Boards›Player Behavior

A complex look on the behavior system

msk51·3/23/2017, 2:49:57 AM·4 votes·441 views

As much as I love league, I can't deny the fact that league is filled with toxic players. While the behavior and report system is designed to help solve the issue, I think we can all agree that it isn't working. But rather than the mechanics or the details of the report system being the issue, I personally think it's the mindset.

The problem goes back to a debate revolving around criminals and prisons in real life. In real life, there is a constant debate over what to do with criminals in prison. Are we supposed to uphold rehabilitation (The idea of teaching and helping these criminals so that when they return to society they can live a crime free life) or are we supposed to uphold retribution (The idea that criminals were fully aware of their decisions and therefore should be punished in prison).

Believe it or not, this debate applies to League. Should Riot uphold rehabilitation or retribution when it comes to reported toxic players? Riot made the choice to go with rehabilitation, as mentioned in an "Ask Riot". Riot stated in "Ask Riot", "We believe in a real shot at reform for unsportsmanlike players" This is where the down fall is for the current report system.

I'm not going to share my opinions on rehabilitation or retribution for criminals, but in League rehabilitation simply doesn't work. Why? Because Riot cannot rehabilitate toxic players in any meaningful way. Rehabilitation requires compassion and a full grasp of the situation. It also includes educating those who need to be educated, comforting those who need to be comforted, and helping those who need help, whether it be financial, physical or other types of help. Again, Riot cannot do this.

In order to successfully rehabilitate toxic players, Riot would need to develop a team of individuals to sit down with these toxic players and help them. For example, a toxic player who is toxic because he truly doesn't realize the impact he is having on other players needs to be educated. But what about the player who is toxic because his home is always filled with fighting or abuse? Educating that toxic player would do nothing to help.

Riot set out to do the impossible, they are trying to rehabilitate toxic players without any of the tools needed to do so. Rehabilitating toxic players goes far beyond a one size fits all program that delivers punishments over a computer screen. I admire Riot for setting a goal of truly fixing the issue at it's core, and not just simply removing these toxic players. It's is an honorable goal for sure. But Riot simply cannot do this. They lack the tools to properly rehabilitate players and quite frankly, will never be able to obtain these tools. Unless Riot sits down with every toxic player to fully understand the players situation and the proper way to go about rehabilitation, Riot will never be able to meet their goal.

If you guys want I can share my thoughts on how to solve the issue of toxic players, it'll be a long post though so I didn't want to combine the two. :D

Thanks for reading, gl, hf and hope to see ya on the rift!

TLDR - Sorry, but it's pretty hard to give a short summary of all that was said above.... :(

15 Comments

Kei1433/23/2017, 1:38:29 PM3 votes

I think it's a pity that the reform tools are lacking within the current system.

  • Lack of self mute function
  • Reform cards not letting you know what really isn't acceptable (I've seen people think that racist hate speech is perfectly fine)
  • No visibility in how their behavior is doing
  • No visibility that the system is working, thus others think they can get away with stupid sh!t

While I understand Riot's stance to feature that 100% of the population can use (new honor system), it really doesn't help toxicity. The sportsmanlike players will take full advantage of it (which is a good thing), while the toxics are left out dry with no way to cope with themselves.

I'm not even going to go into the ones that have medical / mental health issues.

Chønklord3/23/2017, 3:16:33 AM2 votes

It's rehabilitation but on a sliding scale with a strike-out system, so it's a bit of both. There's nothing wrong with the system, if anything it needs to be a bit more stricter in how it goes about punishing chat toxicity and griefing.

Lugg3/23/2017, 4:19:16 PM1 votes

Player behavior is so bad that I report people in probably 75% of my games. It's getting to the point that the game isn't fun anymore.

EvilDustMan3/23/2017, 11:05:06 PM1 votes

I think you are mistaken. It's not an in depth rehabilitation process. That requires much much more hands on work then is reasonable for a large video game.

Instead, it's a ban system. You are responsible for your own rehabilitation. Riot isn't try to remold toxic players, they are giving toxic players a choice 'shape up or fuck off'.