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LANGUAGE

Evelýnn·11/27/2018, 3:57:11 PM·2 votes·2,168 views

Riot Robby recommended I write to the discussion threads here with my opinions on League of Legends and all that it entails. By writing this, I'm opening myself up to flaming of all kinds and I'm ready for that. Om nom nom! Let me first start by saying we all have a "main account" that we've raised 100+ levels by now, and we've probably all bought a ton of skins over the years for that "main account". Well, mine was permanently banned last week for using homophobic (homoerotic?) slurs. Basically I spammed the word %%%%%% in 1 or 12 matches. You can probably see why the banhammer came crashing down on me. %%%%%%s are not allowed on League! Wait. That came out wrong, didn't it? You get the idea. No %%%%%%s allowed! My god, I'm still messing this up, aren't I? Don't say %%%%%% on League!

Okay, now that I've set the mood, allow me to explain better ways to improve League of Legends and the banhammer in general. You can't just go banning people willy nilly simply because they wrote a word in all chat, no matter what that word is. There's a reason it was written. If it was written EVERY SINGLE GAME then that's one thing. That's spam and that's hurtful, but once in a while, using certain words in certain matches actually offers a strategic advance to the writer. For instance, if you spend 30 seconds hiding in a bush because your ward spotted me around a corner, and you come out to gank me as I stroll by, well that's a great strategy! Let's say in this case you got the kill, even. And maybe a summoner spell! Great job! Camping is a great tactic in a game that provides fog of war. Now, if I go straight to all chat afterward and call you a name afterward, who's to say I'm not just trying to trigger you into making the same play again? Who's to say that by me coming forward in all chat and calling someone out, using whatever language I have at my disposal, isn't a strategy?

Now that I have you guys thinking, let me talk briefly about all chat and the banhammer and my thoughts on it and then I'll wrap up. By default, a player on League of Legends will not see the word "%%%%%%" or similar words. The player will see stars. Bad language is starred out by default on this game. If a player wants (WANTS!) to see bad language, they have to go into their settings menu and change the default settings in order to see these words. By doing that, they are indicating that they find the stars annoying and would much rather see what's actually being said. Let me say that again one more time for those in the back. By changing the default settings on League of Legends to enable the viewing of profanity, a player WANTS to view profanity. That means whoever reported me for saying "%%%%%%" actually wanted to see the word %%%%%% printed to the screen. If they didn't, they wouldn't have disabled the chat filter.

So we have a situation here. Players are reporting other players for writing what they actually WANT to see in the first place. If they didn't want to read the word "%%%%%%", or similar, then they wouldn't disable the built-in chat filter. And these reports are being taken seriously! People are getting banned because of this. Permanently! I think that's a bit extreme, personally. You make a game that allows users to use profanity, then you take their money ($2,445 USD in my case), then you permanently ban their account because of what they did in-game, which you directly allowed them to do in the first place. If swearing were not allowed in your game, you wouldn't allow users to write it in chat, nor would you allow users to disable a built-in chat filter on your game. But you do. That's not okay. None of this is okay. If you want to penalize players for swearing, then give them the basic 2 week ban. Fine. Everyone's okay with that. Give them a 2 week break, or force them to play on their alternate account, whatever. Extreme bans, however, are not ever okay. There is no player who deserves a permanent ban on your game. There never has been and there never will be. It's a game. It's designed to be played. If there's a problem with the player's attitude, give them a time-out. Don't just take their money and kick them off your game for good.

That's basically where I stand on this game. I've played a lot of games in my day and I've seen some really silly bans. I'm just here today to try to reason with those who think the system is fine the way it is. It most certainly is not. There should not be a such thing as a permanent ban. You're literally telling your players they can play on another account but not the banned account (SanguineDogma told me this verbatim). You're literally telling them to start over entirely and re-purchase all the same skins. How is this fair at all? It doesn't solve the problem. It only makes Riot look like a bunch of crooks.

41 Comments

DrCyanide11/27/2018, 4:09:48 PM7 votes

You're allowed to swear in game. The chat filter is for foke like myself who don't swear and would rather not read/hear it if possible. Yes, it's somewhat wishful thinking with a lot of media and forums, but I still think it's a nice option to have around (so long as it doesn't get too crazy and start blocking random words).

People who don't mind swearing and want to see exactly what kind of language others wrote can do so by turning the filter off.

However, I think it's a mistake to assume that just because someone is OK with swearing they're OK with racist/homophobic/sexist remarks or slurs.

ModPeriscope11/27/2018, 5:01:32 PM2 votes

They are unlikely to implement changes to the behavior system that have the effect of keeping toxic players in the game. Thus, permanent bans exist when players refuse to change their behavior, or they have excessively negative behavior.

You're literally telling them to start over entirely and re-purchase all the same skins. How is this fair at all? It doesn't solve the problem. It only makes Riot look like a bunch of crooks.

No, a permanent ban is their way of saying you should spend your time elsewhere.

Ph03n1xb1rd11/27/2018, 4:15:26 PM2 votes

Man, you used a bad word, how dare you?

What if somebody sees this word and instantly commits suicide like 3-4 times in a row O.o People will find out what is behind your stars and will run to the corner to cry, because they can not stand the idea that somebody said something mean on the internet. How dare you crush their soul are you even a human? Please next time pay attention to their fragile souls and use only nice words. You can tell them how beautiful they are, how much you love them (you HAVE to love them a lot), etc... But please avoid any negative word, or any words what can offend somebody, since we cant just play with their lives... This is NOT A COMPETITIVE GAME, this is a chat, with something in the background. This "game" is made to make people feel better about themselves and each other with constant complimenting, do NOT break this rule.

And yes, people will report you for "bad words" they want to punish you. They feel soo good when that IFS window pops up, and they can think: "Yes, i did it. Today i did something good in the world!" This is what drives them, do not try to take away their fun...

Ps.: $2,445 USD WHAT THE FCKIN HELL?!

Faneseeker11/27/2018, 4:50:46 PM1 votes

A better way seems to be already in motion. [slayer-jinx-catface]

Firu11/27/2018, 4:04:54 PM1 votes

Using bad and offensive language as a form of "strategy" is not allowed by Riot and is punishable. You used bad language and got reported.

If the language was so terrible that it resulted in an immediate escalation to a permanent ban than it must have been quite severe (and certainly well beyond even your own justification of "strategy").

If it wasn't your first punishment, then you received previous notifications and still persisted in the behavior.

And for further clarification your account got banned from the game, you didn't. The punishment is a permanent banning of an account but not the player. That's why you can create another account and play again. View it as a chance to change your behavior.

Telephone Booth11/28/2018, 2:47:27 AM1 votes

It all comes down to money. Players get flamed, leave the game. Company loses money, researches why players leave. Company finds toxicity to be the main reason for players leaving. Company enforces rules against toxicity. Players leave in lesser amounts, company profits (hopefully).

zoliking11/27/2018, 4:43:48 PM1 votes

Sure, the 0 tolerance policy is bullshit in principle, but by the way you described your behavior it looks like the system got it right in this case. Spamming insults at your opponents or worse, your teammates is about as sportsman like as if you walked over to their house and cut their power so they'd disconnect, as a "strategy". All is fair in love and war, League is neither, it's a game where sportsmanlike conduct is fair, being an asshole is tolerated and being an irritating, curse spamming, toxic troll is not okay.

P.S.: It is a little known fact (kind of a secret actually), that you can get an account unbanned if

  1. You meet the following conditions:
  • You had to have spent at least $500 on the account.
  • Your summoner name has to contain a double consonant.
  • You have to be absolutely sure that what you did was okay, as opposed to trolling.
  1. You do the following:
  • Collect a wild cupuacu, a wild mangosteen fruit and take a selfie as you pick them.
  • Catch an angler fish by hand, take a selfie doing it.
  • Take these items to Riot's account reclamation and unbanning office at the following coordinates: -0.695; 11.2351, along with $20,000, converted to Somalian colored coins.
  • Hand these over to the account jail guard and fill out a 20 page request half of which is in Cantonese and the other half is in ancient Greek.
  • If you filled the form out correctly and the jailer accepts the items you brought, then all you have to do is answer his riddles three and you will get your account unbanned and your "I got my permabanned account back" sticker.
Evelýnn11/27/2018, 4:45:18 PM1 votes

What a shocker. I worked hard on this post and wrote it in a tasteful manner and it gets zero likes and infinite dislikes. As I said when I started, I'm opening myself up for the flaming. Om nom nom. Seems like this discussion board is useless if all anyone is going to do is read the post and thumbs down the content. And you wonder why such a small percent of players actually use the discussion board? I'll tell you why. It's because no one wants to have a discussion. They just want to thumbs down your content and go read other stuff.

I have a sneaking suspicion that writing anything to the discussion board will not unban any permanently banned account. In fact, I doubt very seriously that any permanently banned account has ever been unbanned. Hence, permanent, AKA stupid. Stupid to have a permanent ban in the first place, and stupid of people like me to even waste their time in a discussion like this. Just all around stupid. Bye Felicia.