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Why I've stopped playing LOL: A story of getting yelled at repeatedly.

Neru the Hollow·4/10/2017, 12:18:46 PM·17 votes·4,607 views

First off, I really like this game. I've been playing intermittently for years, but I rarely play for more than a couple of hours and rarely for more than a day or two a week. I enjoy it and I am a fairly competent player with a few characters, but I have no desire to go pro and I recognize that my skill level being what it is, I should steer clear of ranked games. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped me from experiencing the rage of strangers asking me to uninstall. I've experienced it often. Even when we win. Even when we're playing a great game. Sometimes, even before the game begins. Once I wanted to play Twisted Fate.
He seemed cool and kinda reminded me of Gambit who is awesome so I figured, hey, I'll go and try him out. I looked up his skills, googled a workable build, I joined a game, and picked twisted fate. Then everyone lost their minds! See, they had decided that they needed me to jungle. Something I'd never done before and honestly, something that I'm not sure I could even do well, considering that I have not even reached level 30. "OMG!!!! GG! GG EVERYONE! OMG JG TW!! F@#ing NOOOOB!"

Sweet.

I don't remember if we won or lost, but I do remember I stopped playing for a while. This was yet another time in which experienced players unloaded on me for not knowing enough about team comp, or not seeing the lantern they dropped, or not knowing that my character had some combo with another player, or simply because they wanted me to take a different lane. I never pick lanes. I just end up where no one wants to go. I didn't quit out of frustration with the game's difficulties. I fair well (if not amazingly) in games overall. I quit because it's no fun to be yelled at for an hour by some random internet person.

But my brothers love the game. They play ranked and have those nice fancy borders around their characters on the load screen. And every so often, they sell me on the idea that the community has much improved since the last time I played. So I dust off my League and I go back to the Rift. I decided to only play solo against bots, in an attempt to avoid getting in people's way while I find my bearings again. I was doing pretty well playing intermediate so I talked to my brother and decided to play coop vs ai. It went well and so I started playing coop without him. I haven't lost a game, but I'm quitting anyway. Here's why:

Last night, I was playing Aatrox. He was free to play champion and I've always wanted to try him so I once again, joined a coop vs ai game and picked him. I am super rusty. My mechanics, my timing, it's all terrible. And there have been many changes. New characters, new items, I'm pretty sure the jungle is different and Aatrox is different.

The game starts and two people had called jungle and were debating how that was going to work. I went bot and the others took their places, but nobody went mid. And that is how it started.

"OMG! Who's mid!" Who's mid?"

"Aatrox, go mid."

"Alright," and I go mid.

Same guy starts pinging me to help him jungle. He's got a second person right next to him but insists that it needs to be me. The game was beginning so I just started farming gold in the mid lane."

"OMG!" "Noobs!" "This whole team is noobs!"

"Jesus dude!. Chill. We're playing bots!" I said.

Of course we are noobs. We're in training mode. This is where us noobs go to stop being noobs. It's literally the only place where I can play that still earns me points and gets out of the way of people looking to go pro.

We won. I got 10 assists and 3 kills (maybe it was two? I forget). Not great, but I was a net positive. When we won, it didn't feel like a win. It felt like a douchebag had been harassing me for an hour.
I took to the forums to see if my experience was out of the norm and of course, I found that it wasn't. But I noticed some interesting things about the conversation.

  1. There is a constant argument that most of the problems result from well intentioned people trying to help and having butt hurt noobs slap their hand away and throw a tantrum.

I've definitely seen this. It is a real thing. But I don't think it tells the whole story. Most of the people that have been abusive in game, at least in my experience, have been people who were doing poorly in the game and passed blame on the closest other player. Put in another way: I've never had a problem with great players who I've always found rather helpful. The people doing the yelling tend to be intermediate players having a bad game or terrible players blaming others for their shortcomings.

I am sure most players have had a conversation that goes something like this:

"YOU JUST WATCHED ME DIE!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU DIVE TOO?!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU R?!!!"

"Ummm... because it was 2v5 and I'm at quarter health, three levels behind, not yet level 6 and the rest of my spells are on cool down? I don't think you should've gone in."

  1. There is great debate as to whether Riot is doing enough to create a good environment for players. Some think that they are and that a combination of the competitive nature of the game, the age differences of the players, and anonymity make it pretty much impossible to fix this problem. Others feel like a more aggressive hand would yield results. Strangely, a lot of people asking for a more aggressive hand were actually asking bad players to be punished for being bad.

I understand. If someone is a terrible player, they might be trolling deliberately. Punishing trolls sound reasonable. Of course, they might also be children or, for a myriad of legitimate reasons (mental or physical disabilities for instance), just bad players that just like playing anyway. Therein lies the problem with punishing people for playing poorly. Even AFK has legitimate reasons behind it. (Faulty gear, for instance) I don't think punishing players for being bad is a sensible strategy for making the community less toxic. If a player is consistently trolling in a ranked games, that's one thing. If a player is just bad at the game but playing unranked or coop vs ai, then they're just bad at the game. It is, after all, a game.

I do, however, think Riot could be doing more to help alleviate the situation. But I don't like complaining without trying to help find a solution, so here's a few ideas:

  1. A kiddy pool with a strict no grownups policy. (Low-level Unranked?) There needs to be an entry level to this game. If my brothers hadn't eased me in, I would've stopped playing much sooner. I think a large part of the toxic environment is due to the fact that there is an unrealistic expectation of commitment that permeates through the community. People who just want to play need a space to play each other. The unranked matches should be that place, but they're equally filled with people who expect you to have solid strategic foundations and know most characters (and who will yell at you if you don't). So, how about a place where people above a certain level or rank can't go in. Or maybe they can, but the chat is disabled for everyone. Or maybe the punishment for hostile behavior is more severely enforced.

Or maybe an Anything goes mode where people pick their characters blindly and there is no chat box. That way, strategy is discouraged. I don't know.

  1. An intermediate, guided training area (like the first tutorial) focused on learning different roles and strategies. (Playing mid, playing bot, jungling, Building adc, building support, warding, positioning, poking, ganks, map awareness, etc...) (Strategy Workshop?)

This would be a way out of the kiddy pool. Maybe you'd have to successfully finish this tutorial before jumping out of the low level unranked games, I don't know. That way, people playing the game more seriously don't have to worry about "noobs" and new and/or more casual players don't have to content with unrealistic expectations. Or maybe it's just highly recommended.

Anyway, theses are my thoughts. Hopefully, they help steer this community in a more positive direction.

57 Comments

HalcyonDweller4/10/2017, 8:04:00 PM4 votes

There is goal and then there is reality. This is a deep issue, with a lot of complicated tuning levers. The unfortunate reality is that it is very difficult to control this. The systems in place work fairly well, but they don't catch enough toxic players and so you get stuff like what you've seen.

Here's my take on the issue:

Things Riot can do (or already does): Police toxic players, restrict chat for toxic players, reward players for being positive.

  • Policing players and banning accounts provides temporary relief by getting the player out of the community for a period of time. But this doesn't help very well because they can just create a new account and start being toxic all over again.

  • Restricting chat helps by keeping toxic players from harassing you in the first place, but this isn't a perfect solution because it only catches them after the act, preventing future offenses for a period of time.

  • Rewarding positive behavior helps because you can't be positive and toxic at the same time. This is a strategy from behavioral psychology, where you reinforce a behavior that cannot coexist with the behavior you want to get rid of (for example raging vs encouraging). Riot has done some of this, but they really ought to try to implement it further (possibly with key fragment or chest rewards).

Things players can do: Ignore toxic behavior (also reward positive behavior), mute toxic players, report toxic players.

  • Ignoring toxic players is an incomplete solution, you won't improve their behavior because in games before or after your game that player will get reactions from others and thus get reinforcement in their toxic behavior.

  • If you want to try to make a dent in this you could try rewarding positive behaviors while ignoring the toxic ones, similar to my last bullet point under Things Riot can do. By saying things that make the player feel valued and respected when they do the right thing, or by outlining how their positive (or even neutral actions) have helped progress the game you may help them to see that they can have more fun or feel more valued if they act less toxic. I've tried this and found sporadic success. It all depends on how tilted everyone was to begin with, and on how much of your own emotions you can filter out of the discussion. Be prepared to mute them if it doesn't work, because then it's not worth your time or worth suffering to interact with them further.

  • Muting toxic players will allow you to enjoy the rest of your game without seeing harassment from the offending players. This is the most impactful solution for you, because it provides immediate relief, as well as removing the temptation of responding just to have them respond with more toxicity.

  • Reporting toxic players will help remove them from the system, but not permanently. In some cases, the toxic player is someone who just needs a break from the game, time to themself to think on what they've done and realize that a change is needed. But let's not kid ourselves, in a lot of cases they are deeply ingrained in their toxicity and just start up again when their ban is lifted or when they get onto an alternate/new account.

Where does that leave us?

The system is still imperfect and I doubt that it will fix things quickly. Behaviors and habits are hard to break, and with such a large system of players, games and social interaction it is going to take a while before things are solved. Even if Riot took drastic measures they would face other problems such as backlash, false flag punishments, etc.

The most accessible solution for players like you and I is /mute because if you can't perceive what they say, they can't hurt you. Riot has provided a sufficient system for us to communicate with our teammates by pings instead of interacting in chat. What I've seen a lot of people do is just use voice chat with friends, /mute all in chat, and focus on the game instead of random players in chat.

If you want to try improve another player, don't try to directly address them when they behave poorly. It is practically never worthwhile. Instead try waiting for them to do something good or even just not be toxic for a while, then compliment them for it and point out how it was helpful. Remember that if they respond with more toxicity then it's a lost cause and you should mute them and get on with your game.

Boy would I like for Riot to try this:

  • Reward positive behavior more.

  • Preemptively identify toxic chat before it is entered into the chat box and simply not show the other players what the toxic player said. It could even be entered so that the toxic player thinks it was still said. This would create uncertainty and the perception of being ignored.

  • Implement short-term bans to allow players time to cool off if they are tilted. (Such as a 1-day ban).

  • Auto-correct toxic things in chat such as "ez" into something funny so everyone can laugh about it. (Overwatch did this and it seemed to meet with success).

aZ3R0n4/10/2017, 2:17:55 PM3 votes

I like your suggestions, and I agree that there needs to be more than what's currently available as far as game modes go.

I personally don't have the patience to play ranked (only 3 matches so far this season), and so Unranked Draft was usually my go to game mode. I got tired of that because of trolls and people simply not caring or wanting to try at all because "it's just norms" and then wasting 20 to 50 minutes of my life, so I moved on to ARAM. It's slightly more fun and relaxing to play a faster paced game mode where you automatically gain gold and experience at an increased rate, and I also enjoy the challenge of adapting a champion's build to overcome random teams.

To get back to your point, I agree wholeheartedly. A mute feature or chat filter is not an excuse for players to flame others and behave poorly. Having a mute feature and report system available does not need we need to "suck it up" or "grow a pair" and just deal with the abuse. You are 100% right that Riot needs to work harder to promote a community that is friendly, helpful, and welcoming. Instead, League of Legends is notorious across the internet for having one of the most toxic player communities among all online multiplayer games.

I strongly agree that having more game modes or restricting certain game modes to having player accounts of only certain levels would help create a friendlier atmosphere to players of different skill levels and intentions (i.e. players who want a seriously competitive unranked match to just something to kill a half hour and have fun). Unfortunately, doing so would make for longer queue times, and these tend to be quite long already for players of certain ranks. It would also limit a player's ability to group with their friends (like if a Diamond 1 wants to play with their level 5 friend who is very new to the game), causing further strain on the Riot developers and also the player community.

I'm not trying to make excuses; I agree with you 100% and Riot DOES need to work harder to promote the player community that you and I seek. I do believe that Riot wants this kind of player community as well, but the problem is getting there. We only see things from our side, which is that we need to log into League of Legends simply expecting to run into trolls, flamers, and outright unpleasant players. However, with constant communication perhaps we can help the devs to reach some kind of middle ground, and that's exactly what these forums are here for.

Anyway, tl;dr I agree and hope that Riot can somehow implement other game modes to promote a friendlier atmosphere for players of all intentions and playstyles.

ThePikol4/10/2017, 12:30:01 PM3 votes

Sorry, but I didn't read whole, just some parts, so correct me if I say something wrong. You got flamed and want to stop playing because of it? Why care so much what other say? If LoL gives you joy play it, if not don't, it's a game after all. Use the magic command "/mute all". They don't say anything valuable anyway. Belive me. You can communicate only with pings in LoL. I could somehow understand you would be mad after a losing streak in ranked, but you play vs AI or normals as you are not 30lvl yet. Of course you don't know every champ, mechanics etc. You have to learn that. Don't worry

Otherworldz4/10/2017, 1:03:28 PM2 votes

Mute everyone

Just enjoy the game. You'll find when you type less and play off instinct and use pings, it will actually help you play better.

iIlaoi4/10/2017, 3:58:45 PM2 votes

/mute all

RacoonHunter4/10/2017, 8:41:21 PM2 votes

I actually agree with this, especially the part about riot is not doing enough to cull the toxicity, especially in ranked.

Story: I'm actually off today for the first time in 11 days (really good at my job being a delivery driver) so I figure why not do some ranked games..

game one: Jungler intentionally feeds, calls me (cait) a noob and never ganks.. loss game two: Support (thresh) calls me a "fuing n i **" and then proceeds to intentionally feed, grief and cause us to lose. game three: ww jungle decides to intentionally feed the enemy lee/akali mid.. then calls bot lane a "fuking cancerous fa**t"

in every game I reported those players along with the enemy team who throughout the whole game had at least 2 people say ggez fts ners and yet, here I am going into game 4 after a break to try and get back up to my promos into silver 3, and I already have someone on my team telling me I'm a "fuking trash bronzie"

but you know, for how much riot claims they have a 0 policy on hate speech, intentional feeders, and negative players, they sure don't do a god damn thing when people legitimately report toxic behavior in ranked..

don't get me started on how bad normals are these days.. "talyiah you're a piece of ni ***er trash" --Actual thing said to me last night in a game and yet these players are STILL playing this game.

yesnobanana4/10/2017, 12:50:01 PM2 votes

WAIT

how are you playing for years and not lvl 30? [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

Micbran4/11/2017, 2:11:34 AM1 votes

/muteall

Krigjer4/11/2017, 10:35:31 AM1 votes

I quit (uninstalled) multiple times while leveling and being a fresh 30 because people were so toxic.

I've grown a thick skin since then and straight up have a 'Don't care whatsoever' attitude, but yeah.

Starcraft243ver4/10/2017, 12:26:33 PM1 votes

/mute all during the firsts seconds of the game and you might enjoy it.

I personally dont care if someone yell at me the whole game, because i just dont bother, i'm even a bit happy since it means there is a high chance i can get him banned at the end of the game.

But for people who can't stand it or are bothered, you can still just /mute annoying people.

Xosra4/11/2017, 12:56:57 PM1 votes

Really the solution is simple if you gonna have a game where team is harassing you just /mute all problem solved. There are too many ppl in this world and on this game to police every single one of them for being salty jerk at times. Mute all or just the one bothering you and then report after.

DonnieDarkin4/10/2017, 5:35:02 PM1 votes

There is literally no reason to type to anyone when playing bots. Just do what you want to do.

Leonerdo4/10/2017, 9:48:24 PM1 votes

Those are decent suggestions, but Co-op vs. AI is already the "kiddy pool" of League. And there's already plenty of resources for learning the game, aside from the tutorial. There's Practice Tool for learning/practicing mechanics. There are tons of written guides, videos, and streamers on the internet that can teach you about how to lane, how to play a specific champion (including builds), how to ward, jungle pathing, etc. And for anything more advanced, like strategy and tactics, i.e. postitioning, teamfighting, map awareness, ganking, etc - for that stuff it's best to just play the game, or watch someone else and ask why they do things.

Davaken4/10/2017, 10:06:54 PM1 votes

I've always found people to be a lot more toxic on the first couple of levels. Insults like "noob" is thrown around in nearly every game (even though most people are noobs, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that).

I've also found the term "noob champ" used A LOT until a little over level 30. This insult makes absolutely no sense and should never be taken seriously. Every champion in the game has mechanics to be mastered, some skill floors are just lower than others.

I suggest keep playing. I'm not saying people will stop being toxic once you're over level 30, but it will definitely get better. People also tend to forget the funny, awesome and friendly teammates, and only focus on the flamers, feeders, leavers and so on.

I suggest keep trying to play the game (since you mentioned that you like it). I never flame people unless they are completely out of reach and acting like children, where I just tell them to grow up and mute them. Usually, however I try to calm them down and try to make them play their best. I have people on my friends list right now who originally flamed me, the first time I met them.

Whatever you do, good luck! And remember, it's all about having fun.

Epicanian4/11/2017, 12:17:25 AM1 votes

every single time i ever see a post like this.

/ m u t e

a l l

or just find some friends to play with

TheOGAfksorry4/11/2017, 12:38:09 AM1 votes

I've only been playing for a few years and the cancer is real and will probably always be there in the community. People think they are the best at the game and flame, people know they suck and troll.... Ill play 2-5 games in a day and usually spend more than half the games arguing about situations like why i refuse to go in on a 2v4 in the enemy jungle with no vision up. The other day i had someone that was 1/12 (adc) while i was 1/4 (support) yell at me. I stuck to the adc (vayne) as well as i could but she wanted to be super aggressive while the enemy had heals while i was support Trundle. Regardless of who's fault it was the player refused to change strategy from running head into battle while behind. League isn't a game that you are going to enjoy every round. I think that is what makes the games that go the way they are supposed to that much better.

As for setting up a system, you got to remember that sometimes you are the only solo queue in a premade game and if 4 players are against you at the end of the game for trying to get you banned, a weak system will leave a lot of players out of game because of clans and group efforts to screw people.

They just need to leave their special game modes open that way serious summoner's rift players can have less casual scrubs messing up. If a newb is struggling and is willing to listen to suggestion things usually work out in a game, but some jack asses like to think its URF all the time and can't count past 6 in order to keep a record of CD'd in their heads.

Protoform X4/11/2017, 1:39:40 AM1 votes

I haven't been able to play much recently, but if you'd ever like to queue up with at least one person who will 100% not rage at you or anyone else in any game mode, feel free to add me in-game.