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The real reason league is toxic. and why no amount of carrot and stick will fix it

scazzman·5/29/2016, 4:29:32 AM·4 votes·1,231 views

League is split into several camps. and riot is only acknowledging a few of them. and some are more toxic than others. but it all stems from the fact they dislike each other and/or dont feel heard. and riot refuses to deal with them. and just throws out bans when people get enough valid reports

The "back in my day" crowd : season 1/2 vets mostly adults many of whom grew up in an age in gaming where flaming was considered ok as long as you werent shouting kys or racial slurs and even trolling was tolerated as long as you didnt do it too much. "see leeroy jenkins" and because of this fact. many loyal players have had to have one or more accounts permabanned due to the strike system when in the previous system probably wouldnt have even gotten a chat restriction simply because they are unable to adjust to new norms.

the safe spacers : people who believe anything negative or even simply not positive. should be simply eliminated. and shun reform in favor of zero tolerance policies strike systems. and witch hunts. sadly. riot agrees with them just not publicly

the tweenies: 12 year old preteens who honestly have no business playing a game for adults. grow up in an age where participation trophies are the norm. think its fun just to f*ck with people because of thier own insecurities and that intentionally ruining someone's free time is ok because "hey its a video game. these people need a life" even if they dont do it every game. theyre unpredictible. and if they dont troll often enough they might not even be punished

the competitors. everything is a competition. they dont play the game to lose. whether or not they're actually good is another story. are prone to raging due to trolls or even just bad players because in their mind its not thier skill holding them back. love the game very much but end up either being cast out or permabanned due to the inability to stop themselves from typing

the cultists : people who accept anything riot says as gospel. regardless of whether they actually agree with it personally.

35 Comments

proud and bronze5/29/2016, 6:16:52 AM6 votes

the toxicity is largely because the game itself is toxic.

snowballing. your allies directly control how strong your opponents are. this naturally creates resentment towards your allies when they are are not playing well. they are making your enemies into unstoppable gods who will eventually stomp you into the ground.

leaverbuster. you cant leave. no matter what. many games last over 40 mins and you are locked in with no way out. that means those times when the game is not fun and you are frustrated and upset, you cant just shut it off and take a break. you are stuck. you are forced to be in that terrible situation for the duration. i cant imagine a more toxic situation to be in.

riot has said toxicity is contagious and i believe it is true. and the toxicity of their own game spreads to the players every day.

GaleWinUnleashed5/29/2016, 6:38:20 AM5 votes

I don't seem to fit into any of those. I suppose I'm closest to the so-called "safe spacers" in that I have little to no sympathy for those that find themselves punished for their behavior. All you have to do to never ever be punished is not be an asshole to other human beings. It takes no effort whatsoever. Insults, raging, flaming, whatever; all of it is completely pointless and a waste of energy.

Dominick Destine5/29/2016, 5:02:26 AM2 votes

{quoted}

The "back in my day" crowd : season 1/2 vets mostly adults many of whom grew up in an age in gaming where flaming was considered ok as long as you werent shouting kys or racial slurs and even trolling was tolerated as long as you didnt do it too much.

This.

I remember SO many Wukong jokes when Lucian was announced...

the safe spacers : people who believe anything negative or even simply not positive. should be simply eliminated. and shun reform in favor of zero tolerance policies strike systems. and witch hunts. sadly. riot agrees with them just not publicly

Holy shit, this. Riot went from being "one of us (People who play video games)" to straight up leftists/feminists. What happened to the days when you'd queue up for solo and have a Rioter on your team join you in talking trash to the enemy team?

I remember being on the same team as that one Rioter that always picked Ionia Yi... and also playing with that one chick that hooked with that one Riot guy... uhh.... pudding? I don't remember... point is. recently whenever I have a Rioter on my team (rarely) they're always very quiet and almost seem like bots rather than people.

the competitors. everything is a competition. they dont play the game to lose. whether or not they're actually good is another story. are prone to raging due to trolls or even just bad players because in their mind its not thier skill holding them back. love the game very much but end up either being cast out or permabanned due to the inability to stop themselves from typing

This group was part of the first group mentioned.

Just that they were on the fringe.

Good post and good breakdown of groups.... except I would have referred to "the safe spacers' as tumblrinas and feminists.

I wish Riot stopped catering to the SJWs..

Rand0mH3r0X5/29/2016, 5:25:52 AM2 votes

I was ~ 12 playing the first iteration of Runescape. The number one thing I know about online gaming, don't take it serious. All games are a time and money dump. Despite this, I play a lot and spent a lot.

Flaming was never okay, there wasn't systems in place for detection or expulsion. A person would have to find their own way to avoid it.

There are some people who are so victim-personality that they segregate even among themselves. "Safe-space" is how I easily identify these people. I immediately leave them alone, because they are the anti-thesis of your typical white fboy. There is no reasoning with these people.

This game is not just for adults.

I play games to have fun. If someone wants to try to harass me, they're going to have a tough time. Typically, these people want to tell me everything they want me to do. Maybe that's trolling to have fun at their expense, but I've got to have something.

Sheeple are annoying to me. People who have no real input, opinion, and merely want to suckle. Like a ^this post. I have my own opinion and input. And there it is!

fuktihsgame5/29/2016, 7:40:21 PM1 votes

so i use a neutral word to describe you and you still perceive it as rude.. it seems like you have a a problem dude. if a neutral word is hurting your feeling man.

EMeta5/29/2016, 8:38:59 PM1 votes

Your title and comment don't seem to match. Yes, different players have different backgrounds. You laid those out pretty well. But players do change. Riot has put a lot of resources into this and has actually made players flame less. There are some pretty clear metrics backing this up. Most players who get warnings don't get them again. In my own experience, there are 95% fewer intentional feeders than 4 years ago, and about 2/3rds fewer raging flamers. Is it great yet? No. Is it a lot more fun because of the changes made? Heck yeah. And a lot of these changes have been from players learning to keep their frustrations to themselves so they don't snowball.

fuktihsgame5/29/2016, 4:58:01 AM1 votes

damn man hit the nail on the head. kudos

Awkward Couch5/31/2016, 7:10:42 AM1 votes

I think the reason why no amount of carrot or stick will fix toxicity in any game (including LOL) is because in competition, people are generally toxic. I played football for 6 years before I finally stopped, and in that time, every single game there were people yelling at each other. When placed in a competitive environment, people tend to get aggressive, especially males (which makes up a majority of the LOL population). Shit I had a friend punch a dent in his truck (he was pretty drunk at the time) because he lost a game of CSGO that one of his teammates choked. This has nothing to do with "safe spaces" or "the back in my day crowd" (of which I am one of with no strikes to the only account I've ever made), League is a game, and because of the competitive nature people are going to be toxic.

fuktihsgame5/29/2016, 5:51:02 AM1 votes

runescape cant really relate. flaming comes after the tilt which probably happens because of trolls. and if you're ok with trolls then you're part of the problem. muting people isn't a solution its a problem. and suckle what are you talking about?

Kei1435/29/2016, 12:25:15 PM1 votes

{quoted}

the competitors. everything is a competition. they dont play the game to lose. whether or not they're actually good is another story. are prone to raging due to trolls or even just bad players because in their mind its not thier skill holding them back. love the game very much but end up either being cast out or permabanned due to the inability to stop themselves from typing

this is the only part that is the action based root cause. the rest are just different personalities / age groups reacting to bad plays.

I define bad plays as "something you don't agree with". Whether that is being lesser skilled, intentional feeding for the sake of loosing ELO, or AFKing cos something came up.

Firu5/29/2016, 12:54:42 PM1 votes

A majority of the support for this thread is coming from those who have posted about being temp or permanently banned in their own threads. Further, they are often very rude/toxic in their comments and responses on the boards.

Don't let these type of people reinforce the negative attitude you are feeling, Scazzman.

I know you're frustrated. You post many times on the boards about your ideas for a solution. I appreciate that effort. What I don't appreciate is what appears to be your growing hostility to those who don't agree with you.

Take time to try to productively think about and articulate what you are feeling. Using the language and tone that you do in this post already alienated people. That's not your intent, is it? You can state everything you said here in a more neutral way that could lead to a discussion and not cater to group of people.