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How much elitism is too much elitism?

StrapOn8nOpartS·11/26/2015, 1:54:45 PM·1 votes·387 views

Hey there,

     I'm really curious as to why in Normal non ranked matches, the players have this sense of elitism?   I'm a casual player.  I excel in the Jungle, am decent with Mid and support and poorly doing top and ADC.   I'm not playing for days on end to practice getting better.  I simply pick up the game, have a couple matches and go off doing other stuff.  However the times I pick League, I've been having to listen to all these nasty people being rude.  If my play isn't up to teammate's standards, the hate just spits out of their fingers and onto the screen.  Same with anyone else having a rough time.  It almost feels like that each of these people expects a match to either roll the enemy or at the first signs of trouble they resort to belittling others. 

    It's this sort of attitude that's turning me off of the game that I've been playing since Season 2.  Now I'm finding I'll go play other games... Mechwarrior Online or World of Warships because at least you can talk to these people and work on a strategy.  

   I want to put this in a perspective as well.  I played Eve Online for 7 years... Still do.  The elitism there is much more prevalent because your character is built over time, not actually playing the game.   Older players are rewarded for subscribing.  But even there it seems that the older players will take the time to teach or help strategize with newer or casual players so their game is just as fun as the Older players.

   How do we as a community figure out how to fix this rampant problem?

Thanks,

3 Comments

disregardable11/26/2015, 2:10:57 PM1 votes

A game design that relies less on teammates will fix it, otherwise known as when pigs learn to fly.

Sona Ping11/26/2015, 2:22:36 PM1 votes

"Elitism" is not the word or concept you are looking for here.

"the first signs of trouble they resort to belittling others." This is pretty expected. "People insulting others for not doing things according to their personal, arbitrary, and usually, completely self-centered standards" is fairly typical. It's not limited to League, despite what the self-congratulatory language used when talking about it suggests. It's not even limited to computer games. It's just something people do.

"How do we as a community figure out how to fix this rampant problem?" If the League community can't even figure out if a 20 damage reduction to a rank 5 ability is the end of the world or not... well, then think this is a bit beyond them.

Samus7211/26/2015, 3:56:27 PM1 votes

I agree with Sona Ping. "Elitism" is the wrong word.

As much as I dislike the way everyone goes about telling you what you did wrong, there are times when they have merit. Granted, someone typing in all caps that you "f'in suck" is going to get tuned out. But that's the norm. Being a rude jerk doesn't make you an elitist. You're just a rude jerk.

Your observation of EVE: Online is not really accurate. There may be some elitism amongst EVE players. But EVE is unlike a lot of games and that your time spent playing is rewarded. A seven year EVE player is going to have some well deserved clout; you are not handed anything in EVE. You go out and you earn it and that takes time. Most people playing games are not that dedicated. You yourself said that you play a few games and leave. These people have put in hours of online time for years mining, hunting, waiting for skills to finish, etc. But keep in mind that in EVE, you can lose everything far faster than you built it up. If you have an attitude, you'd best be prepared to back it up there. Yes, the game does have jerks in it. What game doesn't?