Boards›Player Behavior

Riot's Deeply Hypocritical Disregard of Mental Health

Sotsa·9/12/2016, 8:47:33 PM·16 votes·1,212 views

I am very happy that Riot is super strict on racial and homophobic slurs. This post is in no way a criticism of their strictness on those issues.

I frequently report people for calling me or another player retarded or autistic (I'm not actually sure that mental health technically includes the two aforementioned conditions, and I apologize if it doesn't), I also report people for telling me or another player to kill themselves. However, I can't remember the last time I got a notification from Riot saying a person was punished for their rude and irresponsible use of this type of language.

I guarantee you that if I went into my next game and used a lot of racial and homophobic language I would be banned immediately. However, if I went into a game and used an equivalent amount of language referring to someone being autistic, retarded, or that they should kill themselves, I am 100% certain the punishment would be far less harsh, if present at all. It's treated the same way as typical trash walk, and it shouldn't be.

I am not someone who struggles with suicidal thoughts. However, with as large as their player base is I know there has to be a large percent of players who do. Riot, are you really OK with letting this language go unchecked? This is incredibly hypocritical and irresponsible of you.

Do I need to take a picture every time someone does this and post it to the boards? I am pretty sure I have two pics on my phone of people telling me or someone else to kill themselves. However I never posted them bc I thought mentioning them in a report post-game was good enough. However, it's obviously not because Riot is not strict enough with this type of language.

I have no one in my family who is retarded or autistic, but does that really matter? Riot, are you really OK with people belittling others in this manner?

Frankly Riot, I am pretty surprised you are this negligent, and it would be nice to see you actually do something about it.

9 Comments

Zombiemaster9/12/2016, 9:05:53 PM10 votes

I wouldn't really say calling someone autistic or joking about suicide is treated the same as typical trash talk. I'm fairly certain that stuff like that is grounds for an escalated punishment.

The notification that someone you reported has been punished only shows up when your report was the final, triggering report that got the player punished. If you reported someone but they didn't get punished right after that game but instead get punished a few games down the road, then you will not receive the notification.

Now, if someone you report doesn't get immediately punished, that doesn't mean that Riot believes it's acceptable behavior, because what you mentioned is certainly unacceptable. It also doesn't mean that your report was meaningless, because if the player continues with that type of behavior, your report will definitely help get them punished.

However, with the current system, most of the time it takes more than a single game of evidence for a punishment to be issued. More often than not, players need to show unacceptable behavior across multiple before a punishment is issued. Unfortunately, this does mean that some players will be able to continue this type of behavior without being punished longer than they should, and yes that does suck. It's like this, though, so as to avoid punishing players who simply have a bad day.

Serevas9/12/2016, 8:53:33 PM4 votes

Typically encouraging suicide is a very rapid way to get a permaban.

Morality Coach9/13/2016, 2:35:40 AM3 votes

I actually got a 10 game chat ban 2 years ago for calling people retards and autists, so that isn't true. You get punished for that after only 2-3 games of getting reported for it.

Unstoppable Monk9/13/2016, 3:02:14 AM3 votes

Retarded isn't super offensive for a lot of people and synonymous with stupid. "That Yasuo player is retarded if he thinks his bruiser build is balanced." "My damage is so retardedly OP". Obviously calling your teammates retarded every five minutes is toxic behavior, anyway.

Autistic is usually used as a slur. You could almost define offensive language entirely as the act of hostile slurring against people.

"AMBER ALERT FOR SUPPORT'S DEGENERATE LESBIAN BRAIN" - Toxic. "Mid is potato" - Not toxic.

SrbLud9/12/2016, 9:14:19 PM3 votes

Most of the time reports don't get reviewed right away unless riddled with heavy toxicity ( easy for bot to pick up ). In most cases it takes multiple games for them to be picked up ( in case of flukes or one off misdemeanors which will be included in the review if it comes to it ). You only get a notification if your report triggered the review. If you reported him in the game before he gets picked up you won't get a notification. Not getting a notification doesn't mean he won't be punished in a game or two. Getting a notification after a couple of days is kinda useless since it can be hard to know why when and who, also basking in juices of revenge is something riot avoids feeding us. Some people stalk who they report and moan how they didn't get banned, while forgetting the above and that there are chat restrictions as a form of punishment. In retrospect the system has to make sure it's fair to one offs and punishes repeated offenders, while also making sure you get notified if you triggered it.

Sotsa9/13/2016, 5:57:08 PM2 votes

Thanks for your posts; they were all insightful. Maybe my criticism of Riot was too harsh and I apologize for that. There is definitely room for improvement though.

Telephone Booth9/14/2016, 11:09:02 PM1 votes

Never recieved a notification = riot doesn't care about mentally disabled people. So simple. No need to think any deeper than this guys.

Dominick Destine9/14/2016, 11:13:58 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kvothe Kingslay,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=Yzci6AGK,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-09-12T20:47:33.223+0000)

This post is in no way a criticism of their strictness on those issues.

Allow me to take over from here; It's unbelievably unjust for Riot to be so ultra leftist/feminist. It stiffles the community to a spectacular degree and it should not be this way, it was NOT this way originally but only after they began catering to the casuals. Dunkey's video became legendary for a reason; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjzgbZL12VI

Watch the first few minutes and see what is wrong with the hyper draconian system we are currently using. I protest this system regularly but I do not violate the rules. Millenials and leftists could just disable chat and let the players talk freely rather than Riot destroying player interaction for the sake of sacrificing their community at the altar of political correctness.

To clarify, this post IS a criticism of the hyper draconian system. A respectful appeal, without violating the rules or being rude. Hopefully Riot will eventually go back to the way they were in S1-S3.