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Why League of Legends is unfair to "toxic" players.

SurrealJC·3/17/2016, 2:28:57 AM·3 votes·2,356 views

Summary:
-Punishing players is like treating them as if they are criminals in prison.
-The weight of punishments is unhealthy and stressful and creates resistance for players to be able to improve -Why is toxic behaviour acknowledged so much more than positive behaviour? -tens of thousands of players ARE toxic and when they are banned many just create new accounts. -There has to be a more positive way to give people personal help with their anger issues and maybe even hook them up with local mental health care providers or government sponsored aid.

I feel like, similar to the method of incarcerating addicts, League of Legends treats people with anger issues like they should be outcast from society and like they aren't wanted or useful in any way. How many of you had a parent that couldn't control their temper and lashed out inappropriately because you were just being a wild child? All I want is to feel like the players around me respect me enough to listen to my requests and advice without beginning to treat me like a plague on the team. Doesn't everyone just want to fit in and get along and contribute skills and knowledge to the community? I happen to be able to type 100 wpm and 14000 characters so I am WAY MORE at risk for appearing to be toxic than most people. I'd also like to do a short survey to see what people think about toxicity, what it means, how you respond to it, and how we can all improve our reactions and recognition of it. Skip to the bottom if you don't want to bother reading my argument.

It makes me feel like League doesn't actually care about the players that need help. Instead I get penalties like the constant fear that I'm going to be banned forever for something I said to try and help another player better understand team fight mechanics or item build paths. The inability to win the same loot chests that people who just abstain from chat can win, even if, in their heads and play style they are MORE toxic than I am. In theory I have to wait 2 years now before I could ever win a banner for playing my best all because 4 games in a row I told my adc that they sucked, and they did. I know its mean. I know I shouldn't do it anymore. But does riot care if I learned my lesson? No. I'm a bad person for the rest of the year now. A criminal in their eyes, to be watched and closely monitored for potentially "ruining the experience of the League community."

So what about all our positive behaviour? Where does it go? If we're lucky we get honoured once every five games no matter how good we do or how much we compliment allies for their masterful plays, but what does that add up to? Why isn't there a reporting system for good behaviour? Why doesn't good behaviour counteract bad behaviour records? How long do I really have to wait before I don't see the taunting message in the post-game that I am ineligible to win prices due to recent bad behaviour? It's a really cruel and toxic gig riot has going on here against players who have made mistakes. Rewards are only for good players who have always been good and never made mistakes. I know in game that if I compliment people 10 times, and then tell the jungler he went in too early once, and then later, ask him not to die so much, I get raged at for having something to say about every little mistake and he asks the team to report me. I'm not wanted in this community because during november and january I took my ranked play too seriously and raged at an ally in 8 games over the course of 3 months. Please tell me that riot is above these values and that they truly want League of Legends to be a community FOR EVERYONE. You should always treat your enemies lovingly and understandingly. Treat negativity with negativity and you have become part of the forces of evil and darkness.

I'm scared right now writing this that riot is just going to decide to ban my account because I'm a toxic member of the community. They say only .5% of their player base ever gets temporarily banned. But that is approximately 125,000 people. So what? We're all just the scum of the League community now? I would LOVE if they could actually help us become better people actively and not just with 2 pages of the "Summoner's Code" and "How to improve your behaviour". This company makes TONS of money. Probably millions of dollars every day. I'm sure they can afford to put something in the store where you could exchange IP or RP for personal improvement help. If there are really such a low percentage of players that get banned then surely you can afford to do something to interview them and get them the personal help they need or decide if they are actually horrible people with no conscience who deserve to have their accounts banned permanently. The problem is, if they truly like playing this game they will just make another account. The Problem NOT solved this way! Punishments vs special attention... There have been thousands of scientific studies on which helps children and adults most effectively. Punishment is rarely more effective than conditional forgiveness and personal attention. Consider having some type of local search plugin that will refer people to local mental health agencies or government sponsored anger management programs. Alright.. I understand it's getting redundant and whiny now, so you can report me for unsportsmanlike conduct and not taking my loss like a champ. Good game guys.

Toxicity survey I’d like riot to do a player-wide survey on toxicity, what it is, why it exists, how we each respond differently to it, how we can respond better to it. As an example; I personally find calling people toxic to be a toxic action. In my case especially because I point out people's weaknesses and then ask them to act differently so they won't lose so often. I honestly want everyone to be an expert gamer. I’m not, I’m far from it but at least I practice safe plays to avoid dying early. So no I won’t shut up. I will try to word my criticisms better and never use accusatory words or stick labels to people… it sucks when you can just tell that one player on your team is really the little brother of the account holder. We all have try our best to restrain our negative emotions and be encouraging and helpful.

1.What do you find toxic? –Mentioning your level of experience, telling team-mates to shut up, certain words, being bad at the game and feeding (Getting out played), giving advice after every play, threatening to afk if someone asks you ONE MORE TIME to stop split pushing help teamfight.

2.How do you respond to toxicity? Rage back, mute, try to calm people down, explain the situation, try to end the game as fast as possible win or lose, do nothing.

3.What in-game actions do you take when someone is toxic? stay under tower and don’t help the feeders, Feed to end the game fast, try to prevent them from feeding, give more advice or more pings to help, not gank for them, not support them and their engages

4.What advice do you have for toxic people?

31 Comments

Your Next Kill3/17/2016, 2:30:49 AM7 votes

I can't believe you're saying that Riot should treat people that ruin their game with kindness

No flash no life3/17/2016, 4:28:39 AM3 votes

{quoted} -Punishing players is like treating them as if they are criminals in prison.

Putting aside whether that's a good comparison or not...even if that's the case, what's wrong with that? Criminals are prisoned mainly for 2 reasons: they broke the laws they agreed to so they're punished and we can't have them around in our society messing up our order. Toxic players agreed to behave in the first place, then proceeded to break the rules, hence they're punished. In order to not cause harm to the community, riot bans them to split them from the rest of us - working like how prison seperates criminals from society except the other way around.

-The weight of punishments is unhealthy and stressful and creates resistance for players to be able to improve

The other way around. Punishments are too lenient and provide too many chances for offenders to return and cause more harm. The assumption that we should allow players to improve behavior is wrong to begin with. Players are supposed to have their behaviors improved, to the point where they won't break the rules, before joining this community, otherwise they wouldn't get past the terms of service.

-Why is toxic behaviour acknowledged so much more than positive behaviour?

Positive behaviors are granted. They're the ways we're supposed to act to begin with so they're nothing outstanding - though this community seems to have difficulties in that regard. Toxic behaviors, on the other hand, shouldn't happen; hence they stand out in a bad way.

-tens of thousands of players ARE toxic and when they are banned many just create new accounts.

People have the freedom to be ignorant and selfish. If they aren't going to abide by the terms they shouldn't be here, but they don't care. They're the only ones in the world that's important and everyone else and the rules they follow in their environment are of little significance compared to the comfort of those toxic players.

1.What do you find toxic?

Anything that's considered a threat. Showing frustration, even toward teammates, is acceptable to a certain degree, but the moment you start threatening each other you're no longer part of the team and ought to stay away from a team game.

2.How do you respond to toxicity?

Tell ppl to focus on the game, generally suggesting a benefit we can take or emphasize on. Otherwise, ignore and focus on myself. It's difficult to control what others are doing, but you can always control what you're doing.

3.What in-game actions do you take when someone is toxic?

Same as above.

4.What advice do you have for toxic people?

  • This game isn't going to entertain you as much as others would.
  • Buddy, chances are, your individual skill is diamond level, but you're stuck in gold because this is a team game and it's up to you to intepret what I truely mean. If one day you face the situation where you absolutely have to climb, I won't tell you to refrain from chatting, but take out all the adjectives from your texts.
Nik Nikerson3/18/2016, 12:13:19 AM2 votes

{quoted}

-Punishing players is like treating them as if they are criminals in prison.

I guess in the sense that if you break rules, you face punishment as a way of enforcing those rules, you're right. But I think it's more like if my kids start acting out in a public place. If they do, I snatch them up and remove them from the situation. If you act in an inappropriate manner, you're not welcome to remain and ruin things for everyone else.

{quoted}

-The weight of punishments is unhealthy and stressful and creates resistance for players to be able to improve

Again, if you can't act in an appropriate manner, you don't get to be part of the group. It's not about fixing your behavior, it's about keeping you from ruining the game for others. It's unfortunate that you find it stressful, but the solution is to follow the rules.

{quoted}

-Why is toxic behaviour acknowledged so much more than positive behaviour?

Being a decent person isn't something you should do because you're going to get something for it; it's what's expected of you. You don't get rewards for acting how you're supposed to.

{quoted}

-tens of thousands of players ARE toxic and when they are banned many just create new accounts.

There will always be jerks, not matter what you do. Some people just enjoy causing other people grief. Some people apparently lack impulse control. They don't care about punishments, and they don't care about rewards. You aren't ever going to change those people, because they don't want to change.

{quoted}

-There has to be a more positive way to give people personal help with their anger issues and maybe even hook them up with local mental health care providers or government sponsored aid.

Riot is not in business to parent millions of people. It's not their job to fix you or your behavior.

{quoted}

1.What do you find toxic? –Mentioning your level of experience, telling team-mates to shut up, certain words, being bad at the game and feeding (Getting out played), giving advice after every play, threatening to afk if someone asks you ONE MORE TIME to stop split pushing help teamfight.

2.How do you respond to toxicity? Rage back, mute, try to calm people down, explain the situation, try to end the game as fast as possible win or lose, do nothing.

3.What in-game actions do you take when someone is toxic? stay under tower and don’t help the feeders, Feed to end the game fast, try to prevent them from feeding, give more advice or more pings to help, not gank for them, not support them and their engages

4.What advice do you have for toxic people?

  1. To borrow a phrase: I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.
  2. It depends on the situation. Usually I just try my best to simply ignore it and just play the game (I actually rarely mute people, as I find it easy enough to just not pay attention to chat, but I understand others feeling the need to mute). If I respond, or feel the need to say something, I try my damnedest make sure I'm not lashing out when I do so. At best lashing out is going to accomplish nothing; at worst it's going to get me in trouble.
  3. I try my best to just play the game. If things are obviously a massive waste of time because we're getting blow away, I may not play my hardest, but I'll keep playing. I just try to find something to focus on. My own mechanical play, last hitting, positioning in team fights, etc. If no one else is taking the game seriously, I try to remind myself it's just a game, and try to not take it seriously either. I hate to say it, some of the most fun games I've played were ones where it was obvious the other 4 people on my team just wanted to mess around.
  4. There's so much that can be said, but ultimately you are responsible for your actions and choices, in game and in life. You can choose to be part of the problem, or part of the solution.
Astôlfo3/17/2016, 7:22:06 PM1 votes

Uh...

  1. Toxic players being punished is essentially like prison, as it should be. You serve your time/punishment. But, you're still not reformed instantly just because you did your sentence. You have to actually do good for it to be considered reform. With Riot's case, 3 months is the time it takes to drop down a tier as it's fairly long, and it'll deter people unless they want the next punishment. With the Hextech thing, there is no specific time, and it requires you to actually behave. A surprise, isn't it? Gee.
  2. "The weight of punishments is unhealthy and stressful and creates resistance for players to be able to improve" Hmm, I feel like I could say the same for the toxic players to the others around them. The toxic players are unhealthy, cause stress, and cause others to get upset and become toxic potentially. Sooo...
  3. "Why is toxic behaviour acknowledged so much more than positive behaviour?" Because you're expected to always be positive, or at least give basic courtesy. You're expected to not be toxic. Therefore, being toxic is the exception, not being positive. lol
  4. "tens of thousands of players ARE toxic and when they are banned many just create new accounts." And I'm sure they'll have fun getting banned again once the system catches them again.
  5. "There has to be a more positive way to give people personal help with their anger issues and maybe even hook them up with local mental health care providers or government sponsored aid." Or, they could have just worked on it themselves, and not expect others to baby them to it.
  6. "I feel like, similar to the method of incarcerating addicts, League of Legends treats people with anger issues like they should be outcast from society and like they aren't wanted or useful in any way" No one wants toxic players. So yes, they are outcast, as they should be.
  7. "I happen to be able to type 100 wpm and 14000 characters so I am WAY MORE at risk for appearing to be toxic than most people." Uh, how is that relevant at all? You could type 1 message, you could type 1 million. If you're not toxic, none of them will still be a problem.
  8. "It makes me feel like League doesn't actually care about the players that need help." Why would they? The system they have handles it perfectly fine.
  9. "Instead I get penalties like the constant fear that I'm going to be banned forever for something I said to try and help another player better understand team fight mechanics or item build paths. " Uh, no, you would not be banned for something like that. You would be banned for being toxic while trying to "help", if anything.
  10. "I know its mean. I know I shouldn't do it anymore. But does riot care if I learned my lesson? No. I'm a bad person for the rest of the year now. A criminal in their eyes, to be watched and closely monitored for potentially "ruining the experience of the League community."" And you still chose to be toxic anyways. So what's your point? Do you even have one? No, you don't.
  11. "Why doesn't good behaviour counteract bad behaviour records?" Because you're expected to be on good behavior all the time, and you're expected to never be on bad behavior?
  12. "I know in game that if I compliment people 10 times, and then tell the jungler he went in too early once, and then later, ask him not to die so much, I get raged at for having something to say about every little mistake and he asks the team to report me." And that would be a false report so it would mean nothing. Your argument is irrelevant.
  13. "Please tell me that riot is above these values and that they truly want League of Legends to be a community FOR EVERYONE." Why would it allow toxic players to thrive? They get exterminated, as they deserve to be.
  14. "They say only .5% of their player base ever gets temporarily banned. But that is approximately 125,000 people. So what? We're all just the scum of the League community now?" Not necessarily scum, but one of the few toxic enough to be banned. So yes, those who get banned are worth less, if anything at all.
  15. "I would LOVE if they could actually help us become better people actively and not just with 2 pages of the "Summoner's Code" and "How to improve your behaviour"." Or, or, you could just do that yourself and not expect some mega-company to baby you through it.
  16. "If there are really such a low percentage of players that get banned then surely you can afford to do something to interview them and get them the personal help they need or decide if they are actually horrible people with no conscience who deserve to have their accounts banned permanently." No, because those people should have taken said help themselves before they got to a permaban. The system works fine, and therefore, those who get permas deserved it.
  17. "Punishment is rarely more effective than conditional forgiveness and personal attention." Punishment is also a lot quicker and easier. No need to waste time/money/effort on others.
  18. "Consider having some type of local search plugin that will refer people to local mental health agencies or government sponsored anger management programs." Or, those toxic players could just use Google and find said sites themselves and help themselves.
ShaftyMegee3/18/2016, 2:25:57 AM1 votes

Riot is In this business for money, and if so!e toxic players are making people quit then that means less money.... So they remove the problem (or try to cus people usually make new accounts as you stated). But what the actual fuck? Your post makes people seem like they are entitled to shit even though they don't deserve it. I cannot sympathize with people who don't learn from mistakes... Especially since riot gives so many chances.

Riot isn't in this business to help people... Why the fuck would riot reccomend people to a psych center? That would make them MORE ANGRY. Companies don't live on love and good wishes, they thrive through money... And if something is in the way of that money they remove them

Also what is with your poll? Are you trying to get some sort of sympathy?

Jonxx3/18/2016, 12:00:56 PM1 votes

Bad Poll. Can't possibly say if you're toxic or not without seeing you in one of games where your team failed miserably.