Boards›Player Behavior

Visible moderation, declining player base.

Earth2Fire·6/9/2016, 9:58:59 PM·3 votes·2,574 views

The reason leagues the most toxic game on the internet is its players are the most passionate. They take the game way too seriously. Leagues way of handling these players is to ban them. There are two things wrong with that. 1) They're banning passionate players. 2) It's a lazy way of moderation.

Of course this will fall on def ears, at least in riots case, just look at dynamic queue.

League player base is in decline. Visible moderation is an attempt to blame the player base decline on toxicity. League is 6-7 years old in an industry with competition coming at all angles, the player decline is natural. The problem is the permabans exacerbate the decline** because it kills people interest in league as a sport!** League players are as passionate as any real life sports fan yet how many NFL fans are told by the NFL not to play football. Not to mention how demoralizing it is to new players to have to deal with their new accounts. Bad for business.

> There are other methods of punishment. The problem is when you punish people they tell you what you want to hear and you never ask for truly 100% honest feedback from them. How can you create a fair punishment system if it doesn't include honest feedback from everyone? You are lazily taking feedback from players that have no f-ing clue on the problems toxic players have.

Good job on trying, really, but really really think about who you're banning. Fans. Hardcore, in your face fans.

31 Comments

ModMod Curator6/9/2016, 10:08:28 PM8 votes

At first I thought your post was about Visible Moderation which is something that happens here on the Boards, but it seems what you're trying to discuss is how in-game player behavior is handled. To be clear, Moderation and Visible Moderation are Boards terms. In-game player behavior is handled via the punishment system (aka current incarnation of the Tribunal).

redniwediS6/9/2016, 10:01:43 PM8 votes

Riot doesn't ban passionate players. Riot bans players who don't understand how to limit themselves and not turn into complete asshats.

There's a reason they give warnings and smaller punishments before banning an account after all, and there's an even better reason that they allow most players to come back on a new account.

Oleandervine6/9/2016, 10:07:39 PM6 votes

Yeah, what that guy said. League gives you plenty of fair warning before dropping the guillotine, so it's all on you if you don't take measures to stop being a dick before you lose your account. Passion does not give you the right to yell and tear into someone who upsets you. It's just like having a boyfriend or girlfriend. Calling them dick heads and berating them constantly isn't going to get you laid, so be nice or lose it all.

Votable Jester6/9/2016, 10:34:11 PM4 votes

You are comparing the "athletes" of LoL to the fans of soccer and other sports. Each player in LoL is effectively the same as an athlete on a sports team. Players in sports can be kicked off teams or suspended for poor sportsmanship.

Catastrop6/10/2016, 12:32:45 PM2 votes

Last I checked, you can be a hardcore fan without being an asshat. If they choose to keep ignoring the guidelines Riot has set up, they deserve to be banned. Simple as that.

ShinkoMinori6/9/2016, 10:09:45 PM2 votes

One thing I don't understand is why there is no perma mute instead of permaban... I am against toxicity but banning an account should be something that you do for things you cant avoid... should be an ultimate punishment not the first thing handed when someone is tilting.

I havent got any bans nor warnings btw... but I still think is not an appropiate punishment for being a keyboard warrior. For cheating, scripting, griefing yes... but for being a stupid keyboard warrior?

ModKnightsKemplar6/9/2016, 10:23:40 PM2 votes

I have seen no evidence that the player base is in decline... Yeah, boards blow up, but that's evidence that people still care if anything. Even the people that swear they are quitting end up playing games the same day. Come on. It's as great as ever, and the players care as much as they ever have, if not more.

Firu6/10/2016, 1:46:49 AM1 votes

Do you have any real info on Leagues player base? It's not really declining.

AeroWaffle6/9/2016, 10:52:23 PM1 votes

Riot is not banning specifically passionate players, though passionate players may be a subset of the group they're banning. Riot is banning players that show that they can't keep poor behavior out of chat.

Community input for variety of system is very important because it's the community that wants a certain level of civility in their games. Arguments that the community should or should not have input based on other aspects of the game, like dynamic queue, don't necessarily hold true for the behavioral system. Questions about Dynamic queue often steer towards ranked balance and questions of how much can a high skill friend change the course of the game.

Those are questions that a person's skill level could easily have an impact on their opinion.

However, the behavioral ban system? No. That's irrelevant of everything but your behavior. Thus, it doesn't matter if a majority of the community doesn't play the game optimally, they still have valid input about what is or is not acceptable chat behavior.

I don't believe your NFL analogy holds up to the situation in league because that would assume that everyone in league is playing at the professional level with teammates that they've worked with multiple times. This is not the case a vast majority of the time. You're placed in a match with other random players in a game that is not at the professional level.