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Player behaviors nowadays are so atrocious, is there a solution Riot plans to make any time soon?

OatheSworn·6/20/2018, 10:48:28 PM·4 votes·2,639 views

The general go-to Riot hands out for situations dealing with a toxic player is the mute function. I can't stress this enough but this is NOT a solution. It's just covering up the problem. They're still there even if you hide it and this isn't a real way of dealing with toxicity. It might handle the problem for that one game but it's not stopping them from queuing up again and repeating their offence. Some people are cool-headed but that's not everyone. Players might become angry enough to retaliate (which happens in most cases) and that just ends up with another toxic player, this time it's them bickering back-and-forth for the rest of the game. You could report them in the post-game screen but that just takes us to another problem.

The report system is terrible right now, I can't even count how many toxic players there still are in this game--even after getting reported. Most of the times it's the people that speak back getting punished, not the actual culprits. I reported 2 duo toxic players a while back and didn't receive an instant feedback report. They were seriously toxic all game, screaming at teammates every time they died, cussing them out, telling them to uninstall, calling them names, etc. all the while acting like angels in [All] chat. The enemy believed what they were saying and turned on us, our teammates were too scared to talk back much less clear up the misunderstanding because they didn't want to get punished. It started off as just 2 toxic players on one side to 4 more on the other, both cussing us out. It was an extremely stressful game, one of the worst since I started playing a few years ago and the 2 just walked off after that. What I regret the most was not leaving during champion selection. They were already calling people idiots there and had banned our picks, signalling their intentions before the game even started and it forced us to make a decision. Take the risk and trust they won't troll or leave and take the punishment, all while missing the chance to report them in the post-game screen--which leads us to another problem.

There isn't any way to deal with people like these in champion selection, if you get matched up with them, it's either quit and lose 3 LP + timer or go into game and potentially lose 20 LP. How is that fair for the normal player, why do we have to get punished for another person's toxic behavior all because we were unlucky enough to get matched up together? All the positive thinkers out there are probably saying: you shouldn't have left then or most of the people that talk about feeding and trolling in champion select don't actually do it but you weren't there. You could not have possible known if they were/weren't going to troll. Avoiding the game is the best solution, you don't have to take the risk of dealing with a negative player and -20 LP. The downside is -3 LP and the timer but most players consider that the better out in that situation. The current system is indirectly allowing these [toxic] players to escape because the normal players don't want to deal with them. It's promoting the idea that it's better to avoid the problem instead of standing up to it. When put against the options of dealing with a toxic player and -20 LP or ditching the problem altogether for -3 LP and a measly timer--the answer is obvious. The only problem with this is you also miss the time for reports and they (the toxic players) just move along to another queue. Even if I stayed and reported, I don't have much faith in the report system after the duo mentioned previously and so it becomes a cycle.

The toxic players generally escape unharmed and the normal players have to deal with it. The mute function is a weak attempt at a fix and the report system is (at least to many players) useless. This leaves us with the sole option of avoiding the problem and so the problem stays. The system isn't perfect, it can't catch all the negatives a player is dishing out and people are cunning. I'm pretty sure the system only picks out specific words or phrases but it can't cover all the possibilities which leaves loopholes. A player might say one thing that the system deems fine but the underlying intention is negative, one that the general player can understand as such. There needs to be something you can do in the champion select, it might not have to be a report but something to heads-up the system into thinking this player is generally negative and reports to this person are likely justified--which takes us to my solution.

My idea for a fix is a 'Flag' button that can be utilized during the champion selection. Flags, reports, and the Honor system can all cooperatively work to reduce toxicity and separate such players from normal players. A player can Flag another player during champion select for various reasons (mainly toxicity or threats to troll) and once a person has accumulated too many Flags, these are then compared to the player's honor level and reports they've received. If Flags, reports, and negative honor level match up, they are then removed from the 'normal' queue and passed down to the 'Flagged' queue. This would also remove the need for the [5, 10, 15, 20 minute] pre-game timers (which I think is pretty useless) because the toxic players would be passed down to an entirely separate queue. Since there are less toxic players than not, queue times for the Flagged queue would naturally take longer (an indirect punishment) and because the toxic player base is focused in one queue, the spread of toxicity is reduced. Once a player has shown significant attitude changes (shown by honor level), they will then be returned to the normal queue. This creates a system in which negative behavior pulls you from the normal queue into a separate queue with its own disadvantages but also promotes positive behavior from those in this queue because they would want to return to the normal queue.

This is just an idea, it's likely not perfect and won't be implemented into the game by Riot but it's just an attempt at a better solution. You can feel free to agree/disagree and point out advantages/disadvantages of why/why not this will/won't work. Also sorry for long post. It seriously wasn't meant to be this long, it just all started coming out.

32 Comments

Imperial Pandaa6/20/2018, 10:54:50 PM7 votes

So you want to make a prisoners island, which Riot has already spoken against having?

Kei1436/21/2018, 12:05:29 AM3 votes

You know ... the actual functionality of the system isn't that bad once you understand how the system works.

What's bad is that it gives crappy feedback and makes you FEEL that the system doesn't work.

MadSeer6/20/2018, 11:01:31 PM2 votes

The prisoners island in this context would be 100% legitimate. DOTA 2 already has had a system like that for leavers (possibly other griefers too I don't remember). Just feels like leaving toxic players that won't change their behaviour to play with like minded players is the only thing to do at this point.

AJStarhiker6/20/2018, 11:29:36 PM2 votes

While I wouldn't mind being able to flag a player to remind myself to report them (i.e. an icon next to the mute button), the report system already tags players for review.

As far as your segregated queue...no. Putting toxic players with toxic players would not solve the problem. Not to mention Riot has said they will not use a Prisoners' Island system. Putting toxic players together will only further normalize those behaviors, since they'll see everyone around them doing the same thing.

Long queue times are already used for LeaverBuster and queue dodging. I suspect if Riot thought it would help, they would used queue timers for other forms of punishment. It's along the lines of making the punishment fit the crime. If you waste other people's time by leaving or going afk, then you can waste your own time waiting to get into a few games. If you can't be trusted to use chat responsibly, your ability to use that system will be restricted. If you ruin other people's experience, then you lose benefits every player gets for, at minimum, neutral behavior.

As far as muting only 'covering' the problem... think of it like an impenetrable forcefield. It doesn't matter how many verbal daggers are thrown at you, you will be protected. After the game, a report tags that player for review.

I think the problem a lot of players have is the system is not instantanious. A lot of punishable behaviors require a pattern to reach the punishment threshhold. Patterns require multiple examples. And unfortunately, getting those patterns means most reports won't result in feedback for the people making them. And that's where the impression Riot doesn't punish comes from.

It's not that people aren't getting punished, it's that the feedback is so minimal as to feel like nothing is happening.

iMutedYouAll6/20/2018, 11:45:11 PM2 votes

im silver and its literlly toxic trols every 2 games in this rank. if i could remov them from my games id literally do anything. Freaking upvoted

KODAK BLÄCK6/20/2018, 11:06:01 PM1 votes

rito game hlep me the team ate word hurt my eyes and feeling i want to drink bleech GG

Mike Teavee6/20/2018, 11:14:52 PM1 votes

I've received 3 chat restrictions in 2 weeks (been playing 6-8+ years and never received restrictions prior). One was for getting mad at a guy that was inting and calling him a "%%%%". I believe that restriction was warranted, as I let me annoyance prevail. However, these last two have simply been me responding to a player who has been flaming me over and over. The 2nd restriction, the only time I acknowledged the other player was to say "Stop talking shit and just play, man." I received a 10 game restriction. Last night, I had the final straw. I got flamed all game, called a "brainless cooch", "trash", "your life has no value", and countless other insults from an AP Miss Fortune support. All because I said, "Dude, just auto attack" because he went into a fight, used E and R and literally just walked out. He reported me post-game and because I engaged in his flaming by mocking him, the worst thing I said being, "Nothing you say means anything," I received a 25 game restriction. I uninstalled last night and don't plan on playing again

ºKurisu Makiseº6/20/2018, 11:00:22 PM1 votes

I wish I had your well thought out post in my own.. maybe such knowledge would have helped my case. But I find comfort in the fact I'm not alone in my endeavors with the prevalent bullying in this game.. [sg-poppy]