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(AFK/Leaving Games) Earlier Today I Had Gotten Something Interesting from Riot...

hatdancingninja·2/12/2016, 10:48:42 PM·2 votes·575 views

For a little bit of context, I was playing with 5 of my friends in a 5v5 Summoner's Rift last night and lost connection due to our ISP not properly connecting to my router for a good 30 minutes. We had been stomping the other guys pretty hard, so it wasn't a game I would purposely leave on. I had tried everything I could with the little knowledge I had to get the internet working (i.e. restarting router and waiting).

Fast forward to this early afternoon, I log on and find a notice/agreement contract forcing me to sign before I played. The wording was basically: "Promise you will never quit/AFK from a game again." Of course, if I wanted to play, I would need to sign it. However, I believe this is not the direction Riot should be taking with this AFK/Leaving problem. Had I actually left the game with no intent of coming back, this would make me feel guilty of my actions, but rather, this is making me angry and disturbed. If my internet that has been relatively stable for the past couple years decides to sever the connection, how am I supposed to predict when it will stop working, assuming on average it has been working? Obviously, one would solve the problem with the ISP directly, but if I were to continue supporting Riot on my account, which I may add is maybe around 4-5 years old, what is my assurance if the next unpredictable disconnect due to the ISP's failure that I would be able to continue playing on this account with my champions, runes, and skins?

All and all, I am merely stating a concern. While I would like for a system that would allow for players to jump into games and receive benefits for winning/participating, I understand that it requires logistics of staff workers and other resources. However, I do not like being held accountable over scenarios that are hard to predict and control on my end.

P.S. My internet has been recently having connection problems in the middle of the night (11pm-1am CST). This is uncommon for my ISP to fail as such, but it has recently. Also, if there is an explanation for why I received a contract after the login (if I hit a certain number of disconnected games), that would be nice.

TL;DR: This "new" (idk when it first popped up for people; havent played much until recently) initiative to make the players feel responsible for leaving games doesn't work well with people with sporadic internet problems with reputable internet service.

Edit: sentence stuff/restructuring (x2)

7 Comments

ThePartyLeader2/12/2016, 10:51:45 PM2 votes

Either they punish you for what happened to you or they can't punish ornery people who purposefully do it.

FrankerX2/12/2016, 11:13:40 PM1 votes

{quoted}

TL;DR: This "new" (idk when it first popped up for people; havent played much until recently) initiative to make the players feel responsible for leaving games doesn't work well with people with sporadic internet problems with reputable internet service.

too bad either fix your internet connections or dont play. or eat the leavebuster.

Troll Armada2/13/2016, 3:23:19 AM1 votes

that's not that interesting dude.

...however, what is interesting are these super creepy survey's lyte sent out to toxic players:

‘League of Legends’ Players Given Creepy Mental Health Surveys over Inappropriate Names

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/10/16/banned-league-of-legends-players-given-creepy-mental-health-surveys/

from what I understand, certain people are being committed to mental institutions after raging in game.

Riot Games Responds to Concern over ‘League of Legends’ Player Surveys

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/10/20/riot-games-responds-to-concern-over-league-of-legends-player-surveys/

ReadyxPlayerxOne2/13/2016, 5:38:35 AM1 votes

I find it extremely wrong to **force **anyone to agree to and sign something. It's not a valid contract, it doesn't effectively change behavior, it serves absolutely no purpose but to piss people off and mislead them into thinking the effectiveness of the behavioral program is in doubt.

hatdancingninja2/13/2016, 6:52:09 PM1 votes

that's not that interesting dude.

"This is your 11 o'clock news reporting: whatever seems interesting to one person may not seem interesting to another person."

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

While the general consensus in this thread at the time told me to never play LoL again until my internet was 100% reliable (which is downright laughable in certain parts of the United States), I played anyway with the same group of friends I always have. I had no problems whatsoever, but this doesn't mean that I would jump into a ranked game any time soon out of courtesy. I don't believe in making people's lives miserable more than what it already is in ranked.

Some forum posters here are missing the point. How many LoL players continue to play this game even though they've had either consistent or sporadic connection problems? In my time playing this game, I've run into many players who would connect into a game late, disconnect in-game, and never connect.

If those players want to play this game, they will continue playing this game!

They will come into a game assuming their connection will perfectly fine in the first game and the next until it happens to them. Think of it as an "I'm special and nothing bad will ever happen to me" concept (which I do have atm, considering my ISP has been reliable in 2015).

This contract is a band-aid patch for this problem, and I hope eventually Riot rolls out a more suitable solution in non-ranked games. It could be solutions such as...

1. Temporary AI stand-in to make it seem like a 4.5v5 match (general AI problems will apply) 2. An increase in champion power for the undermanned team (i.e. increase in stats, decreased death timers; wouldn't be helpful against CC-heavy teams) 3. A team-assist program to bring in willing players into an undermanned match for IP while removing the disconnected player from the match permanently

Either way, this problem won't go away until the ISPs decide to create an infallible connection for their customers or Riot comes up with something fun so the undermanned team can still have the fighting chance they had hoped for in Champion Select.

AJStarhiker2/13/2016, 8:44:48 PM1 votes

That notice has been around for... Maybe a year, now? It's currently the standard popup for the first time someone leaves a game. Most of us agree it's poorly worded, but the intent is to make sure players know leaving is bad.

If you don't intentionally quit, and don't play if you know there is likely to be an interruption, you don't have to worry about anything.