Will The Game Always Be This Toxic?

Drug Enthusiast·Aug 3, 2016·2 votes·1,967 views

After giving into peer pressure and finally playing the game, I played a few Co-op vs AI games and won them easily. The teams were cooperative and friendly towards me, and I found it to be a nice turn of events after hearing how toxic the community was.

I decided to play against some other people to see what was up, and right off the bat, things went downhill. Someone instantly picked and locked Draven, without even calling it out, which I though was unfair to some other players. My internet decided to go out for a solid 10 minutes, and when I came back in, he relentlessly followed my around, stealing any creeps I was trying to get, whether it be lane or jungle creeps. I told him to stop taking my creeps, to which he replied "Maybe you shouldn't have DC'd, retard". The ashe decided to give her two cents as well, calling me a braindead moron for my internet going out, and the Draven told me to kill myself multiple times, and to delete my account and uninstall.

I really don't want to play this game if the community will be this toxic towards new players who just want to figure out how the game works, so to save myself some trouble, is the game always going to be this toxic, and will it get worse the more I play?

TL;DR - Toxic people bullied me in game because I was new

57 Comments

GaxooAug 4, 20162 votes

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeeesssssss.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

Best response NA

1wolfpackAug 3, 20161 votes

not every game will be that toxic. however this game will always have toxic players.

so you can quit or try to not be so sensitive. p.s. you can always mute ur team mates and opponents. makes life easier.

goodluck buddy

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

I'm hardly sensitive at all its just that I wasn't expecting such a harsh response to being DC'd because my net shot itself in the foot.

ZaryelleAug 3, 20161 votes

Anyone using the words salty,sensitive, cry, kid, etc are the exact people you are complaining about. Best just to ignore them. The type of people who will flame you all game and then when you say 'stop flaming' they will say you're crying or salty.. hypocrite as well.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

Gotcha, will ignore them and mute them in chat

I Go Pew Pew PewAug 3, 20161 votes

It will be toxic as long as they continue trying to solve it the way they are.

On a side note, are you a pharmacist?

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

I am not, why?

I Go Pew Pew PewAug 4, 20161 votes

Just because of your name lol.

Drug EnthusiastAug 5, 20161 votes

Ohhh okay. The name itself is ironic tbh

redniwediSAug 3, 20161 votes

The game's not toxic, it simply floats along in a toxic sea known as the internet. Until internet culture changes, particularly regarding competition, League will be toxic.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

Still though, in a lot of other games that I play, people aren't that toxic. I just found this especially toxic, to the point of ridiculousness

redniwediSAug 3, 20161 votes

What you said is the key to all of this. You said the other games are not as toxic as League. They are still toxic, just not to the same extent.

Just because some games stick to the shallows and others dive into the deep end of toxicity doesn't mean one is better than the other. Rather than look at why one is in the deep end and others are not we should be getting everyone out of the pool.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

^That was an excellent analogy, thank you very much. Just got out of a game where this Lissandra was super nice to me and we did really well as a team, so I guess there is a positive side to all of this. I'll stick with the game a while longer

redniwediSAug 3, 20161 votes

As with all things League is better when played with friends. The solo experience is rather volatile, so I highly suggest finding a group to play with if you actually enjoy the gameplay of League.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

So I've heard. I've got a friend who's still relatively low (level 19) that I played DotA with, and I know him IRL, so I'm gonna Queue up with him whenever I can. Thank you for all of the helpful comments, I appreciate it greatly :)

ZaryelleAug 3, 20161 votes

The generation of people playing it now are toxic in real life as well, they just hide it well.. In one of my IT classes I'm taking for an extra certification (I've already graduated, so the majority of the other people are 4-5 years younger than me) there are kids in the back watching twitch they all play LoL too and they constantly use the expressions kill yourself and salty in every day conversations.. I seriously want to punch some of them in the face, I only told 1 of them I play LoL because I would dread playing with any of them.

Whenever one of them gets a bad score on a test or something they'll say you might as well kill yourself now... funny the first time until they use it all the freaking time, hard to believe some of these people flaming in LoL are actually 18+. These kids are barely passing and all they do in class is watch Twitch and some even play LoL in class, eventually the teacher had to block Twitch from our network because he's also the admin and it is super distracting if you sit near/behind them.

I've also heard of a lot of game stores where they have LoL installed on public computers and lots of kids will gather (around ages 9-13) and play LoL and trash talk saying things like 'this Draven is terribad' out loud, and I thought it was hilarious until I actually saw it for myself in real life one day.

ItsOrvalAug 3, 20161 votes

Yes. Because when your Sivir ADC is making the same plays again and again dying each time, it will piss you off

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

Still though, as I found out in a recent game, you're worth less gold the more you die in a row, so if she's just dying over and over, why not just attempt to get some other lanes super strong so they can carry her dead weight, instead of getting super pissed off?

At this level of skill though, it's understandable. When I first started DotA, I was awful, but I have quite a few hours on there, so the skill transitioned to league, so I'm not too horrible at the game. If people are truly just starting out, then I understand that they may make mistakes, be confused as to what's going on, and wonder why they're dying over and over. At that point, though, why not try to explain to them what's going on, what they're doing wrong, and how to fix it?

Unless of course people don't take too kindly to constructive criticism in league

oSEXYPLATYPUSoAug 3, 20161 votes

as long as there are assclowns on the internet who thinks its ok to be a bunch of assclowns there will always be toxicity.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

Is it gonna get worse the further up in rank I go? (Right now I'm level 6)

oSEXYPLATYPUSoAug 3, 20161 votes

yes and no, its can vary from game to game. people have this idea in your head your suppose to be really good at this game before you ever play this game and when you dont preform to their expectations what ever it may be in their mind they wanna rage flame ect. and some justify it by saying if you dont wanna deal with it or cant deal with it there is a mute buttons. however you shouldnt have to mute to avoid verbal abuse.

it basically boils down to people being immature. it comes from the society of no one being responsible for their actions and from the safety of being a bad ass from behind the monitor and keyboard. people will also defend it saying the point of the game is to win and if you are bad or play bad you are costing them a win and wasting their time on this game. where yes you want to win , who wants to lose ? but at the end of it all its a damn video game meant to have fun.

you will be bad as you try to learn this game you will feed and think this game is unfair. every one has a learning curve. some get it faster then others. when you play rank there is a rating system that is suppose to place you with people of similar skill level. so when some one who is bronze 4 telling a bronze 5 they should uninstall and never play again is kinda funny. considering they are both playing each other which means they are both bronze and both at similar skill level.

my best advice is try to learn and have fun, dont become toxic, its spreads like a virus. and if it get bad report those who are toxic and if its too much to handle during a game use the mute so you dont allow it to effect you.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

I'll definitely report people who are toxic. What happens if they get reported and are convicted?

oSEXYPLATYPUSoAug 3, 20161 votes

it varies, typically it has to be a volume of reports over a certain amount of games in X time period and riot will/can give chat restrictions where they are limited to how many chat messages they can say or ban them from chat. 14 day ban, or a permaban. which means the account is permanently banned. if someone is just having a bad day and rages in a game they might just get a warning. it is kinda a scaling system,. the more reports the more likely to get a punishment. however if its really bad it can go right to a 14 day ban or perma ban .

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

Thanks for letting me know how it all works! Really appreciate it :D

And I was a bit confused as to why people wouldn't just get chat banned after like one or two reports, but I can see now that that'd be abused a bunch, so it makes sense with the whole X number of times over X number of games.

Thanks again :)

TorgazAug 4, 20161 votes

I saw this posted on another forum post where somebody was complaining about their ban. These are the steps taken against a toxic player

"You have previously had a 10-game chat restriction, a 25-game chat restriction, and a 14-day ban in a short period of time. This means the next punishment of any type would result in a perma-ban."

There was another infraction and they got perma banned. They now have opened a support ticket to have their case reviewed to see if they can get the ban lifted.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

Riot really slaps you on the wrist a lot before perma-banning you, don't they. I guess people don't really see it as a major offense since they can do it a few times and be still okay to do it again; unlike Blizzard that just straight up bans people right away, no second chances, which, in my opinion, is the way to deal with toxicity/cheating.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Drug Enthusiast,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=7fEttv8O,comment-id=00070000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-08-04T00:37:27.048+0000)

Riot really slaps you on the wrist a lot before perma-banning you, don't they. I guess people don't really see it as a major offense since they can do it a few times and be still okay to do it again; unlike Blizzard that just straight up bans people right away, no second chances, which, in my opinion, is the way to deal with toxicity/cheating.

Does Blizzard ban for Toxicity? I played WOW for a bit, and it seemed they only banned for cheating / exploits / 3PP ?

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

If you report someone for harassment, you won't get matched with them again, and if they're reported enough, and are convicted of hate speech/personal attacks, they get account restrictions.

Here's Blizzard's code of conduct. It goes into detail about what they do to people who perform acts of hate speech towards others.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Drug Enthusiast,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=7fEttv8O,comment-id=0007000000000000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-08-04T00:53:33.713+0000)

If you report someone for harassment, you won't get matched with them again, and if they're reported enough, and are convicted of hate speech/personal attacks, they get account restrictions.

Here's Blizzard's code of conduct. It goes into detail about what they do to people who perform acts of hate speech towards others.

Those seem pretty standard. Most of the games I play also have those types of rules - they are just never enforced, unless cheating occurs.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

That's what I like about Blizzard so much, they actually enforce their rules instead of just having them there for decoration

TorgazAug 4, 20161 votes

it's wrist slaps depending on the severity of the infraction. Another forum post I saw they skipped the chat restrictions and went strait to the 14 day ban.

I have seen a fair amount of toxicity but at the same time I have had a lot of really fun games.
I have only played either vs AI or normal blind. I am trying to get myself ready to try ranked but have yet to go through the draft so I will do a bunch of Normal draft modes first.

LoL (and other MOBA's) lend themselves to being more toxic than say WoW in that the game starts and finishes in 20-60 min. then you may never see those people again. Anonymity really allows them to let loose.

Communist ToastAug 3, 20161 votes

I can probably easily say that the majority of low level people are high level players playing on extra accounts if they A--got banned or B--just bored.

either way most probably don't care if their extra account gets banned, so flaming is crazy at the low levels

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20161 votes

That's pretty unfair for new players like me who are trying to figure out how the game works, but I can see why they'd do it if they got banned or bored. Thank you for the insight, and the hope that it'll get better as I get to people's main accounts that they don't want to get banned

ScorpioDKAug 3, 20161 votes

The game has the potential to make the nicest person toxic if they give even a slight damn about winning, so yes. Some people don't play just to click around and "have fun" in the same sense you do.

So yes, every single game where competition is present will always have an element of toxicity. The developers focus on punishing people without trying to reduce the factors that make people pissed and "toxic". They have been doing that forever and its never going to work. For one thing, unless you divorce players from failings of their team and place the rank entirely on their performance, there will be angry players.

No way around it. In reality even the people crying toxic are often doing it just to get someone else in trouble. Their way of being toxic without being toxic.

I hadn't played league in a long time but boy did the games I have played show me why I left. Sometimes things are just out of your control and the matches are a massive waste of time. Very annoying. I don't care what other players say but clearly others do. I can't say I understand why they care but I care what happens in the match and that part is what pisses people off.

Going to be glad when I get the new GPU and go back to a game like rainbow six or something. btw that is a situation where its not as easy to be angry at teammates. Because its a fps and you can't see what other players are doing as much. Its also not as dependent on them to win. matches aren't as long etc. In league its a whole other story.

End of the day, you stepped into a complicated situation. Just have to realize what those people say doesn't mean anything. If they say you suck, try to get better. show them wrong.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

The game has the potential to make the nicest person toxic if they give even a slight damn about winning, so yes. Some people don't play just to click around and "have fun" in the same sense you do.

^^^^

I think this is what it comes down to. Some people play to win.

Cam Newton said it best: "I'm a bad loser, Show me someone who is good at losing, and I will show you a loser"

Let's face it, League is a competitive game that takes at least 30 minutes, usually 45 minutes to complete a game. People will get toxic if 1 person loses the game, and 45 minutes of their time. If you are playing League just to click and have fun - contact me, I can teach you how to mod Skyrim into 4k graphics. I can give ya some advise on how to build a PC that will allow you to "click and have fun" on games that have amazing visual graphics. - But League .... The entire point is competition, not fun.

If it wasn't about winning .... LCS players wouldnt selectively pick out "winners" - they would take ever bronze 5'er with a great personality.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20162 votes

Really hope I don't turn into someone who is obsessed with winning. I might just stick with normals and not really bother with ranked when I get to a high enough level just so I don't tell people to kill themselves because of something that's beyond their control.

I really appreciate the positive feedback though, and I'll try to get better with every game. Otherwise what's the point of playing if you're just going to be as bad as when you started out? I'd rather be good at the game and enjoy it to the fullest than be bad and rage at every game. And if I'm bad, so what, a lot of people are. It's not too big of a deal

Nightmist DarkAug 4, 20161 votes

As long as there are humans playing, toxicity won't ever leave.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

Great ;-;

WinterkillAug 4, 20161 votes

Yes unfortunately it does. Riot is giving me the impression that they do not really care about quality games . . . but more quantity of games. A single player that feeds the entire game and you try to offer them helpful advice, can ruin the entire game for everyone else. This player is toxic, insults you, and just doesn't care about the game. There are many players that just que into matches to grief and create the disturbance. There are many players that just want to flame, insults, feed, attack, and not take ownership. It gets old when you have to mute every single person every game. It gets old when there is no function in the game to remove or hide chat. Riot is creating a negative environment and it feels like they are doing nothing about it.

welovegagAug 4, 20161 votes

The game will continuously be that toxic unless rito decided to stop all the kids from playing once and for all. Tbh, i started to feel like its another cod kid rage playground now.

VoidStaresBackAug 5, 20161 votes

Kind of. Honestly, the Draven player was probably a Tyler 1 wannabe, so he's somewhat of an anomaly.

Honestly, I've found that the best way to play league is to get a group of friends and play together. It's a lot more fun, you can play exactly as serious as you want to, and nobody's going to flame you when you mess up (the enemy team might flame you if you're kicking their asses, but that's their problem and just means you're doing fantastic XD). You said that you gave into peer pressure to play this game, why not play with some of the people who encouraged you to join in the first place?

If you don't find a group to play with, hit me up sometime and we can play a few rounds!

Desolas ArteriusAug 5, 20161 votes

Unfortunately, toxicity will always exist so long as people are around.

However, you don't really have to worry about it. Yes Bronze/Silver is known for crazy amounts of toxic players, but if you're having trouble dealing with them I'd suggest playing with friends who are patient and fun to play with. I myself dont play unless I'm playing with my fiance and our best friend. It's more fun that way and helps us ignore the occasional toxic players we come across.

If you don't want to play with friends, I'd suggest muting the flamers as soon as they start up. Responding gives them the satisfaction they're looking for. Don't even reply "Muted" in those cases. Just must them and carry on learning the game.

If you have a situation like the Draven case again, just do your best on your own terms and try to ignore him. Report him afterwards with an "Unsportsmanlike Behavior" report or something similar. If he normally does this then he'll be banned fairly quick.

But problem players cannot be changed until everyone uses the report function properly.

TLDR: really recommend playing with friends to curb the toxicity while you learn the game.

ÝisusAug 3, 2016

I have an even more important question. Why are Millennials so sensitive? What happens when a real life friend dies? Your fiancee cheats on you? Your parents die? Your boss tells you that you are a "_______" <---- Enter whatever derogatory term you wish. What happens when "life happens"????

If anyone can seriously get sensitive over a video game, I feel very sorry for how you will react when life hits you. because it is no longer 0's and 1's.

Drug EnthusiastAug 3, 20163 votes

I've had two friends kill themselves and a few that have died of natural causes or diseases, such as cancer. My very first girlfriend I had cheated on me, my mother has multiple health problems, including plantar fasciitis and a herniated disk in her spine she needs to have surgery on. My boss has scolded me once in the three years I've worked at my job, because he said it once, and I didn't need to hear it again.

I've lived plenty of life, so I play games to take a break from it.

You don't know how I've lived my life, and I don't know how you've lived your's, so I would appreciate it if you didn't judge me based on me being 18, as well as being mildly perturbed by being told to kill myself, told my life is worthless, and that I should just uninstall and delete my account before I commit suicide. I'm in no way "sensitive" and I don't find myself offended by much of anything that triggers other people, but I found that their remarks were more than unnecessary for my internet going down in the middle of the game, especially since it's just a game. I don't need that kind of negativity when I play a video game, and I don't need this kind of negativity in response to the post.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Drug Enthusiast,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=7fEttv8O,comment-id=00090000,timestamp=2016-08-03T23:12:47.424+0000)

I've had two friends kill themselves and a few that have died of natural causes or diseases, such as cancer. My very first girlfriend I had cheated on me, my mother has multiple health problems, including plantar fasciitis and a herniated disk in her spine she needs to have surgery on. My boss has scolded me once in the three years I've worked at my job, because he said it once, and I didn't need to hear it again.

I've lived plenty of life, so I play games to take a break from it.

You don't know how I've lived my life, and I don't know how you've lived your's, so I would appreciate it if you didn't judge me based on me being 18, as well as being mildly perturbed by being told to kill myself, told my life is worthless, and that I should just uninstall and delete my account before I commit suicide. I'm in no way "sensitive" and I don't find myself offended by much of anything that triggers other people, but I found that their remarks were more than unnecessary for my internet going down in the middle of the game, especially since it's just a game. I don't need that kind of negativity when I play a video game, and I don't need this kind of negativity in response to the post.

Sorry to hear about your friend and family health problems. With that being said - if all that has happened to you, and I believe you .... Why do you care what people on a game say to you? You obviously care enough to come on the board and complain about it. And there was no negativity in my post, I am just in awe why you would possibly care what people you don't even know .... say or think of you. And, I did not judge you - if you refer back, I said nothing about you.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

I really don't care about what they said to me, it doesn't get to me on an emotional level. I was just shocked at how toxic the community can be, and I really don't want to play a game if the community is going to be that toxic to me for my internet going down. I really don't need that in my life on top of everything else going on.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Drug Enthusiast,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=7fEttv8O,comment-id=0009000000000000,timestamp=2016-08-04T00:22:44.601+0000)

I really don't care about what they said to me, it doesn't get to me on an emotional level. I was just shocked at how toxic the community can be, and I really don't want to play a game if the community is going to be that toxic to me for my internet going down. I really don't need that in my life on top of everything else going on.

I 100% feel you. I have been gaming online for nearly 2 decades. And League is by far the most toxic game I have ever seen. There are a few reasons for this.

Game Play Length.
Snowball Effect.
Current Reporting system does nothing to deter the root cause of Toxicity.

On #3 - There are 2 causes of toxicity that I have found in League: Trolls and Noobs.

Trolls - can easily intentionally feed with 0 repercussions. - Simply do not announce that you are feeding. And build a semi accurate build. Just semi act like you are trying... throw a few skill shots at the enemy. Kill a minion or 2. And then throw in a few. /all can you help me learn how to play? yep, a level 30 gold tier asking you to teach them how to play. Troll Alert.

Noobs - League has no built in function to evaluate the skill level of summoners. You can go -15 game after game and League has no system to say "hey, this person is ruining play for others - we should move them back into AI (BOT) Games. It would be awesome if League added a function that said:

/if you go negative for 3 games in a row /then you must complete 5 AI (BOT) games before you can re-queue into a PVP match.

Eliminating the Trolls and Noobs - would eliminate toxicity. But, League has decided it is much easier to give free IP to a group of 12 year olds ( The Tribunal ) to act like they are trying to fix the Toxicity League has.

Drug EnthusiastAug 4, 20161 votes

Idk if having to complete 5 AI Bot games after going negative 3 games in a row would fix much. Supports really don't have too much of a chance to go positive sometimes, so I feel like it'd be biased against them, and maybe somebody's just getting countered really hard. I don't think it'd be fair to do that. I think the Tribunal should really take cases seriously, and do what CS:GO has done, and add an Overwatch system, where trusted players look over a game to determine if a player, (Anonymously renamed, much like the rest of the people in the game), is trolling/harassing others.

ÝisusAug 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Drug Enthusiast,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=7fEttv8O,comment-id=000900000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-08-04T00:46:04.093+0000)

Idk if having to complete 5 AI Bot games after going negative 3 games in a row would fix much. Supports really don't have too much of a chance to go positive sometimes, so I feel like it'd be biased against them, and maybe somebody's just getting countered really hard. I don't think it'd be fair to do that. I think the Tribunal should really take cases seriously, and do what CS:GO has done, and add an Overwatch system, where trusted players look over a game to determine if a player, (Anonymously renamed, much like the rest of the people in the game), is trolling/harassing others.

For sure, you would have to do something about the support idea. The beauty of 3 games in a row would take out the "player getting pushed really hard" - if you are getting pushed really hard for 3 straight games.... its prolly time to go practice a bit.

Regarding Toxicity though, its odd ... I have played CS:GO / COD / Many Many other competition based game, and have never seen anybody try to fix community toxicity. I have only seen them try to rid themselves of exploiters / hackers.