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Letter to Riot: Issues regarding the chat-rules and unclarities within them.

RCN Psclly·3/21/2018, 5:07:24 PM·5 votes·1,916 views

To Riot.

Here I am. Sitting blatantly with a recent chat restriction. And yes, it may seem biased, but it's not what I'm here to talk about. Ever since the chat restriction, I've been seriously worrying about the rules that accompany chat messages. To make this shorter, I'll just say that the rules are seriously unclear, and need some redesigning. League of Legends is seemingly becoming more toxic than it used to be, with people getting bad tempers all over the place, for example, this guy: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/0Ftzv24A-i-need-help-regarding-toxicity-control

Now of course there will always be toxicity in games. What I'm worried about, is how Riot seems to regulate it. There's a very good reporting system, which usually seems to work pretty fine. People who use racial slurs get punished, and negativity is overally not accepted. The issue lies with where Riot draws the line between toxicity and just negative talk. In the report screen. https://imgur.com/a/0Q91A Here is a picture of the report screen. In the section "Verbal Abuse", it says "Harassment, Offensive Language". Hate speech of course is obviously banable, so I will look over it for now. The main point here is what people call Harassment. Offensive Language is quite unclear. When is something truly offensive? When is something harassment, and where does Riot want to go with these rules?

Alright, thats the introduction. Now the researchy part. I've looked up for the rules of League of Legends. The first post I'd like to show is this one I got from the League of Legends Wiki: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki:Special:Chat Here, we see a couple of rules. Some of them fall under Hate Speech, and they are all very obvious (such as no racism, sexual harassment etc.). The issue again lies with rules 7 and 8. No trolling, don't be a jerk. These things are highly subjective. People interpret these things very differently. When I look at the other rules, they seem very extreme. Sexual Harassment is already an offense in real life. When they mention profanity towards other players, they mention "Extreme". So does that mean I can curse at people, as long as it's not "extreme"? What exactly does that mean? Since it's still a community wiki, here's an official Riot post on the rules: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/legal/termsofuse#code-conduct At chapter 5, it says Code of Conduct. This is a very serious chapter, since everything on this page is taken highly seriously. Any offense usually means big trouble. In this chapter there are, as expected, warnings to people who plan on using sexist and racist slurs, and that sort. However, where is "Trolling and not being a jerk" in this chapter? As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be any clear indication of what I'm allowed to say and what not. Extreme cases are extremely obvious, and I'll always follow those rules. I'm highly against racism and sexism, and respect people for who they are, always. How did I get chat restricted then?

I think you guys need some examples. For instance, in a reply I got from a Rioter, whose name I won't mention to keep it anonymous, we'll call him Collin, Collin said that saying "[Champion] is useless" is a serious offense. Why did I say this? Well, people have been getting away with it ever since I started playing 3 years ago, so how has it suddenly become an offense to say this?

[{quoted}](name=Unnamed Feeder,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=0Ftzv24A,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-03-21T05:41:56.272+0000) I haven't ever been punished before, and still not punished now. The IFS system is pretty easy to work around, so as long as you flame below a certain threshold and know the trigger words the system is relatively lenient. That's not the problem but....being flamed and flaming just makes the game, which I genuinely enjoy, less fun. I don't think anyone enjoys raging and/or being raged at is fun at all, as hate never makes anyone feel better (unless you're a genuine sadist).

This is a quote mentioned in the post I put at the top of the page. It's a very interesting quote because it proves my concern with the rule system. He mentions that if you know what words "trigger" the IFS, you can work around it pretty nicely, and you can flame people to a certain extent, without being punished. This happened to me exactly. I felt like calling people useless at the end of the game when they we're crying about other people ruining their game was well below that Threshold. The problem again is, where does that threshold lie? According to Collin (remember him?), saying "Muted Reported" in chat after someone flames you is an offense. However, I don't see any trolling, any being a jerk, or any harassment or offense in this set of words. Sure, saying someone is reported is not positive, but it shouldn't instantly be considered as harassment, or should it? It's unclear whether or not it's offense, but a Rioter said it is, so why isn't there any rule list that tells you this is an offense? I always announce it when people start flaming me harshly that I've muted them. If they go to extreme ("Extreme", there's the irony..) levels of harassment, I'll add "Reported" to that. Nothing ever told me until now that that was not allowed.

I got banned for it though, which is why I got kind of sad. I'm a dedicated player, and losing my season rewards makes me seriously unhappy. Especially because I felt like I was well below the threshold, since it wasn't clear where that limit of speech was. There was also 0 warning or anything that announced my chat restriction. I'll have to admit that I've flamed people very limitly at times. Like the person from that quote said, you should be able to do it until you reach those triggers, and I've used the triggers far more than this, which tells my I should've been banned permanently by now, considering the ramp up of punishments when you repeat them.

Until clear rules come into play, people will always find way to dodge those rules. Currently the rules seem like from a Minecraft server, where you only have so much chat space to define every single rule you want to state. "No Harassing" "No Trolling" Okay, but what is harassing? What is the definition of it in internet terms? The internet has always been exaggerated. People call others things that they wouldn't even dare to say in real life, because they'd be way too scared and they will know it's offensive. That's why harassment has such a low meaning on the internet, and that's why people seem to harass without being punished for it, because everyone knows they didn't mean it like that. How does Riot interpret these things? Since I got chat restricted for saying some low-key harassing statements, does that mean over half of the community should be terminated, especially since toxicity levels are becoming higher?

What needs to change? Riot needs to make an OFFICIAL statement regarding the chat rules. No more unclear subjective ruling, since that's what got me and probably many more banned in the first place, and no more "you can flame but not too much", as depicted in the quote from earlier. Riot is a big company, they need to make things clear if they want to make the game like they want it to be. People always try to undermine rules, they look for the limit of how far they can go before they get punished, and with that they bait people into believing the things that are wrong, in this case the line "you can flame but not too much". The point is, you CAN'T flame, as Collin told me, but I've been in the same spot for years, so what happened to the rules that they managed to ban me at THIS point, and not 2 years ago?

We need an official Riot thread, listing every single offense, and in clear terms. Saying things like "Ur useless" and "Reported" should be on that list. The thread shouldn't list offenses indirectly. No term in toxicity should be left out. Calling people "idiots", according to Collin is an offense, so that should definitely be in there, CLEARLY, so everyone can see what exactly are the rules of chat. The Summoner's Code seems very vague when you look at it, and this should change.

Something I forgot to mention is this post is the censoring system. Certain curses get censored automatically, but there is an option to turn it off. Seems like Riot is encouraging more than they are discouraging people to swear when they reach a certain age. It's like they tell you: "Oh you're 18? In that case here you can now say **** without it being censored in chat." And while yes, censoring is also active for the people receiving it, most people just turn it off, which just doesn't help at all. It's also weird what terms get censored and what doesn't. Obvious words like **** and ****** (haha) get censored, simply because no one should ever be allowed to say them. However, words like "idiot" and "moron" (I'M SORRY IT'S FOR SCIENCE) are not censored in chat. Why aren't they? And why can't I say them? They aren't censored, so Riot should be fine with them for the most part, right?

I think I've made my point clear. Collin promised me that Rioters look at every post. I didn't believe him at first, but he promised me, right? So some Rioter MUST have read this. If they didn't I'll feel quite empty inside, as I think this issue is a lot more important than people think. Saying things like "ur useless" is tilting, and people who say it should be punished, but the issue is that they don't know it's punishable, simply because there's no rule that clearly states it is. It's a very relevant topic for Riot to consider.

While I shouldn't do this, I will ask Riot to at least leave some kind of mark that they have read this, so my fingers won't be in pain for no reason. I truly hope they consider doing something with this thread in mind, as I think it will definitely solve some issues. I also think that I will have somehow showed that I'm not a terrible person, because yes, I'm still sad about those season rewards I won't be getting just because I got chat restricted.

Thank you so much for making it through, if you did. I may have made some bad eNgrish mistakes, I'm only human.

May your games be swift and by your will,

Psclly

Aatrox

30 Comments

ModThe Djinn3/21/2018, 5:15:08 PM6 votes

The main issue with laying down a strict set of rules is that people will find ways to skirt the edges and claim "I'm following the rules." I've moderated probably a dozen various online communities now, and whenever one has strict rules it's a NIGHTMARE to deal with.

Take "Nidalee is useless." If we have a strict set of guidelines on what qualifies as harassment, and this is acceptable, then suddenly every time my teammate playing Nidalee dies or fails to secure a kill I can type "Nidalee is useless" with impunity, which is definitely a form of trolling, insulting, and harassing. If, conversely, we say it's NEVER allowed then I can't say things like "Bruiser Nidalee is useless in sieges. We need to teamfight more, 'cause we don't have the big value spears we need to siege them properly."

Same with, say, "Good play, dude." If I say it every time someone dies, that's pretty unnecessary, and a pretty dickish thing to do.

Basically, people will always find ways around the rules if you lay out strict lines of where the rules are. This is why rules like "don't be a jerk" and "don't harass other players" are actually helpful for communities.

They aren't censored, so Riot should be fine with them for the most part, right?

Nah. That filter exists so that players who dislike casual cursing don't have to see it, and for no other reason. It's supposed to be a filter to help with the 13+ age range and some player's disinclination to see curse words thrown about, NOT a filter to say "if it's off, abusive chat and insults are fine."

Awf Meta3/21/2018, 5:56:04 PM4 votes

In the case of "mild toxicity" Riot does not actually make the rules.

IFS takes the feedback from PLAYER reports.

If the players report "cup cake", then IFS will start punishing the use of "cup cake".

Also note, there is no "false accusation" for mild toxicity. Players are allowed to report anything. Players do not have to justify their reports either. EDIT: players do not even have to identify the offensive chat. IFS will scan the entire chat.

Thus, we have a highly abused system.

The Highest Noon3/22/2018, 12:27:55 AM3 votes

Looking at all this, it seems that the problem isn't actually with the interpretation of the rules themselves but the fact that circumstances and subjectivity doesn't matter. It was mentioned before, but the internet culture isn't a static thing. Something that's an insult or praise in one week flips meaning in the next, and people will be punished without their opinions being known. It's easy to say "just don't be a jerk" but you can't even define what "being a jerk" is because the person who's supposedly "being a jerk" isn't considered, just decided upon by whoever or whatever is dishing out the punishment. One of the reasons why I say that Riot needs to actually give people the chance to challenge punishments decided on. Punishment without trial never works, and even if it's more work for Riot it's at least work that promotes the player environment.

Telephone Booth3/21/2018, 10:53:12 PM1 votes

Yeah what djinn and failedabortion said. Basically, don't be a jerk. You can't make specific phrases (aside from "hate speech") as a guideline. You just have to try to be nice and surrender judgement to Rito. Many disagree with this set up. They aren't wrong, they have an opinion and their opinion is the same as anyone as long as they're being honest. But it's just the way it is. You have to accept that Riot has the authority to judge your communication with other players. If you're confused on what being a jerk is, you're probably a jerk lol. And Riot will judge your chat and you will be at their mercy. That's just how it is, and that's fine to me. Just don't be a Dick to people. I feel like everyone knows deep down when they're saying something passive aggressive or something that will piss someone off. But when they're caught they will deny it, sometimes even convincing themselves they did nothing wrong. But deep in their gut, they know they were being a dick, but they have to rationalize to justify it. I feel if you have to "explain yourself" and rationalize the reason you said something bad, you were probably just in the wrong (when it comes to the rules, not real life).

Mordius3/23/2018, 3:21:29 PM1 votes

When you show animosity, other players are more likely to return with animosity. When you show respect, other players are more inclined to show you respect. Be respectful, and you'll be fine.

If you need lessons on respect or what is bad behavior, talk to your mom. Momma knows best.