What can I do to be a less toxic player?

TheProfezzor·7/16/2017, 4:27:31 AM·1 votes·597 views

I can admit that I have very little tolerance for stupidly, especially in this game (ranked). Because of this low tolerance I do often end up flaming people that feed or do poorly. Please note this doesn't mean anyone who loses a lane. I can tell if you understand how to play the game and make wise decisions despite getting unlucky or losing your match in lane. That being said, again I generally flame people. I am a dick for it. I know. I do genuinely feel bad when the person responds and says "sorry" or something sympathetic after which I remember there's a person behind that computer and I am being mean. But if that doesn't happen my thought process is along the lines of "you're a bumbling fumbling moron that is going to cost me this ranked game and the only way for me to relieve my stress is to get some of it via typing.

Help me.

11 Comments

Rewt7/16/2017, 4:30:51 AM3 votes

Work at a Day care for 1 week. you will either get a quadruple homicide charge or gain the patience of a saint.

AceGeo7/16/2017, 5:15:00 AM2 votes

It's pretty easy to just not say anything (mute yourself). If you have trouble with this now, you will have trouble with it later in life. It will cause you to be unsuccessful with many things under the sun; Relationships, work, activities. It will even suck your own fun out of your leisure time. Be cautious, my friend. It's easy to lose your friendships on the road you're choosing.

BLACK REALM GOD7/16/2017, 5:28:11 AM1 votes

{quoted}

I can admit that I have very little tolerance for stupidly, especially in this game (ranked). Because of this low tolerance I do often end up flaming people that feed or do poorly. Please note this doesn't mean anyone who loses a lane. I can tell if you understand how to play the game and make wise decisions despite getting unlucky or losing your match in lane. That being said, again I generally flame people. I am a dick for it. I know. I do genuinely feel bad when the person responds and says "sorry" or something sympathetic after which I remember there's a person behind that computer and I am being mean. But if that doesn't happen my thought process is along the lines of "you're a bumbling fumbling moron that is going to cost me this ranked game and **the only way for me to relieve my stress is to get some of it via typing. **

Help me.

realize that not everyone is great at everything. mistakes happen all the time. if you can't stand losing then you don't deserve to win. if you haven't lost enough matches to be unaffected by it then you haven't played enough matches seriously enough to have grown to deserve the victory. part of being on a team is about knowing your teammate's faults and helping them to overcome them by covering for them if you have what it takes to do so.

i'm not amazing at english, but i've highlighted some of your grammar errors as a way to point out that everyone does indeed make mistakes. i myself have a habit of using run-on sentences and i absolutely hate capitalization and punctuation other than the end of sentences so a lot of times i just get lazy and leave it out.

just because you're not great at something doesn't mean you can't enjoy the benefits of utilizing it. that goes for playing a game or typing on a keyboard.

the only suggestion i can make as far as what you should do to try and improve your behavior is to just not talk. dont type, dont talk, and dont ping. if you can get through maybe 50 matches a week without doing any of that then you should start to break your habit. if nothing else take a break from the game when you start getting frustrated and want to type like a maniac.

Umbral Regent7/16/2017, 6:51:12 AM1 votes

Some personal tricks of mine;

  1. Set standards high, and expectations low. Or, more specifically; set standards for yourself high (you want yourself functioning at your best), but expect that the bar will be...Lower, sometimes drastically so for others. While a tad egotistical, I find that not expecting teammates to play well generally helps, outside of the cases where teammates either don't take the game seriously, or make ruining the game a personal affair.

  2. Breathe. Four seconds in, seven seconds out. Four seconds in, seven out. I-i-i-inhale. E-e-e-e-e-e-exhale. I remember reading a post on Tumblr about doing that kind of breathing triggers some "parasympathetic response" or something - I didn't really care for all the details, I just know that it works. I use that breathing pattern infrequently, and it keeps me level-headed, and hopefully, it should work all the same for you.

  3. Get a "vent buddy". And, by "vent buddy", I mean "some friend or family member, like-minded or not, who will begrudgingly listen to you ranting and raving about your teammates because elsewise you'll probably pop a blood vessel." I personally spend post-game time ranting about teammates to pretty much any of my family members, because, while they don't really care to hear all the nasty stuff I've got to say, it's both better than railing against them in-game, and the whole process of vocalizing my aggression is oddly cathartic.

  4. Basic "gamer-health" kinda stuff is all I can say after that. Crack open a cold drink of choice, cook yourself something to eat (or heat it up if you prefer microwavables, or even just go grab something if you're more into easy-peasy snack foods, though I heartily recommend cooking), take a break from League, wind down, watch stuff, get your mind off of it. While it's not a say-all, end-all, be-all solution, separating yourself from the game and winding down, and especially treating yourself to foodstuffs can help really cool you off before you go full-speed into your next match.

So, TL;DR;

  • Expect the most from yourself, but keep the bar for others low.
  • Take short breaths in, long breaths out. 4s, 7s. 4s, 7s. Breathe.
  • Turn someone's ear your way and yell to them about bad stuff.
  • Eat, drink, hold off on playing, overall, just treat yourself.

Can't say all of this will work, but I'm hoping some of it will at least help.

Firefox7117/16/2017, 9:47:58 AM1 votes

That being said, again I generally flame people. I am a dick for it. I know. I do genuinely feel bad when the person responds and says "sorry" or something sympathetic after which I remember there's a person behind that computer and I am being mean. But if that doesn't happen...

At the core of it, to stop flaming others requires you to remember at that EXACT moment you feel like flaming:

  • I'll be a dick if i say this, or

  • I know there's another person behind that screen.

Cause it seems like you get to this point AFTER you flame sometimes, which is important. Some don't each reach this level yet, or even consider it at all. By closing this mental gap, you'll start to flame less, or none at all.

Thats the moral argument.

I can also give you the objective argument:

  • Flaming is unproductive to team morale

  • Team morale is just as important to win

  • Therefore, by flaming you're reducing your chances to win

The alternatives?

  • Be a Neutral Player (you don't type/ you don't say anything negative or anything positive)

  • Be a Positive Player (you say "gj/nj/ gj all when your team gets a kill; you type "my bad/mbad" after you make a mistake)

I recommend to everyone to try and be a Positive Player. Because on days you aren't a_ Positive Player_, you'll just slip into the level below that which is a Neutral Player.


GL HF!

LiamLiamLiamLiam7/16/2017, 3:13:59 PM1 votes

Others in this thread have pointed out how to channel that frustration and how to avoid letting yourself flame, which is great, there are some awesome tips here. Though as someone who is not that decent of a player most of the time and just got into ranked, let me point out what the other end of it can be like. Whoever has messed up knows they've messed up, they know it's a ranked match and it's something important to the entire team. And even just having that occur will put them in a worse state of mind. They feel bad for messing something up and want to do well, the doubt and extra drive is just going to push them to make more mistakes while trying harder to do the exact opposite.

In the higher stakes scenarios of this game, mentality matters a lot. And when a team member begins to flame, it's going to drive the other player into an even worse mentality and into further mistakes than they've already set themselves up for. And I'm not talking about the flamed champ getting angry or frustrated that they're being flamed, I mean they feel even worse than just from making the initial mistake.

Even less toxic remarks that point it out like: {"?", "wtf", "don't feed", "srsly?"} are driving them lower, harsher things are even worse and it all gets worse when you make the second mistake like dying again early or failing to keep up with your enemy laner. I know that putting this into words seems like I'm making flamed players sounds overly sensitive to comments, and I actually am in a way, but this really is how it goes down from my rather poor experience in my first placement matches and early bronze.

So flaming or negative commentary does the exact opposite of making things better. Though not doing it will leave you even more frustrated than not putting it out into chat, worsening your own mentality and performance. Aside from the tips to channel that frustration elsewhere or allowing yourself to cool off a little, I think the best thing you can do is to help them instead of flaming them.

Your top laner dies early because they didn't expect things to go that wrong, they look like an idiot for dying like that. Rather than comment on their idiocy for doing that, tell them it's okay, ask how they were taken down or if they're okay in their lane. If they actually respond with their problem, help them with it.

"Jax burst me early, and I didn't expect it, and I can't farm with him there" Respond with something like: "that's okay, he's tough to deal with, let him push up to tower and farm or poke him then, you can handle him!"

Something as light as that can make a world of difference to someone who's having trouble and that improvement in mentality will keep them confident and careful. If they're having further problems and you're in a position to head over and help, go for it. Give them a gank when their laner over pushes turret, or guard them while they clear out a wave. This isn't always possible, but when you are in a position to do it, it can mean the difference between a win and loss, you could get a kill in that gank, helping your teammate farm will put them in a better position, keep on giving them tips and helping them out in a friendly way.

Personally, as someone who is the 'helper' ahead of that teammate as he is the idiot top who keeps on dying, helping someone like this relieves my stress about their performance and being helped with any kind of friendliness means a lot and helps performance more than you will ever believe. It's not something that will relieve everyone's stress though, in the case that you can't help or know that helping isn't going to put you in a better frame of mind, refer to the other tips in this thread and maybe throw down an "it's alright :)" in chat when that top laner messes up, it will still help out their mentality going back in if they know their teammates don't hate them for goofing up. I hope this rant/thing is of some use

FKOoSrXpqV7/17/2017, 3:51:35 AM1 votes

Riot could finally remove the chat. And toxicity would be gone. Riot loves toxic people. why ? because they bring MONEY MONEY MONEY when your account gets banned you will create a new one, you will invest real life money to boost your exp or buy champions or IP boost to buy runes because the game is literally unplayable with no runes. ( which is total bullshit and unfair for new players but w/e ) So to clarify your question. You can't do anything. Riot has to do it. Riot has to remove the chat or the chat punishment and replace it with afk punishment / feeding punishment etc. but while I as a toxic player with 2 permabanned accounts invested over 200$ into my accounts and invested like 80% of it for EXP / IP Boosts the answer is simple. they won't.