Boards›Player Behavior

Player Toxicity and Personal Responsibility

JustCallMeSPED·3/22/2018, 5:44:51 PM·8 votes·1,011 views

This is something which has been on my mind a lot recently. Ever since I started playing League, I've heard about hot toxic the game's player base is, whether from the boards, from players themselves, or even articles on gaming news sites that will just straight up say the game has a "rampant toxicity problem afflicting players". And the more it gets talked about, the more I hear comments from both Rioters and players that the correct solution is to punish people who say offensive things harder and harder, to find ways to get them out of games, and to increase the number of things they can be reported for saying or even for having their Club Names/Tags being too offensive.

It seems like, in the Western world right now, there is a growing number of people who believe that we should have the right not to hear offensive things said by others. No one seems to appreciate the fact that free speech is basically the single greatest right and weapon people have against tyranny. And that's in any form. Tyranny of the government, tyranny of the majority, tyranny of a company who wants to protect people from "harmful" speech. I haven't seen a single real post on reigning in our expectations of forcing Riot to make the platform more "friendly". If our only goal is to shut down people who say things we don't like, we will eventually be left with a platform that feels oppressive to many who are afraid to say anything at all.

The solution for us as players should not be, "Riot, make the bad people go away!" There will always be bad people. There will always be people who will get around the system. And there will always be people in real life who you will have to deal with and who will say things you find offensive. The answer isn't to shut them up because you're hurt by what they said. The answer is to find ways to thicken your skin and to promote the change you want to see.

  • There has to be effort on every one of our parts to brush off hateful speech. Hate speech is still free speech, and all you have to do is look at the news for 5 minutes to see it on display. Instead of taking it personally, make a real, concerted effort on your part to simply ignore it. Put yourself in their shoes. Has there ever been a time, even ONCE, where you have been so frustrated during a match that you just let someone have it over the chat? We are all capable of it.
  • When you can't deal, mute. Riot has already given you a ton of tools to tune out speech you don't like. We have had the ability to mute chat for a long time, and now we can even mute pings. You already have the ability to stop the speech you hear if you don't like it.
  • Make 'em laugh. Sometimes a raging person needs someone to put a stupid pun in the chat to knock them out of their funk. A laugh can quell a lot of anger. No, it doesn't always work, and some people just like to be inflammatory, but that's the internet for you. It'll always be there. And even if they don't stop, you're having a good time and cheering your teammates up, who are just as frustrated with your annoying teammate as you are.
  • Be the cool one. The thing is, a raging, venom-spewing summoner will often bring out the ire of all his teammates. I've seen it time and again where the jungler blames the bot laner, or the top laner complains about lack of ganks, and all it takes is the one guy who is being blamed to take the bait, and suddenly it isn't just the two of you duking it out, EVERY TEAM MEMBER now suddenly is shouting their opinions of who the worst player on your team is. RESIST THE URGE. This is what I mean by be the change you wanna see. Mute the guy telling you you suck, or be the guy who doesn't join in on the hate train. Seriously, so much anger in game would be gone overnight if it was just that one angry guy blaming everyone else talking in chat and everyone else just muted him and ignored him.

I know this was lengthy and dry, but with the way things are going out there in the world today, the thought of losing League to a bunch of people who would rather offensive people be silenced than learn how to resist offensive language on their own worries me. The UK just convicted a man for a joke video he made on YouTube; China is currently banning books, words, and even the letter 'N'; and a bunch of online game companies, including Riot, just made a coalition to try and combat game toxicity. The power to fight toxicity already rests within each player. Don't feed the trolls, joke around, mute players...but don't try to silence them all, or we will end up with a game no one will want to play anymore.

45 Comments

Chermorg3/22/2018, 6:15:16 PM5 votes

To be completely honest, I agree with some to most of what you say, but I have a large problem with things like the following:

Put yourself in their shoes. Has there ever been a time, even ONCE, where you have been so frustrated during a match that you just let someone have it over the chat? We are all capable of it.

Imagine if we turned that into murder. Extreme, yes, but you'll see where I'm going. Put yourself in a murderer's shoes. Has there ever been a time, even ONCE, where you have been so frustrated at life that you just let someone have it in a fight or argument? We are all capable of it.

It sounds outlandish - and it should. Society expects people to have the self-control to not just go shooting at people when they're angry. Why then, is it so outlandish, to expect that people have the self control to not abuse or harass others over chat features as well? It shouldn't be. It should be expected that people have the self-control to be decent human beings. While, yes, we are all capable of flaming and harassment, the vast majority of League players know that it's useless, rude, ruins others' day, and they control themselves and don't actually flame in chat.

I fully agree in personal responsibility here - but I don't think anyone has a responsibility to alter their daily lives to avoid someone who is breaking rules/laws. Case in point - when you walk across the street, you have the chance someone running a red light may run into you - personal responsibility would suggest you just not cross the street if you're worried about being run over.

I think it is much more important to punish and hopefully reform the "criminals" or rule-breakers than it is for players to alter their game habits because of them. That being said - aside from your first bullet point, the other three are certainly things that will help people enjoy the game more - so I can fully support players being encouraged to do those three things.

The Highest Noon3/22/2018, 6:07:22 PM2 votes

Facebook: "We looked over the comment, and though it doesn't go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand that it may still be offensive to you and others. No one should have to see comments or posts they consider hateful on Facebook, so we want to help you avoid things like this in the future.

From the list above, you can block [insert name] directly, or you may be able to unfriend or unfollow them. If you unfollow them, you’ll stay friends on Facebook but you won’t see their posts in your News Feed.

We know these options may not apply to every situation, so please let us know if you see something else you think we should take a look at. You may also consider using Facebook to speak out and educate the community around you. Counter-speech in the form of accurate information and alternative viewpoints can help create a safer and more respectful environment."

A site known for striking down "Free Speech" actively acknowledges the subjectivity of "Harassment" and instead of punishment they just tell you to block the toxicity. Why can't it be that simple for Riot? Why do online gaming devs feel the need to be at the forefront of combating negativity when they've already implemented ways for players ourselves to remove the problems that don't actually involve punishment from them?

Dokueki Kenshin3/22/2018, 6:12:13 PM1 votes

Indeed. I’m not really into the politics of things, nor will I ever be, but I’ve always personally felt that change that lasts must be motivated and inspired, not enforced.

Awf Meta3/22/2018, 6:00:40 PM1 votes

I agree. I am not even close to perfect though.

For my own part, I decided to say "hello" at the start of every game. I felt it was important to acknowledge my team mates exist and to greet them in a friendly manner.

MadViking3/22/2018, 10:36:02 PM1 votes

The problem with the game is that the culture Riot created creates all the toxicity, not the actual players -- at least that what I believe. I mean to have such a system in place where players get punished routinely for their bad behavior you'd think that would act as a deterrent, and players have incentives to be "good" and get rewarded but despite those two things LoL is easily the most toxic gaming community there is.

I'm toxic by the League standard. I'll admit it. But only because I'm competitive. I don't go out of my way to deliberately sabotage people or feed games, but I get punished because I have balls and call out an asshole. I have to mute my team 80% of the time because you always play with dumb asses, and I do that so I don't accidentally say something I regret. I get punished for being "toxic" to toxic people, yet deliberate saboteurs enter games and cause their own team to lose for shits and giggles. Those guys go free, meanwhile I tell someone to stfu and I get chat restrictions because they flame me or say something stupid in chat. I'm not going to hit that "report report report" button and continue to feed and support an already stupid system, people report your ass for constructive criticism in this game.

But to get on the point of "free speech". Yeah. WE all got it. But this game is a service, it's owned by people and we are not entitled to play it. Our free speech does not matter nor should it. It's their design and their product they can regulate it how they want -- not saying I agree with their methods but it is Riot's right.

venomdrake3/22/2018, 10:51:40 PM1 votes

Literally just made a post about this, I just thought of adding new options to the "chat filter" section, that lets people create their own "safespace" if they're so unstable that they need it (possibly by choosing their own censored words), and another option that lets people choose to take part in the shit talking/vulgarity and speak freely/hear other people freely without worrying about being punished for saying something triggering (only people who KNOWINGLY tick this option can see these "buzzwords") that way riot STOPS dividing the community and harshly punishing people for what the automatic ban system decides is punishable, and so riot employees STOP showing up in peoples board topics to "point out that they said harsh things and they DESERVED the punishment they got" (I don't think their employees should be allowed to antagonize people because they feel its their moral obligation to let them know what they did wrong and why they should feel bad, i've seen this alot)

BobaFlautist3/22/2018, 11:58:49 PM1 votes

Yeah sorry, no. There's a baseline level of decency you need to have when talking to other people, or they won't want to talk to you anymore. This isn't censorship, or violation of your free speech, this is people deciding that you're not pleasant to be around and ending their voluntary association with you.

Riot is not a governmental entity, and they're within their rights to say "If your ability to control your behavior is so far below the accepted baseline that you're actively driving customers away from our product, we don't want you engaging in our product".