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Riot should consider revising their "zero tolerance on homophobic slurs" policy. Here's why.

SWATCOLE·3/12/2018, 11:09:12 PM·3 votes·1,438 views

I know this seems like a backwards, counter productive thing to do (especially in today's culture), but I hope and urge you to read the whole thing before making a judgment/dismissing it. This isn't me asking to be unbanned - this happened two months ago and I already did my ban time. Instead, I'm hoping to shed light on a policy of Riot's that has good intent, but also unaccounted for consequences, and ultimately should be slightly changed or reworked.

 

I'll start this off with a story for context. Awhile back, I was playing normals, and it quickly became one of those fiesta games where everyone from both teams are teasing each other in /all chat after a hilarious 5v5 teamfight broke out at level 1. Later on in the game, after the enemy Ezreal barely died in a 1v1 mid lane, the following exchanges were said:

 

Teammate: "bad gg" Ezreal: "o. :( leaving then bye" Me: "no don't leave :( You might be a %%%got, but you're my %%%got <3"

 

I was promptly banned for two weeks.

 

At first I thought the system auto-caught me, so I contacted support. They told me that although they agree I didn't mean it maliciously, Riot has a "zero tolerance policy on homophobic slurs". Never before had I been warned, chat restricted, or banned in my 4+ years of playing League. By all definitions, I am not a toxic player. For simply using the word '%%%got', in what I intended to be a wholesome joke, I was placed into the same pool of players who full on flame others, intentionally run it down mid, AFK after first blood, or troll others - and continue to do so after being warned/banned by Riot. The entire game had this sort of "teasing each other tone", which continued on well after I said this. It's a common joke that Ezreal is gay, which is what I was referencing. I wasn't calling the player a %%%got, I was referencing the champion. It'd be no different than saying "You might be a lonely sad mummy, but you're my lonely sad mummy <3". The ":(" and "<3" further suggests that it wasn't in a flaming matter.

 

Another, even more extreme example:

 

After I was banned, I told my IRL friends about it. A few days later, one of my friends decided to test out the zero tolerance policy in action by reporting a teammate of his who had used the word %%%got. Shortly after, he got the "a player you reported has been banned" message, and, by checking the account activity, we confirmed it was a two week ban. What was the* horrendous flaming* that his teammate had said to deserve a full two-week ban? Surely, he must have typed up quite the storm, giving his full piece of mind about just what he thought about their "Diamond" 0/3 Jhin. He must have really blew up on him to deserve a full two week ban, right? Well, you're partially correct. After giving up first blood to an invade, his teammate absolutely exploded into the chat by typing:

 

"fuck, i'm such a %%%got sorry"

 

The point is, context matters. Don't get me wrong, people who intentionally use homophobic slurs to insult and flame others should be fully punished. However, Riot should revise their policy so that using the word, regardless of intent or context, doesn't always result in an instant two week ban, especially if the player has never been disciplined before. Or, allow cases to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, rather than a "sorry, zero tolerance" approach to all bans regarding usage of slurs. Or, just take context into account when banning and/or deciding the severity of punishment.

 

I think it's clear that these two examples were not deserving of full two week bans - the same severity for people who actively try to ruin games for others through flaming or trolling. Perhaps some sort of punishment was needed, but not this harshly. Riot's goal for punishments is for reform, not straight out banning because it doesn't solve the root problem. I, and I'm sure the other guy, didn't even know Riot had a zero tolerance policy on this, and if they did, that it extended to jokes and self deprecating apologies. A simple warning message would have been just as effective on impacting on my future use of the word as the two week ban did. The difference is, the two week ban lead to unfair frustration, feeling as if I was being overly-punished for something I didn't even know was against the rules. God even knows how my IRL friend's teammate felt, getting banned for the horrendous thing he said.

 

It's extremely frustrating that doing something like this triggers an instant two-week ban, while you can blatantly and intentionally flame your teammates (on stream, no less), with videos showcasing it delivered right to Riot's doorstep via the front page, and still remain unbanned. Hashinshin examples (I'm sure there's more, but that's what I found with 30 seconds of searching): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Tyler1 also took forever to get banned, with the same front-page attention, and his flaming/AFKing/intentionally feeding being arguably worse.

 

I think we can all agree these have way more toxicity behind them and deserve a two-week ban exponentially more than someone offhandedly using the word '%%%got' ever will.

 

If Riot doesn't want to rework their policy, I'd love some transparency on how they feel about cases like these. Nonetheless, I'd love to hear your thoughts below, and if nothing comes from this, at least you now know to never say '%%%got' in game, no matter what. Period.

 

TL;DR: Riot instant two-week bans anyone who says the word '%%%got' in game, regardless of context or intent. These bans are not eligible to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis due to Riot's zero tolerance policy on homophobic slurs. Riot has good intentions behind this zero tolerance policy, but it ends up with the side effect of punishing undeserving players. I suggest they update the zero tolerance policy to only harshly punish players who use homophobic slurs intending to cause harm, instead of just anyone who says one offhandedly.

42 Comments

ModThe Djinn3/12/2018, 11:23:28 PM20 votes

"Wholesome jokes" do not use language with a decades-long history of hatred and homophobia behind it. Full stop.

MagicFlyingLlama3/12/2018, 11:13:53 PM10 votes

Or people could just not intentionally use a rather offensive term ("gay" may be perfectly acceptable in some contexts, but '%%%got' is more or less always an insult..) that they know will trigger punishment if anyone reports it.

TL;DR someone was offended. You cant get punished without a report.

TrulyBland3/13/2018, 12:07:37 AM8 votes

I wasn't calling the player a %%%got, I was referencing the champion.

I fail to see how that changes anything. See, the trouble with hate speech is that it's always harmful and always insulting the targeted group, regardless of who is being directly spoken to or about. [Edit: At the very least in a public setting, where people don't know you well enough to know whether to take what you say seriously or not.]

If that player had been playing Lucian, would you have used the N-word instead?

A Pretty Unicorn3/13/2018, 9:22:51 PM6 votes

As a bisexual man, I, at least, would appreciate if you could not try to normalize slurs that have been used to insult and degrade me and people like me.

CrazFight 3/13/2018, 12:20:15 AM4 votes

Can't you just... you know.. use another word?

HalcyonDweller3/13/2018, 12:25:56 AM4 votes

I'd almost be on your side, like the way you used it in your own game didn't seem malicious or even accidentally harmful. But there are differences depending on how people use the word. Using it as an endearing term is very different from using it as a substitute for a negative term.

The "extreme example" was absolutely something that warranted a punishment. The person your friend reported said "I'm such a ___" as if being of that group of people is a bad thing. Honestly that's precisely the sort of thing that would genuinely hurt and offend another player in the same game who happens to be of that group of people.

Imagine how you would feel if every time somebody failed, they said "Wow I'm such a <insert _your_ name here>!" It's the sort of thing that would lead people to associate <insert _your_ name here> with being a failure. Do you see why this could be hurtful to people?

A Pretty Unicorn3/15/2018, 11:13:09 AM2 votes

Please do not presume to understand why I find it offensive. I find it offensive because it is a word that, for most of my life, has almost exclusively been used to threaten, insult, and otherwise mistreat me and others, not because someone told me it should offend me.

I'm not saying you think it's okay to use it to insult people, but you are trying to normalize the use of a slur. That's exactly what this is about.

y0r1ck3/13/2018, 1:00:52 AM2 votes

Yeah I agree. It's a stupid policy and needs to be fixed. It's archaic and it's been proven zero tolerance is counter productive. But here people who don't know any better will condemn you for using hate speech and breaking rules. This is part of why i don't play as much LOL anymore, i can't support this kind of censorship.

Pandeonor3/13/2018, 8:47:40 AM2 votes

{quoted}

It&#039;s extremely frustrating that doing something like this triggers an instant two-week ban, while you can blatantly and intentionally flame your teammates

You do not fully understand the issue of being a racist.

If I call you "a black man" or .... to reach the lv of "fa.. ot".... I write in chat "...you are my n...gg..r".... What do you think is the issue with that?

That I flamed you ?

It is not (only) bad because flaming. It is because it is racism that it is used as it would be a (bad) classification. And anyway it has nothing to do with and within a game.

So... you were banned for "you are my f...ott". Not flaming, yes. Maybe in your case even not meant homophopic or first line negative. But the usage as such is in 99% at least negative in terms of devalue just because you use it. [hm... don´t sure if devalue is the correct english term; depreciate fit´s better?].

That is imho the reason for 0-tolerance. Not 0-tolerance to flaming but 0-tolerance for "racism speech". For serious reasons. And any filter working 99% proper is a better filter then one with less accuracy in the other direction wich may lead to let´s say 90% accuracy= 10% really not necessary racistic words ingame. I hope we agree here. If not.... well. At least I agree with Riot in this point.

Herald Est Mors3/13/2018, 9:13:59 PM2 votes

I don't even have to look through the comments to know you're gonna have sensitive pansies telling you how bad the word is and how you deserve to be PERMA BANNED THAT TWO WEEKS ISNT ENOUGH, but honestly that's crap. Words are words, the fact that you use that word doesn't make you a bad person. There is a mute in game, and I think riot should have the policy that, if you don't mute a player, you can't report them for verbal abuse or hatespeech. Because if somebody was truly and honestly offended, they would mute and report. but yeah dude you didn't deserve the ban,

swordofsun3/13/2018, 2:11:07 PM1 votes

There are a lot of things I could say here, but I'll keep it short and simple.

I'm interested in why you think my identity is something you can use for casual insults. I don't think that's okay and I would like to know why you do.