It's better to say nothing...

Greetings summoners,

with this topic I want to refer to a special problem brought by Riot's mentality on how to deal with player behavior and their consequences. When I say "Riot's mentality" I refer to how Riot deals with chat abusers, and with "player behavior" I am talking about the use of the chat as well as how in-game players deal with chat abusers.

**--// My main hypothesis are: **

1) If you use the chat at all, you are more likely to get reported. 2) Using the chat to defend yourself increases the likelihood of being reported. 3) If you are a player who still plays with the team and merely have issues using the chat healthy, you should deactivate the chat and never use it. 4) Riot is fostering a mentality of "safe space kids"

** --// Accept Riot's rules... **

First, I know it is Riot's rules and that if we play we play while agreeing on certain rules. However, does this exclude people from having an opinion about these rules? Exactly, it does not. So rest assured, this is not about blaming others for consequences one could have foreseen. This is barely an analysis on the rules, their implementation and the punishments. All open to discuss.

** --// My personal behavior **

With the beginning of this year I got more and more chat restrictions due to the fact of aggressively commenting on other players playstyle as well as on their way of dealing with these comments, their feedback-behavior to me in-game. It all ended in me getting banned. And I want to stress here, that I am being ** banned due to words in chat **, not due to feeding or trolling, just words. And I want to stress that I am insulting any ethnicities or genders. The most frequent insults I use are "dumb", "retarded", "useless" and "suck" as in "you suck". Here a short summery on what happens in a typical game (most often a random 5 vs 5 on a bot lane, which I play often):

**Player X does something of which I think it is not good ** --> I start saying things like: "You suck.", "You are a retard.", "You are useless." "Why didn't you display behavior <x>?"

Now, I will display three different ways of responses I so far experienced:

a) The silencer --> In the case the offended player does not communicate at all I stay quite for a while until he again displays behavior of which I think are noobish. I will just go on commenting on his behavior/playstyle in-game.

b) The debating responder --> The offended player does respond and states why he did or did not suck in that situation. --> I debate with him in a less aggressive style explaining what I found noobish with specific details. --> A debate - not the most eloquent or friendliest - emerges. But we end up exchanging opinions, nothing more.

c) The safe space kid --> The offended player starts showing signs of being angry and sad about me having a bad opinion about him. And with sad I mean that he starts encouraging other players to report me. --> This aggravates me and I start telling him, that he should stop crying and maybe mute me if he thinks my opinion is rude, not fair or unreasonable - all of what I can relate to and understand. I go on with making comments as soon I perceive something I objectively find being a bad decision or playstyle. I repeat, I make comments about his playstyle (and of course thereby using adverbs like "dumb" or "retard").

No matter what happens throughout the game, I always finish it with a "/all wp and gl next time"

** --// Consequences of my behavior and what does it say about the community **

I eventually got reported. How many of you must be happy now, as they can finally play without being judged...what a relief. However, there is more. The consequences of my behavior are:

** General consequences **

• Sensitive team members start playing worse (so glad riot has these tips during the loading screens before a match up).
• I start playing worse the more I fall into my aggressive communication style (I type too much and do not concentrate)
• I tend to play less team and objective oriented depending on how many player I find being useless on the team, thereby increasing losing chances (interesting... bad players have influence on my playstysle... should I report them? of course not, I cannot change that and nobody plays bad on purpose)
• People do not mute me, they rather listen to the shitstorm (interesting... people can defend themselves from chat abusers without reporting? let's keep that in mind for later). Of course I cannot blame them for that. They can do whatever they want, but if they do not mute me and decide to listen, doesn't that make them to some degree responsible for them feeling sad, too?
• It depends further on how well the whole team plays together. I can lose. Definitely and more so if people play team and objective oriented. Me commenting is highly influenced by these two factors (team and objective orientation)

** Consequences in case a) **

• Me commenting becomes less if no one reacts

** Consequences in case b) **

• We still play together and the chat becomes less aggressive as we try to understand each other and become more open and reasonable while debating.
• If we disagree we just ignore each other and mute each other.

** Consequences in case c) **

• Hate
• Rage
• Ignorance everywhere (yes, me included)
• Reports are raining from above (Hi Overwatch!) (and: let's nuke us all while we burn in hatred!)

** --// What safe space kids and Riot do not understand **

• Having an opinion is totally fine.
• Being judged is totally normal.
• Someone's words are not always the truth nor final. If you cry due to words, it is because you allow these words to have value. They most often don't.
• There is a mute function allowing you to avoid stressors. This cannot be emphasized enough.
• This game is a team game. If you play with your team it will end up more or less good.
• There is a need to differentiate and reconsider punishments for players that merely abuse the chat. Banning someone from playing is too harsh a punishment for mere chat abusers. A chat ban is totally fine (we still can ping to communicate basics).

** --// What I have to get**

• I totally get that my communication style has to change and that it does makes a game experience better or worse. I just did not manage to change it yet. Though, I will never stay muted towards retards.
• I also get that a punishment is unavoidable and totally important for me and the well being of a community. However, banning is not the way. I hate Rito now and will never touch anything that has to do with gaming (well... depends on the game and the improvements on how they treat players). I know that they couldn't care less. If you thought that right now, fine. You are making progress. Take that spirit with you and bear it in mind next time you face a chat abuser: tell yourself to not give a shit about chat abusers and mute them. However, I do not need to accept their policy either.

** --// Some thoughts of a Riot support member I won't name here (for now) ** • Wir haben früher in bestimmten Fällen extrem länge Chatsperren (z.b. 2000+ Spiele) verhängt, aber haben in meisten Fällen keine oder fast keine Besserung gesehen, deswegen wurde das System verändert. Bei dem 14-tägigen Bann bekommt man so oder so eine Warnung, dass die nächste Strafe ein dauerhafter Bann sein kann. Also wir glauben, dass die Chatsperre nicht die bessere Lösung ist.

Riot used to punish players with chat restrictions (2000+) to see what would change. They found no to few changes. Unfortunately the support member did not tell me what kind of changes he is referring to. But I guess he refers to unsportsmanlike conducts like feeding or trolling. And I am not talking about that. I totally understand that these acts are concerning the gaming mechanics. These behaviors have direct impact on the game, while the chat does not. The chat has indirect impacts on the game.

• Beleidigende Meinungen können reportet werden und verstößen gegen unsere Nutzungsbedingungen, die du bei der Erstellung des Kontos angenommen hast. Schimpfworte und Beleidigungen helfen niemand besser zu spielen. Für was du selbst geschrieben hast, bist du selbst verantwortlich.

Insults are against user policy. I get that, I am only stating that the punishment is too harsh as chatting is not directly influencing the game mechanics. Insults do not help anybody playing better, sure, but does ignorance help? Does it help to be delusional about faults and mistakes? Does it help to cry when being judged? And yes, I am responsible for what I say. And I agree that chat abuse is not good. I merely do not agree on the way it is punished.

• Wir bannen nicht für eines einziges Schimpfwort. In meisten Fällen, wie auch hier, wurden die Leute davor mehrmals gewarnt und haben sein Verhalten nicht verändert. Du hast dich entschieden die frühere Warnungen und den 14-tägigen Bann zu ignorieren. Niemand stand jedes Spiel daneben und hat dir gezwungen weiter zu flamen.

I do not care how often you warned me that I was reported for chat abuse. I care for how you deal with this issue and how much you differentiate what people are reporting exactly and why they do it. Having an opinion is not punishable.

** --// Final thoughts ** I did not attempt to tell you how to deal with feeders or trolls or bots. I tried to show what is wrong with the report system and the mentality of Riot and safe space kids regarding insults (specific insults, see above). Of course I am sad that I was banned. This account was cared for, though I did not care about my chat behavior, which I should and will. Still, concluding I feel like the punishment and report system needs to be more elaborate and caring, not only for victims, but also for abusers. It should foster a more healthy and educated coping of problems. You cannot just ignore problems and lock them away. Rest in peace Riot and safe space kids! I hope you find your way out of the silence.

Best regards

Malechai