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What can actually be done about toxic players?

EssXTee·3/8/2017, 6:06:15 PM·1 votes·1,007 views

I don't want this to be a rant, or vent thread. I'm honestly curious about what can actually be done in regards to toxic players in league, specifically competitive league.

Sure, Riot is put in some reporting functions for players, but clearly it's not a solution. I've had incredibly toxic players on my team, reported them for such, and then immediately got matched with them (twice in a row). Playing 3 matches with someone who is consistently toxic puts me in a mood where I regret playing the game at all. I get that matchmaking in league often doesn't make sense (as I've found after looking back at the ranks of players from each team after most matches, but that's another issue entirely), but I find it hard to believe that out of all the players online, there really was no better match for me than someone I had just reported twice in a row for toxic behavior.

Riot also seems to offer a message as feedback for when a player you reported is actually dealt with. I like the idea, but it worries me since I deal with toxic players all the time but could count the number of times I've seen that message on one hand. Despite my playing with toxic players, watching them flame me or teammates, make rude, inappropriate, derogatory, and profane remarks throughout the match and in the post-game lobby, then taking the time to report them, it seems all of these efforts have very little meaning or effect. So why should I continue to try and monitor the community for Riot? Why continue to play?

What real solution could actually be out there? Surely there's gotta be something better than "report players for bad behavior and Riot will occasionally do something about it."

Am I just gonna QQ. Nah, I've got ideas that'll likely be no good, but surely someone else has a decent idea, or ideas that can be refined.

For one, while I get that reporting a player shouldn't be an automatic "you won't be matched with this player again", some sort of temporary version of the idea could be used. Obviously, just reporting a player doesn't keep them out of your queue because people could abuse that. But if it was temporary, seems like it wouldn't be easy to abuse, and even some abuse of it would likely be a better scenario than the reality of the community currently. For example, reporting a player could keep you from matching with them for a single game. Thus allowing you to continue playing without worrying about having a repeat of your last game. There's a chance you'll end up playing with them in the future, just not right away, after you've already had a bad game with them, thus affecting your mentality, which in turn snowballs your experience downhill fast.

Another (much crazier) idea would be to have a 'hidden' value (much like elo used to be, though eventually I think could be calculated) for 'toxicity.' Essentially, a value that the game calculates based on past game behaviors. Sure, the reporting system isn't perfect so people can just report people for no reason, but ultimately it would (or rather should) require a pretty substantial amount of players to abuse this within a relatively short amount of time all towards one player for it to have a dramatic enough effect to be a failure due to abuse. For example, we could say that being reported by one player has a very small increase in this value. For simplicity, we'll say 1. But if multiple players in a game report the same player, this would have a great effect. There would likely be different weights based on which team, since most reports are from teammates. But let's say 4 players from your team reported you, the value would now be 16. So just having one salty player who didn't like you would have very little effect from one game. "But what about a 4 man pre-made that treated me like trash all game then all 4 reported me?" This is where you would have to also apply weights based on number of games reported overall, and also within certain time frames. So unless you consistently match with 4 man (or any) pre-mades and all of those players feel like trolling you, you'd be fine overall. Consecutive games, as well as games within a certain time frame (say 24 hours) would factor in to help shape the score overall.

These are just (terrible) starter ideas that could be improved upon. In the end, clearly something needs to change if the community as a whole is to improve. And one of the easiest ways to start is to work on accountability for actions. The system as-is provides minor accountability, so there definitely needs to be a supplement.

6 Comments

Anastaecia3/8/2017, 6:12:34 PM3 votes

People are toxic. That's just the way it is anymore. Manners have gone out the window in recent decades for some reason. Maybe it IS just the internet and the safety we feel behind our monitors.

Anyway, mute them. TBH, once I started doing this, it was huge.

KORGtuners3/8/2017, 6:16:26 PM1 votes

It is impossible to get rid of toxic players.

Your best case scenario is: annoying them until they leave you alone.

YerroFever3/8/2017, 6:21:16 PM1 votes

The problem is that you can't really get rid of toxic players but you may be able to get rid of a large amount of toxic behavior.

It may not be the ideal situation where you're not having an overwhelmingly positive gaming experience but at least it can turn into a neutral experience.

I have been playing league for years and I have definitely seen a change in the community and there are fewer really negative encounters that I run into now than I did when I first started playing.

So their model is working slowly but surely. However, I wouldn't mind if the model worked faster, but Riot only has so many resources for a free to play game where content has to be more of a focus rather than having more people manually review player behavior all day every day.

Rolant Riven3/8/2017, 6:30:12 PM1 votes

Never knew words could kill a man.

Naked Baby Thief3/9/2017, 4:55:38 PM1 votes

It has little to do with getting rid of them, and more to do with creating an environment which doesn't lead to them.

In fact, most players I have played with at some point or another, have been toxic to some level. All of them. We get upset. it is a human quality. Anger and rage, we all experience it to some degree, and it manifests itself in a negative gameplay experience for all of us.

So, rather than acting like a bunch of barbarians and seeking out people who experience human emotions to punish them (Which is what Riot has elected to do), there should be more thought put into how to make this an environment which doesn't promote rage, trolling, griefing, and everything that goes into having a bad time.

Punishment is not a way to do this, nor has it ever been. People do not learn from punishment, and unlike the ignorant Riot prompt which tells you, 'people who are punished once seldom blah blah blah', (which is a blantant lie), psychology tells you that punishing people normalizes that punishment for them.

Just like a child that is beat is more likely to beat their children. (statistically this is true, yes, i know there are exceptions to every rule)

People who are punished in league merely turn to the 'report' system to punish others, that make them upset.

What this leads to, is just a lot of people getting reported. Some of which, did very little wrong.

Of course, Riot profits off of people getting banned, because these people are addicted to the game, and just create new accounts. (And they know this. They aren't stupid).

So the question becomes, how does the community convince Riot to change the game in a way which promotes a healthy atmosphere, free from negativity?

And if the community did that, would Riot attempt to undermine well known proven psychology, just because its profitable, or attempt to make the customers as happy as they are addicted.