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Banning players is (mostly) an awful business strategy/solution

The Great Duck··3 votes·654 views

Death threats and intentional feeding ought to be the only bannable offenses. Many players invested hard-earned money into the game; it's damning to ban them and force them to practically get on their knees and beg. In a competitive genre like a MOBA, trash-talking is often much of the fun. If someone is so easily offended/tilted by someone saying "ez," then perhaps this isn't the genre for them. Chat's hardly ever regulated in FPS; though I'm not that great, it's refreshing knowing I can talk shit or at least defend myself against another rambunctious individual. It's sort of like hitting a pillow, although that hardly works for anyone, and most of us would rather keep the violence to words rather than rehearsing its physical form.

Anyway, what's the point? For all the pseudo-therapy you play (lmao, you honestly believe banning someone in a game will reform their personality) you sure miss the mark. All that does is anger the player even more. And since you revamped the leveling system to the point where everyone's on equal footing at summoner level 1 in terms of stats, you've only fostered more smurf accounts to hijack themselves into new games and ruin experiences for newer players who'd have otherwise been interested in investing into this game.

I've played this game since season 3. I sucked, but the game was a hell lot more fun. Toxic players didn't hinder me because I'm a competitive individual. I strove to improve mechanically and learn more game knowledge. The focus shouldn't be on moderating what's said within the community, but improving the game dynamics itself, and proper balance.

26 Comments

EL HAMSTERO4 votes

yeah im actually impressed with this continuing war on toxicity riot is taking on. i dont agree with it but i am impressed.

it shows they really believe in what they are trying to do. because as you say it is a terrible business decision. not only are the people who get banned or even chat restricted less likely to play or buy stuff, their friends are also less likely.

its like a chain reaction. your friend quits or (he believes) is wronged by riot. he plays less and buys less. with him not playing as much his friends have less fun without their friend. they play less and buy less. and their friends. i am pretty sure riot is losing A Lot of money on this. but they do it anyway.

i question how effective it is too. most people who get banned have other accounts or can buy them. some learn what keywords to avoid and continue to be toxic while being more careful about their language. others know they cant rage so they instead troll when they get upset which is not an improvement.

but at least riot is trying.

TrulyBland4 votes

If someone is so easily offended/tilted by someone saying "ez," then perhaps this isn't the genre for them.

And there I thought a game's genre was defined by the design of the game, and not the behaviour of a minority of players, that isn't even condoned by the people who actually made the game and the rules...

Hey, here's an idea: If you cannot be respectful towards others, then perhaps this specific game is not for you.

Applesaucey1 votes

Not condoned? This was the norm for years. It was accepted by everyone and something like that didnt even register as offensive to 99.9999% of the playerbase. The fact that you can get banned for it now because some chucklefuck at riot decided it wasn't okay anymore is ridiculous.

TrulyBland4 votes

Literally nothing you said is correct.

I've played since the release of this game: It never was condoned. It wasn't the norm by any stretch. It never was accepted by everyone (or 99.9999%) either.

And you even managed to get the one thing wrong that is relevant to the situation now: You don't actually get banned just for saying "ez".

Applesaucey2 votes

I've played since season 1. Back then saying "Gg ez" was the norm at the end of the game. Everyone did it no one got butt hurt over it. And yes riot personnel has stated that saying "gg ez" is now a reportable offense and can lead to bans. I can't be assed to track down the one from the riot employee because there are literally 100's of these threads. But here is one from a herald, which is a riot nominated community leader stating as such.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/OMR1eYAW-is-gg-ez-reportable

TrulyBland6 votes

First things first: Season 1 was not the release of the game, and in fact it wasn't until season 1 before "gg ez" actually even became much of a thing (which I remember specifically because I talked to my brother on the topic, who I didn't get to play a game before begin of season 1.)

But even then it was on average maybe one player per game that did that. It wasn't the norm in the slightest. Not everyone did it (most people still just said "gg" or "wp"), and a lot of people were actually (mildly) pissed at the display of poor sportsmanship that is "gg ez".

And yes riot personnel has stated that saying "gg ez" is now a reportable offense and can lead to bans.

Source please. "gg ez" is considered a reportable offense because it is considered a negative phrase. But it's so mildly negative that even using it every game will not actually lead to any punishment on its own. It merely speeds up the process of getting a punishment if you have other things counting against you. If you think otherwise: Prove it. People come onto these forums when they don't understand why they were banned despite using hate speech. Surely somebody who literally only said "gg ez" as an offense should be easy to find. Or hey, in the spirit of science: Make a fresh account as an experiment and say "gg ez" and nothing else every single game and see whether you'll get punished for it.

And just to reiterate the main point of mine that you decided to ignore when you went into all this nitpicking of what has or hasn't happened in the past: People behaving like an asshole still doesn't define a genre. And people who feel entitled to behaving like assholes fortunately also don't make the rules for a game. So telling people that a genre isn't for them simply because they agree with the rules set out by a company for their own game is still complete and utter bullshit.

Applesaucey1 votes

I'm not gonna waste my time to prove something I know is true so that a dumbass like you who won't listen anyways can ignore it. I pointed to proof already. A statement from a riot appointed community leader saying that it is punishable.

While season 1 wasn't the release of the game it is when shit actually started to matter. Prior to season 1 and the game going f2p the player base was so minuscule it doesn't even matter.

Take your rose tinted glasses off your fucked up face. GG EZ and much worse was commonplace in this game seasons 1-5 and literally no one gave a rats ass. The way you know this is the normal state of things is because if you go to literally any other game you see that this kind of behavior is still the norm. Riot's forced play nice online is unnatural and is evidenced by literally every other online game.

TrulyBland4 votes

Still nitpicking irrelevant things while ignoring my main point? Check.

Still pulling "facts" out of your own ass and insisting your own memory to be the pinnacle of truth? Check.

Still no idea how long (and already f2p) the period before season 1 was? Check.

Yeah... we can agree on one thing: No point in wasting any more time.

The Cream Reaper1 votes

you forgot to check the typical argument "I'm not gonna waste my time to prove something " followed by namecalling

XD

deathgod53 votes

I have gone into more detail in a series in which I detailed the history of the reporting system(which I really should finish sometimes), but it comes down to the following.

There are several reason why I think that riot games would never get rid of their chat ban system.

  1. Marketing wise, having a game where they let toxic players run freely has a lot of problems:
  • Media would negatively blast the company for taking no stronger actions against all toxic players;
  • E sports would have trouble finding sponsors because nobody wants to sponsor the most toxic game in the world, don't underestimate the amount of marketing money that is in e-sport;
  1. Player wise there are 2 groups that leave the game if the game changes certain things around the chat.
  • The first group is the group that flames out loud and that wants to have his environment to do the same
  • The other group is the group that leaves the game if it turns out to be toxic.
  • keeping them both happy is impossible so you pick a group you want to keep happy and focus on them. In the time of player run multiplayer(servers run by players) this wasn't a problem as these people often ended up finding servers that had their type of players. If you have company servers you pick one of these groups to keep happy. They chose the group that was more marketable.
  1. Outward appearances are more important then actual success rate. Even if the ratio of succes is as terrible as you claim it is, it only matters that it looks like they get a result.

Also a quick note regarding the reform system, the system is meant to warn the player 3 times(with punishments) before kicking them out. They want this player to rage and not return because he effectively goes against their business policy. The reform part only reference to the fact that they give you 3 chances. They also tailored the levelling systems in such a way that smurfs get matched against smurfs in no time, they just hope they get kicked out again before they even reach level 30.

TL:DR: I don't think they will get rid of it.

Applesaucey1 votes

PUBG, community is 100x more toxic then this game was and it was the most popular game in the world for months.

Your first point is horseshit.

The Cream Reaper3 votes

and it was the most popular game in the world for months.

"was" being the operative word here.

why do you think that stopped after just a few months? you fail to see the bigger picture...

Your first point is horseshit.

just like your logic

Applesaucey1 votes

Lol you think toxicity is what is killing pubg? No. Toxicity is what drew like half the player base to the game. Fuck its the trademark of one of the people who was one of the biggest streamers for the game, who also won trending gamer at the video game awards this year. PUBG dying has literally nothing to do with its lack of censorship.

Pubg is dying because its devs are putting out no content. The content they do put out is bug riddled as hell and not fun to play, and the most popular game mode is riddled with Chinese cheaters which the devs have shown themselves to be entirely incapable of stopping.

The Cream Reaper2 votes

Toxicity is what drew like half the player base to the game.

PUBG dying has literally nothing to do with its lack of censorship.

Pubg is dying because its devs are putting out no content.

whatever you say...

Applesaucey1 votes

It's not whatever I say.

It's fact. Look it up.

Dr. Disrespect won trending gamer. It'll take you 5 minutes tops to verify that and watch about 30 seconds of one of his videos to see just how toxic he is.

As for verify what is killing the game, it'll take you no time at all to go the the subreddit or forums and see that literally no one is bitching about people calling each other n**ger non-stop in lobby every game. Because they understand it can be muted. What you will see on the other hand is 50% of the posts being about getting killed by hackers and wanting to quit the game over it.

The Cream Reaper5 votes

It's fact. Look it up.

it's not my job to do your research and provide proof of your claims in your place ;)

that's not how you convince people that you are right :)

and calling people names just because they disagree with you doesn't help either

[slayer-jinx-wink]

Applesaucey1 votes

[Removed by Moderation] You want Research? You want a professional to tell you why its dying?

Here [Removed by Moderation].

Here is Dr. Disrespect winning the award at the VGA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqNWqRCu09U

Here is a video of him being temporarily banned for intentional team killing, just one of many toxic behaviours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjNX3fViAJM

Here is a thread on their subreddit talking about why the game is dying, notice how people calling each other n**gers isn't mentioned at all. https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS/comments/7yj7rn/pubg_average_players_on_decline_for_first_time/

Finally you want a professional? Your talking to the closest your gonna get. My steam profile showing my 775 horus, http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198012516096/ And finally my stats page showing that I'm the pubg equivalent of a challengers player. https://pubg.op.gg/user/Applesaucey?server=na

Toxicity has had 0 negative effects on pubg, the thing that is killing the game is hackers. [Removed by Moderation]

The Cream Reaper1 votes

Here is Dr. Disrespect winning the award at the VGA.

i fail to see how him winning any sort of awards for gaming has anything to do with the topic at hand...

intentional team killing, just one of many toxic behaviours

you think "team killing" is a "toxic behaviour"

https://giphy.com/gifs/slow-clap-XMc1Ui9rAFR1m

no comment

and that is ignoring the fact that we are talking about verbal abuses and your example is about team killing...

it's like talking about food poisoning and you bring up snake poisoning to support your flimsy argument...

LOL

Here is a thread on their subreddit talking about why the game is dying, notice how people calling each other n**gers isn't mentioned at all. https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS/comments/7yj7rn/pubg_average_players_on_decline_for_first_time/

so your... ahem... "proof" that your argument is valid is to link a single 84 upvotes post on reddit

i think i've seen flat earth posts with 80-something upvotes. does that mean the earth is flat too? :D

Finally you want a professional?

would be nice... tho i think even a guy who is bronze level at the game would know what the main issues are

skill is not a requirement for opinion on game faults

[Removed by Moderation]

Toxicity has had 0 negative effects on pubg, the thing that is killing the game is hackers.

whatever you say... so far you aren't convincing anyone :)

nice try tho

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Totally Not Jinx1 votes

Hello there! I've edited out part of your comment as it did not fit in with the Universal Rules; Don't disrespect or insult fellow Boards members. If you have questions, feel free to talk to us in the The Boards Moderation Discord or the Discuss the Boards sub-board.

Totally Not Jinx1 votes

Hello there! I've edited out part of your comment as it did not fit in with the Universal Rules; Don't disrespect or insult fellow Boards members. If you have questions, feel free to talk to us in the The Boards Moderation Discord or the Discuss the Boards sub-board.

deathgod51 votes

It would be if you ignore my second point. You can also focus on the toxic market.

Applesaucey1 votes

PUBG doesn't focus on any market. Your not focusing the toxic market by telling people to use the mute feature if they don't want to hear shit. It's called letting people be fucking people.

deathgod53 votes

Every choice you make is focusing on a market, if you want to or not, you lose the players that want to be social without toxicity. PUBG made that choice, it is an option, but not the only option.

It's called letting people be fucking people is not really what it is. It allows certain people to feel in place and it chases others away. That is the only thing I am saying.

ModPeriscope3 votes

I don't think you can be banned just for saying GGEZ. Sure it's negative, but it contributes to a punishment.

I've never seen anyone here punished solely for that.

Quinzley2 votes

The mute button is there for a reason.

My opinion is that they try to keep the game rating as "12" even though most of the players are above the age of 16.

Telephone Booth1 votes

You are obviously entitled to that opinion. Others have the opinion that more things should be bannable. Others think that death threats should NOT be bannable. I don't see why you think your opinion should be what dictates the rules of the game. Idgaf about death threats, so shouldn't they be okay? Oh. No, because you think they should be bannable. Anyways, my point is that all of your points are based on your own personal opinion.

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