Boards›Player Behavior

Toxicity in League and the Inefficiency of the Current Report/Ban System

JohnnieSnow·4/20/2017, 6:26:50 AM·2 votes·710 views

Disclaimer: I would prefer this thread to be an open forum for discussion of ideas and to promote positive attitudes and constructive criticism so if something I say is unclear, or the ideas I present are not in line with your own opinions or beliefs, please leave a comment so I can read it and discuss with you what you think. I do not have data regarding reports to bans, and the amount of players that reform their behavior so I will mostly talk in conjecture with regards to personal and third party experiences of friends and other players.

So here goes:

I have personally never been punished by a ban for toxic behavior in League. That doesn't mean however I don't have bad habits and attitudes in game (and in my personal life, we ALL do let's be honest,) and have faced queue dodge penalties as well as leaverbuster due to spotty internet (before I discovered Ethernet season 4 was a wild time.) I have sent out many reports for many reasons because I play League recreationally and I believe it is unfair for people's negative attitudes and behavior to jeopardize that.

I primarily played in ranked queues (high Silver to low Gold) but the more I played League the less appealing this was to me because it felt too much like a grind against other players, especially players who were supposed to be on my team. It is far too common that we get someone who says verbally abusive things, intentionally feeds, "trolls", or otherwise harasses us and I hate to be under the impression that a majority of players can relate to this because it means a considerable number of players are participating in toxic behavior, but more importantly are not being properly reprimanded or punished for it. While I would like to see a Tribunal that worked with both players and Riot Games staff accessing player reports and addressing the proper responses (i.e. a jury of your peers with a "Judge" of a Riot Games employee) but I recognize that this would be a large time commitment for players and Riot's staff in addition to a financial commitment for them as well.

Until there becomes a better way to report negative behaviors in League, I think changing the ways in which abusers are reprimanded would be a small step towards improving overall player behavior. For starters, I think that resulting to bans and low priority queue breeds an attitude that League isn't worth the time to play and causes players to either outright stop playing or to value the game less, and leading to more complacent or toxic attitudes which just propagates the ban cycle. I think for first offenses, the inability to access extra features of the game should be restricted for some time or number of games without further issues. For example, if I was receiving punishment for harassing players, I believe that access to earning IP in addition to using Hextech crafting, the store, rotating game modes, and skins should be restricted for X amount of games or Y amount of time (depending on severity of offense). This allows players to continue to play only the base game while demonstrating that those kinds of attitudes aren't appreciated.

If negative attitudes and behaviors continued then measures should be extended such as bans from queues and having to personally apologize to players that reported you (to be proofread by a bot/employee to ensure no toxicity is allowed?) in order to further address the issue that those behaviors are not appreciated in League.

Altogether, I don't think toxic behavior will be eradicated entirely ever, but I do believe that if the report system was taken more seriously, and the punishments varied in severity to allow players to rehabilitate without allowing continued toxic behavior, then there would be a significant reduction in instances of toxic behavior in League.

Sorry for the long ranty post, enjoy your games summoner!

8 Comments

Sarutobi4/20/2017, 11:33:58 AM1 votes

So then none of these are actually punishments. At least from my point of view people can still play and still break the rules, they just cant access things that they probably dont even use in the first place. I mean if someone is getting permaban a lot, but still play the game (because its free and anyone can make an account) i find it highly unlikely that they would be spending money, let alone care about loot. They are just after ruining other peoples game. How do we stop that if you idea is to basically let them continue to play and in turn ruin more games and basically have them not be punished for doing just that.

With that said i do like you idea, but it seems to only help people who actually reform, as it wouldnt punish them so harshly, but to be fair more people who are toxic, or ruin other peoples game dont want to change and get a kick of ruining others games. Its not till they are permaban that they finally realize what is wrong and either change, or just stop playing.

EvilDustMan4/20/2017, 11:39:41 AM1 votes

Stats show that most people reform after the first punishment.

eazymakaveli34/20/2017, 3:25:44 PM1 votes

i didnt read a thing. GG EZ lelele easiest game of my life noob.

scazzman4/20/2017, 6:54:03 PM1 votes

I honestly feel that permabans should be exclusively reserved for bots

Simply for this reason alone.

A permaban isnt a permaban. It's " we're taking away your skins and purchased content, but go ahead and make a new account and troll newbies "

Instead. Get rid of chat restrictions. Add a new punishment system. That starts out at a 7 day ban. And then doubles each time.

So. 7 day.

14 day

30 day

2 month.

4 month.

Ect.

Kartagia4/20/2017, 11:53:03 PM1 votes

Better system would be rewarding those who behave with proper manner. Riot mistake is simple: they only use the stick, and have no carrot. This is really really bad idea in teaching, but Riot apparently loves the way how MOB or ISIL does things. Both of those parties use the Riot Tribunal like system only punishing, and leaving victims of punished parties to live with it.