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Game accountability / Parental control. A different type of player behavior than you may think

Lusosou·2/18/2019, 6:17:12 AM·2 votes·3,807 views

A customer service tech suggested I post this idea here for the development team to consider:

Not that long ago on Reddit a player was talking about his addiction to playing this game. It cost him relationships, work, health, etc. Although I am not that far down that road as he is, I can see some real merits to voluntary player restriction. Right now the best you can do for accountability (that I know of) is to let someone close to you monitor your usage or even allow them to control your password.

Can we add an optional control that would provide playtime limitation? It could limit the number of games played in a day, or week? Or the amount of time limited (last game must be started within X minutes of the first game)?

I think there are numerous people who would appreciate the accountability. I think parents would appreciate being able to conveniently limit the amount of time their kids play. And I think that--with the rise of gaming addiction cases globally--Riot would be prudently protecting themselves by offering this option...similar to how every alcohol ad says "please drink responsibly." Thoughts?

11 Comments

Awf Meta2/18/2019, 11:17:27 AM2 votes

I liked Square Enixs approach. They put in a timer that said something like "You've been playing for 2 hours. We suggest taking a break."

GatekeeperTDS2/18/2019, 12:47:49 PM2 votes

This is not Riot's problem. I know self-control can be hard, but this is a slippery slope argument. They already have those lines in the loading screen that say something like "Take a break if you're tilted."

Ultimately they're running a business here and encouraging people to take breaks or giving them in-game ways to voluntarily stop playing is not conducive to the business model that requires people to play to spend money.

R107 Games2/18/2019, 6:24:10 AM1 votes

{quoted}

Right now the best you can do for accountability (that I know of) is to let someone close to you monitor your usage or even allow them to control your password.

That's account sharing and it's against the rules.

Can we add an optional control that would provide playtime limitation? It could limit the number of games played in a day, or week? Or the amount of time limited (last game must be started within X minutes of the first game)?

That would depend on if the person in question is willing to limit their play time consciously. And that's probably not going to happen if their addicted.

I think parents would appreciate being able to conveniently limit the amount of time their kids play.

The game is rated 13+; i don't think any kids are playing or should.

And I think that--with the rise of gaming addiction cases globally--Riot would be prudently protecting themselves by offering this option...similar to how every alcohol ad says "please drink responsibly." Thoughts?

Like i mentioned, if they are addicted then there's an extremely small chance they'd willingly limit their play time

Shiroe Okazaki2/18/2019, 7:35:30 AM1 votes

If a kid wants to play the game i dont think they should be limited. i know of strict parents who hardly allow any free time after school. Kids need that time for their own selves instead of hard studying. If their failing any classes then i can see restrictions. But if they wanna stay up late thats part of being a kid. let them have their fun

ChaosReyn2/18/2019, 11:48:24 AM1 votes

When World of Warcraft first came out, I knew more than a couple of people we all later referred to as "WoW Junkies." Guys that literally would sit in their room for * multiple full days* at a time, lose jobs, forgo basic humanities, basically sacrifice everything short of their rent and internet as long as they could play the game. I'd imagine in terms of MOBAs instead of RPGs, this game would be one of the most likely candidates for that form of behavior, especially for players with deep investments.

However, just like with the WoW junkies, there are really only two factors that can limit an addict's ability to play: internet usage caps (or the disconnection of their internet) or voluntary control of themselves. Family is not going to control things for them, nor should they have to if they recognize their importance over a game. It's obviously different with children, but that's already up to the parents, and honestly a completely different topic...I could probably write a book on teenage rebellion, and how it relates to gaming, but everyone who remotely knows the feeling knows how those talks between parent and child go. So I'm just going to skip over that.

In the case of an adult wanting someone else to control their life for them...part of being an adult is the responsibility of making your own decisions. Addiction is a problem, yes...but if you can already recognize yourself as an addict, would it not be simpler to ask someone to not let you play altogether? First of all, it's much easier in cases such as this one to remove it than it is to limit it: once they're online, people's chances of removing an addict without incident (in short, a volatile screaming match) aren't very high. It'll be hard enough for family members to place any limit at all, so if they do, they should go with the big one, and the addict, particularly if they know they're an addict, will have less volatile mood swings without the temptation even existing than they would with "Just one more game!"

Lastly, I will point out that most routers can be used to effectively limit one's time on the internet. Most if not all routers can be set up to restrict certain functionalities. This method should work on any of them...but as far as its usefulness for restrictions on an addict, this is not going to be an effective method: an addict would simply un-restrict everything.

lund1232/19/2019, 5:24:31 PM1 votes

Riot doesnt give a fuck about you. People have been asking for this function or the ability to opt out of chat for over 7 years.

They care only about making money and banning people to then have them make more money on new accounts.