2/2015, 5:21:28 PM1 votes

I don't believe you, OP.

Not about being subjected to extremely toxic shenanigans or that Riot's system to prevent it is laughably bad, those parts I believe.

What I don't believe is this:

What I was not prepared for was the unending trolling, being called noob (even after I said i was new), being told to kill myself, my mother needs to be raped or killed for birthing me, or just being called the "N" word repeatedly.

You mean to tell me you started playing League of Legends and did not know about how utterly horrendous it's community is beforehand? This is pretty common knowledge as far as information about the game goes. I've met people online who knew that League was toxic as hell, and they didn't even know what genre the game itself was.

Or did you know it was going to bad, and said something like "Oh, those guys are just cynical and exaggerating. There's no way it can be as bad as they say". I'm sure by now I don't need to tell you that yes, it is that bad. Maybe even worse.

Verxint12/2/2015, 6:27:18 PM1 votes

The people in those matches are largely low silver/bronze scrubs who want an easy time stomping "noobs" but fail to realize they're too shit to pull it off.

As your MMR goes up toxicity goes down

Arrow6571412/2/2015, 9:17:56 PM1 votes

I have taken some advice from the posts and tried to play a bit more, this go around wasnt as bad (woohoo) I had fun at least. I did meet some nice people that were really helpful of champion tips. I havent added anyone in this conversation, I feel that I wouldnt be in any sort of skill level as most and honestly would be afraid to waste anyones time.

I do like the ARAM map though, the game style is nice in the fact nobody gets to argue about roles and kind of forces you to work together.

I really do appreciate anyone reading and leaving a comment. I do wish matches were as good as people on the boards!

AJStarhiker12/3/2015, 5:03:44 PM1 votes

Glad to see you decided to give LoL another shot. Unfortunately, like some of the other posters said, the early levels can be rough until the toxic players get a clue or get another account banned.

And yeah, ARAM's are awesome for lower stress play. They are particularly good when you start seeing games with players who have T3 runes. If you haven't reached lvl20 yet, it can get really frustrating when you have lower beginning stats that someone with the better runes. But, since ARAM can land you champions you've never played before, people tend to be more forgiving it you don't play as well.

LORD Phanlax III12/2/2015, 2:20:45 AM1 votes

I definitely agree that League has a problem with terribly toxic players. While it does get better as you level, it never really goes away, which is one of the reasons I don't play Ranked at all. One of the things I've found is that I don't really enjoy this game without a friend, usually on Skype. I learned a little while ago to immediately mute anyone who gets on my nerves, it helps me cool off, and generally, toxic players don't have much useful information to type out. Muting has definitely helped me stay happier when I've been playing, and has lowered my blood pressure significantly.

Also, it's been getting better recently, as Riot has been updating the report/ban system.

lolptwo12/2/2015, 2:51:35 AM1 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/riot-official/3EArovkA-reports-how-do-they-work?comment=003f

Here was my comment on how I went from an average gamer who's actually really nice in person, to a perma banned League player simply because I do not lie down and let people walk all over in a video game when they don't get punished for their actions, this is League of Legends. I've been playing it for a long time, I recommend sticking to Dota 2 if you expect this game to be less toxic.

Sythriel Draken12/2/2015, 6:19:14 AM1 votes

When I first started back playing a year ago it was fine. people were calm, chill, and easy going and helpful. It got me to be helpful, calm, chill and not a toxic asshole. Then, I hit ranked because I was doing so well in normals.. well, I hit silver 3 in my first ranked season and oh my god the amount of toxicity that riot isn't doing a god damn thing about.. It's honestly turning ME into a toxic player. I'm honestly getting sick and tired of riot not cracking down on the root of the issue and instead burying their heads in the sands behind a failure of a system.

Nyyre12/2/2015, 6:48:15 AM1 votes

The best recommendation I have for you friend is to make a few who play league. I'm sorry I don't have any really good answers for you. That Almensin guy made a really good point about earlier levels being harder. I hope that you made **SOME **positive experience here though, however if you didn't that is fine... I guess. [zombie-nunu-tears]

LeShoque12/2/2015, 8:02:59 AM1 votes

My universal method is just to not react to toxic attitude, because to rage against them is exactly what those players want. They want to see their offensive acts hit someone and feed on that satisfaction. Just ignore all that shit they throw at you, you don't even have to mute them, treat them as what they are - irrelevant (at least to you..) douches that are not worth a second thought.

Btw, I never had a "toxic" personality and also the game didn't turn me into it - honestly i think that's a very lame excuse some people use to justify their bad behaviour. If you are acting like an asshole to someone who doesn't act that way himself, it's your own fault and not anybody else's.

TheFameAnimal12/2/2015, 11:22:19 AM1 votes

Smurfs plague league at low levels, bashing new players, you should notice a drop when you gain more levels but the toxicity for new players is simply disgusting. I remember playing Janna first time and got a kill with my q and someone told me to kill myself, I was about to quit but I loved league a bit too much to quit (because of the champs, gameplay and lore etc.)