Boards›Player Behavior

LoL created an environment where bullies thrive

Territian··4 votes·1,837 views

Today I reached a conclusion. Some games encourage bullying by their very design. And League of Legends is King.

At one time I was an active player, spending money on skins, recruiting my friends to join who also spent money on the game. But I wasn't very good at the game, or at least that's what I was told by the other players. Between LoL games I played World of Warcraft, a game who's social structure creates an environment where bad behavior is punished by social constructs of the game. If you want to raid, you have to be nice, or nobody will want to play with you. If you were booted from a Guild, your real ID could be tracked, and people could find out who you were. People were nice.

LoL was completely different! When a player makes a mistake, it is announced in chat to every player that you died. The players are strangers, and only spend 15-45 minutes with you, then never see you again. Hiding behind the mask of anonymity, they are encouraged to be competitive by the ladder ranking system, and players who are poor at the game, are advertised via messages, and the mini map. You can even criticize a persons personal build.

My brother became a moderator. We watched several games where players had been reported, and made judgements as to if the player should be banned. We punished bullies!

But a 3 day suspension didn't solve the problem. Permabans didn't keep bullies from creating new accounts and continuing their malicious behavior. So the bullying continued until one day I realized, this game was toxic to my life. It was affecting my mood, my self esteem. So I quit.

I recently got nostalgic for the game because minus the constant social bullying from other players, the game is VERY FUN! So I reinstalled the game only to find out that I myself had been PERMANANTLY BANNED! Why? I never cheated. I wasn't a good enough player use exploits, or even know what those were. But players frequently said, "He's bad at the game, report him for hacking!"

I didn't think any moderator would take that kind of thing seriously, as I had personal experience moderating. But someone must have let the bullies win, because without explaination, the virtual goods I paid REAL MONEY FOR were deleted. Because of Bullying. The creators of LoL should be ashamed they have made such a toxic footprint on the history of humanity.

Here was their response. All lies, and clearly a robot.

"Greetings,

I can understand that this account means a lot to you so I looked again into this case. Upon my investigation I have observed that it was involved with the usage of an exploit that gave it an unfair advantage over others with the game. We view the usage of exploits that offer an unfair advantage over others to be a violation of the Terms of Use as it destroys the game experience for those other players. Due to the severity of this action we must remain firm in its decision taken against this account.

Templar Iytsuna Player Behavior and Game Support

Hey again,

I am sorry but I won't be able to go into specifics as this could compromise our investigation methods. Often times when players write in they are looking for how they got caught so they can avoid it in the future. I am not saying that this is your intent, as I don't believe it is, but this is why we do not give specifics for these sort of suspensions.

Templar Iytsuna Player Behavior and Game Support"

I will never play this game again, and will be telling all my friends about the toxicity of the LoL community. For me, it's a life lesson learned. Perhaps other Moba's will learn to create environments where advertised player errors will not enrage bullies, and where bullies cannot speak, or are held socially accountable in a way that doesn't empower them to permaban the people they are preying upon.

Poppy RIP Poppy :(

27 Comments

Deep Terror Nami6 votes

They don't take people's word for it, they investigate actions taken on your account. You will never be banned just because someone said you did something. If you truly did not ever cheat, it's more likely you got your account compromised or were sharing it with someone that did use cheats, or you played on a public computer that had them.

If you feel something like that may have happened you should let player support know.

Territian1 votes

Actually Arbiter Nami, I think you just identified the problem. I'm almost positive my account was compromised, as I see a gameplay history that I DID NOT PLAY! I did report this and my response was,

"Territian

May 4, 01:02 PDT

Ok, I believe you.

I went and checked my account history. The last activity was in 2015. Then suddenly there is a large amount of activity in January 2017. This was not me. I'm now 100% sure my account was hacked. I would reconsider my position against RiotGames, but only if I was restored the 20.00 in Riot points I spent, and could be assured, that the bullying community has been reigned in since 2015.

Templar Iytsuna (Riot Games Player Support)

May 4, 09:09 PDT

Hey,

We have already explained the context for your suspension. We will not be removing the punishment and consider this matter closed.

Skins Project3 votes

May I ask when you quit?

Because looking at your match history there were matches recent as about a month ago.

Also reading your sob story I highly doubt it was you if that was true.

http://imgur.com/a/63l7B

That is YOUR account.

Assuming your brother truly was a mod, and you helped, I wouldn't say it was the Lol's problem as much as it was yours.

If not, it is likely you were hacked.

If that was you.

Good riddance.

If it was not.

Shame, for you are laying shame upon another without cause.

Territian1 votes

I am ashamed. When I wrote this post I had not realized my account had been hacked. I actually Started my report with,

"Security Ban maybe? I was not informed about this and have changed my pw and Email both as of today."

The response is what is written above from Templar Iytsuna. This totally confused me causing me to remember all the "Ban him for cheating" comments back in 2015 and I jumped to the conclusion that the Bullies must have reported me. I now see the account history you pointed out, and am embarrassed to see, my initial conclusion was correct. I was hacked!

Then why was the response from Riot "You cheated" instead of "I see you were hacked"?

Skins Project1 votes

So riot doesn't classify by player. It's by account. I apologize that you were hacked, but if the account has done something, the account is banned. Sorry for your loss, if you reply back to support they might help you? I can't say much beyond that.

Beyond that I hope this doesn't ruin the game for you, not too much more to say.

The bullies should NOT be able to get your acc banned. The system is quite decent at filtering out false alarms.

Narvuntien2 votes

Oooh Deep terror Nami has mod powers again.. yay.

I digress. I agree the game is VERY FUN... and the people that play it are TRULY TERRIBLE.

Riot has tried all sorts of things to try and fix the community but you can't fix human nature. They couldn't solve it, they tried and they failed. banning doesn't work they just make a new account and troll the low levels. Trolls trolling people turn those people in trolls and it breeds like a virus.

In the end Riot had to look at a different strategy for solving the issue. This game is about 1000X better when you play with friends... Introducing..... Dynamic Queue!... ooooh boy did that backfire horrifyingly. They thought they could instead "solve" the issue by just giving people a shared league experience... but that just resulted in people gaming their system to get boosted :(.

I just don't know what else Riot can do about this issue they have tried over and over again and everytime they have failed to fix it. Perhaps all gamers are terrible people, perhaps the more competitively minded you are the worse a human being you become.

Territian1 votes

I think you might be right, lol!

Very thought provoking. I appreciate this feedback.

HítlerDidNtWrong2 votes

The only way Riot can solve this is to ignore all of the things people say and focus their resources on banning legitimate exploits. Who cares that people are arguing over the internet, let them. Stepping in to moderate the behavior of human beings is pathetic and goes against human nature. The only exception is if someone is spamming chat incessantly. Seriously do your mods a favor and stop caring about behaviours, we can't all be Bob Ross after leaving the military, if we were then how would anyone be unique? Even that calm hearted man used to yell at people as a drill sergeant. So fucking what? Act like adults. [zombie-brand-facepalm] Moderators are failing to be human by not letting others express themselves the way they want. It's just censorship at the end of the day, you can't sweep human nature under the rug.** Imagine what they could accomplish if they didn't have to moderate this? They could instead move all the moderators into game testing roles and patches and fixes and rebalances would have exponentially more eyes/ears/brains helping out. It's not rocket surgery!**

Chønklord6 votes

...Why does "expressing oneself" have to automatically be something negative and toxic?

robinhhhood1 votes

Because LoL created an environment where bullies thrive

Oh wait, that's the title of the thread....

HítlerDidNtWrong1 votes

Because recently people have gotten soft and comfortable with their safe spaces and can't handle the text they receive from other players. I don't think players should be penalized for being too weak minded to simply accept that other people won't always agree with them and talk to them like a little angel.

Territian1 votes

ie. "You suck" "Uninstall the game" "Report him for cheating, he's bad at the game" "Are you a Retard?"

Territian1 votes

Only if that expression is directed at another person, their ability, identity, in an attempt to manipulate that person.

ie. "You suck" "Uninstall the game" "Report him for cheating, he's bad at the game" "Are you a Retard?"

Thats not expression, it's verbal violence.

Douglas Funnie4 votes

I agree. Players have the power to stop toxic communication (muting). Players, however, do not have the power to stop pre-game/in-game behavior of other people.

Riot needs to focus on the key issues that create verbal toxicity.

  • Gameplay Balance
  • Over-Powered Champs
  • Feeders
  • Intentional
  • Grieving
  • Boosted players who don't belong at their current elo
  • AFKERS
  • Rage Quit
  • People who sit in Base and move around to avoid the AFK check
  • Those who type in-game so much that they don't even pay attention to the game.
  • Trolls
  • Champ select players who hold their team hostage because they didn't get their preferred role.
  • Account Sharing
  • High tiered players boosting low accounts
  • Cheaters
  • Scripters using Xerath
  • Learning new champs in Ranked.

Right now, trolls are getting away scot-free during champ select by forcing other players to dodge. The troll doesn't lose any LP. They go straight back into queue and continue this malicious pattern until they get their preferred role. The person who dodges loses LP and gets queue timed. This is unbelievable.

There are sly players who play the game to lose without feeding. They make it seem like they tried, but their primary goal is to lose the game and get demoted.

HítlerDidNtWrong2 votes

This is very much my point, thank you for bullet pointing the general meaning I was trying to convey. <3 Work on the reasons for toxic behaviour and don't directly attack the behaviour itself because even the most mild mannered individuals have their moments, their breaking points, and they should be allowed to express that without being censored.

Territian1 votes

I agree human nature is partly to blame, which was the point of my post. The environment creates situations that create frustration for players that turn them into bullies. All those bullet points are great examples! But what if a player is simply bad at the game? My bullet points.

  • Deaths are announced to players
  • Talents and gear builds are viewable
  • The Mini map allows for micro-scrutiny of other players,
HítlerDidNtWrong1 votes

This is a game in which feedback is important even when it's negative, which is why the policing becomes a problem.

Territian1 votes

Wow, this was a very thoughtful post and much appreciated. You have highlighted more of the core mechanical problems with the game.

Still, assuming RIOT created a way to report these players for their Cheating, Sharing, Trolling, Feeding, Practicing, leaving, etc (some of these ARE already reportable) I still think players should be given the specific reason they are being punished, and should also be given a temporary ban before a permaban. I now believe my account may have been hacked, which would make my Ban legitimate, but I wasn't given this explaination or any other that made sense.

Territian1 votes

Actually, Moderators are usually concerned players who police the community themselves, not hired employees or tech teams that have the ability to change the game. They can only watch games, and decide if a report is legitimate.

HítlerDidNtWrong1 votes

If you're referring to what I said, what I meant was they could play test the game instead of having to moderate everyone like a paranoid parent.

Narvuntien1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Suterusu Rocks U,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=YM6FXUQ7,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2017-05-03T10:29:46.257+0000)

The only way Riot can solve this is to ignore all of the things people say and focus their resources on banning legitimate exploits. Who cares that people are arguing over the internet, let them. Stepping in to moderate the behavior of human beings is pathetic and goes against human nature. The only exception is if someone is spamming chat incessantly. Seriously do your mods a favor and stop caring about behaviours, we can't all be Bob Ross after leaving the military, if we were then how would anyone be unique? Even that calm hearted man used to yell at people as a drill sergeant. So fucking what? Act like adults. [zombie-brand-facepalm] Moderators are failing to be human by not letting others express themselves the way they want. It's just censorship at the end of the day, you can't sweep human nature under the rug.** Imagine what they could accomplish if they didn't have to moderate this? They could instead move all the moderators into game testing roles and patches and fixes and rebalances would have exponentially more eyes/ears/brains helping out. It's not rocket surgery!**

The reason behind this is economic. As a mirco transactions game League requires a broad base of people playing the game only a fairly small percentage of players will buy riot points (especially since Riot is ethical about it). It is a kind of reverse insurance. Unlike a buy to play or subscription game League cannot be exclusive it must appeal to a wide range of people. This means it has to deal with toxicity particularly racisim, sexism and homophobia but really any kind of abuse of players is detrimental to thier bottom line. Players quiting is bad for them. Players from minorities, particularly a group potentially as large as women, not feeling safe and comfortable in game due to abuse they recieve online is a concern for them. They kind of need people that aren't the typical hard core gamer who has been dealing with online abuse for years because.. that is the way it is. By being a free game they help non traditional games get into the game, since you don't need the $100 up front for a new game or a powerful computer to play and if you like it you can chip in a few spare $ when you have it.

As for needing a safe space or being thin skinned or whatever. When you have to deal with it all the time IRL, you don't also want to deal with in your leasure time. But more importantly, people whine about safe spaces are exactly the kind of players that need a safe space if I tell them they are making bad in game decisions and they need to stop tilting so we can win. They need a safe place away from teamates that aren't as "pro" as they think they are when they stole all the kills and wonder why no one else has any items. Put simiply, they also need safe spaces, they just refuse to admit it. Because a fragile ego is the greatest threat to your teams performance in league.

higura2 votes

But players frequently said, "He's bad at the game, report him for hacking!"

I can understand that this account means a lot to you so I looked again into this case. Upon my investigation I have observed that it was involved with the usage of an exploit that gave it an unfair advantage over others with the game.

seems to me this is less about "bullies" and more about you exploiting the game to get a unfair advantange in game.

this is futher backed up by your upper story not makeing any sense at all...

My brother became a moderator. We watched several games where players had been reported, and made judgements as to if the player should be banned. We punished bullies!

But a 3 day suspension didn't solve the problem. Permabans didn't keep bullies from creating new accounts and continuing their malicious behavior. So the bullying continued until one day I realized, this game was toxic to my life. It was affecting my mood, my self esteem. So I quit.

there is 2 things that don't make sense in this:

1: riot don't handle reports manually unless there is a very good reason to.

2: if your bother is a mod for the team that handles reports, then why did you contact the support?, you could just have asked him to take a quick look at your case.

Pantheon Forever1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPt1bckqJmU

I play wow and that game is wild too!

(average pick up group environment for a raid is this)

Territian1 votes

Agreed. WOW PUG environments can get pretty toxic too.

Territian1 votes

Lol, that video is hilarious! :D I agree, PUGS can be toxic too

YerroFever1 votes

Any competitive game creates an environment where bullying can thrive. It's not Riot that encourages it.

Because there are so many aspects to the game, there are so many ways to be negatively affected by people.

Pre game - champ select and team chat In Game - chat, pings, feeding, afk/leaving, etc... Post Game - post game chat, friending you just to be able to send you harassing messages, using a bot that continuously sends friends requests to harass you, etc...

It's difficult to fix all of the problems and they've done a lot to fix the symptoms of toxicity but curing toxicity at its core is actually hard and mostly out of Riot's hands because it's how that person deals with the situation. Riot can't fix people. They have to want to fix themselves. However, Riot can try to fix how someone negatively affects you and try to encourage people to be less toxic.

There's a balance between helicopter parenting and tough skin and Riot is doing their best to find that balance.

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