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New to the game - Still haven't seen the toxic community I've heard so much about.

aTinyKittenYAY·8/16/2018, 10:42:07 PM·14 votes·5,096 views

Hello everyone!

This is my first post. I started playing LoL about 2 weeks ago and it's the first MOBA I have ever played, ever. In fact I never really even knew what a MOBA was and I had already decided that the idea was stupid. Once I started working after college I heard more and more people talking about LoL. Finally 2 weeks ago I was bored and decided to give it a go - I was hooked instantly.

One thing though that I have heard about this game in the last year is that it's toxic. Any search on Google for "most toxic game" will bring this. Coming from the Call of Duty community & Hearthstone forum/game community I was really expecting a terrible experience.

My very first game I played I had no clue what I was doing. I decided to take the middle route because it seemed faster than going all the way around. Of course the mid was not happy and informed me they had called it. I had no idea what he was talking about or why anyone had to call where they wanted to stand but I didn't want to be difficult so I asked him where I should go and he told me, bottom. After that I had a couple games with numerous deaths & my team mates would tell me to stop feeding. This might have been slightly annoying to hear at first but after a little time I realized WHY dying so much was bad and I was more careful.

The rest of my experiences have been wonderful. I'm only level 24 but I've really enjoyed playing. I have been invited to two social groups after doing well in a game and most people have been very friendly in a way that I don't expect from online games.

Hearthstone is a BM fest & Call of Duty.. Well if you enjoy getting told to f*** your mother by a 12 year old you would get the idea of that community.

So it makes me wonder, is there a storm coming and if so - when? When I go to ranked is everyone suddenly toxic and will rage at every death I get?

I'm starting to feel like the players who say this game is so toxic are just people who feed and then get mad when team mates criticize them. I try to avoid this by playing with bots when I want to try a new champion. Kench for example, I suck with. I still haven't had a good game against the bots so I don't see myself bringing him to blind or draft anytime soon.

But anyway, just wanted to say hello to the LoL online forum community and see the opinions on this!

24 Comments

Jamaree8/16/2018, 10:43:43 PM10 votes

It has no more or less toxic players then other games it is just since the density of players is so high, the chances of you finding one are above average.

They will come though, give it time.

Demon King Maou8/16/2018, 10:43:20 PM6 votes

Go play ranked you'll see them enmasse

Zombie Gerbil8/16/2018, 10:52:06 PM5 votes

What you find here you'll find anywhere with any open chat online games. Though, for a free to play, League of Legends is very strict with their policy. A lot of toxic players get banned every hour. You'll run into them eventually. Especially when you start playing Ranked.

doodlebob6668/16/2018, 10:48:21 PM3 votes

normal games are not that bad its when you get into ranked play where it becomes hellish, especially in the bottom of leagues and platinum for some reason

Aneirin8/16/2018, 10:47:51 PM3 votes

I'm starting to feel like the players who say this game is so toxic are just people who feed and then get mad when team mates criticize them. I try to avoid this by playing with bots when I want to try a new champion. Kench for example, I suck with. I still haven't had a good game against the bots so I don't see myself bringing him to blind or draft anytime soon.

I think there's an element of this, and also people with more abrasive personalities setting off their teammates. I rarely say anything negative in chat, and I rarely see toxic behaviour in my games. While there may be a regional difference as well I feel like there has to be a common denominator for these people who say every game is toxic.

Eleshakai8/18/2018, 5:54:40 AM2 votes

People bring their own toxicity with them. They expect toxicity so they find it.

Ranked does increase the stress, so more people will be on-edge and thus there will be a bit more high nerves, but there're still nice people.

Enderkk8/17/2018, 3:32:36 AM1 votes

Glad to hear you are enjoying the game! Yes, this community is known for being toxic but there just as many nice players, the toxic players are usually the loud ones, the ones who want attention and love whining. If you are enjoying the game, don't let these people stop you from doing that. GL HF on the rift fellow summoner :)

SoullessFlunky8/17/2018, 3:52:04 AM1 votes

I think there is for sure something to what you said about people being over sensitive, but I’ll be really curious to see if your view changes once you start ranked play. People LOSE THEIR MINDS. You think some of these silver players have their livelihoods on the line during ranked games they take it so serious to the point of legitimate threats if you give first blood or lose lane lol.

Yatol8/17/2018, 12:18:51 PM1 votes

you must be very lucky or play at the right time

i remember when i was bellow level 30 in Bot game would be rare but could still happen Blind Draft was fine until a smurf managed to get in (they always need to brag about how many times they got banned)

EVERY SINGLE normal draft game was filled with toxicity

AugustHeatHaze8/18/2018, 5:22:42 AM1 votes

just because you don't see it doesn't mean its not an issue dude

JAYCCCCCCCCCCCCE8/18/2018, 5:26:00 AM1 votes

Level 1-30 in noramals usually isnt toxic. Its ranked silver+ thats toxic.

Vidrago8/18/2018, 5:53:18 AM1 votes

the problem isnt when you start, the problem is when you develop and the game dosen't recognize, or you are actually trying to play this TEAM game as a TEAM and you give someone an opinion and they insult you or pick sona mid with supp items... and you are like, wtf, why do i have to waste my time doing this, and you leave, guess what, LOW priority queue waiting you. FUN game, quickly growing aswell!

MYSTlCFLOW8/18/2018, 9:37:42 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Hello everyone!

This is my first post. I started playing LoL about 2 weeks ago and it's the first MOBA I have ever played, ever. In fact I never really even knew what a MOBA was and I had already decided that the idea was stupid. Once I started working after college I heard more and more people talking about LoL. Finally 2 weeks ago I was bored and decided to give it a go - I was hooked instantly.

One thing though that I have heard about this game in the last year is that it's toxic. Any search on Google for "most toxic game" will bring this. Coming from the Call of Duty community & Hearthstone forum/game community I was really expecting a terrible experience.

My very first game I played I had no clue what I was doing. I decided to take the middle route because it seemed faster than going all the way around. Of course the mid was not happy and informed me they had called it. I had no idea what he was talking about or why anyone had to call where they wanted to stand but I didn't want to be difficult so I asked him where I should go and he told me, bottom. After that I had a couple games with numerous deaths & my team mates would tell me to stop feeding. This might have been slightly annoying to hear at first but after a little time I realized WHY dying so much was bad and I was more careful.

The rest of my experiences have been wonderful. I'm only level 24 but I've really enjoyed playing. I have been invited to two social groups after doing well in a game and most people have been very friendly in a way that I don't expect from online games.

Hearthstone is a BM fest & Call of Duty.. Well if you enjoy getting told to f*** your mother by a 12 year old you would get the idea of that community.

So it makes me wonder, is there a storm coming and if so - when? When I go to ranked is everyone suddenly toxic and will rage at every death I get?

I'm starting to feel like the players who say this game is so toxic are just people who feed and then get mad when team mates criticize them. I try to avoid this by playing with bots when I want to try a new champion. Kench for example, I suck with. I still haven't had a good game against the bots so I don't see myself bringing him to blind or draft anytime soon.

But anyway, just wanted to say hello to the LoL online forum community and see the opinions on this!

truly new players get separated from smurfs. so yeah if you're with other new players don't expect them to be like regular league players in terms of toxcicity

had you known how to play the game you would've seen all the toxcicity by level 10

so maybe in ranked.

MrHaZeYo8/16/2018, 10:47:21 PM1 votes

I came to League 5 years ago from CoD (Started CoD when CoD4 came out) and I really don't think League is anywhere close to as toxic as CoD was back then pre xbox party system.

Kei1438/16/2018, 10:50:08 PM1 votes

You passed the storm already.

Return of Pisces8/17/2018, 1:54:33 AM1 votes

So this game has it's notorious reputation because at some point regardless of whatever lie people may try to sell you, Every single player of this game has done or said something toxic. Now obviously like with all things, some are worse than others. In terms of the reputation it comes down to what they mean when they say toxic, and what you yourself would categorize as toxic. Let me break it down. I like to view it in these 3 sub categories: 1.) Harassment, Hatespeech, and/or Outright chat specifically targetted at harming someone. 2.) Toxic Actions. 3.)Other chat including criticism, BMing, gloating, rank shaming, trash talk... i think u get the idea.

So sub category number 1 is relatively self explanatory yes? Let's move on. Sub category number 2: Toxic Actions. What are toxic actions? well as with most of the guidelines for this game that's determined by SOME of the player-base's opinions on the matter, allegedly. [1] [see notes at bottom]

Actions personally that i consider toxic would include:attempting to play the game by yourself and refusing any manner of teamwork and communication with your team, emote spamming, following them around map to deny resources, intentional feeding along with any manner of assisting the enemy team consciously (commonly referred to as a whole, as "Inting" ) , role-stealing, win-trading, rage quitting, playing ranked matches under the influence. These may vary in the opinions of other players but a good few of them are generally agreed upon as toxic. Of course it comes down to context of the actions.

Other chat.... so some of the player-base are quite divided when it comes to some of the things listed in sub category 3. I personally think that criticism provided delivered correctly in not even close to toxic EVEN if its unwanted and should be encouraged. BMing, trash talk, and gloating is more of a grey area for me, it can easily turn into harassment. Rank shaming, is not something i believe to be toxic in some cases but i think it comes down to context, for example when a smurf is telling a low ranking player.. "please do..... this." etc. then the low ranking player cops this bad ass attitude "wtf why the hell would we listen to you?" In this case obviously it is beyond okay to say because i've peaked at a different rank and your hardstuck for a reason. (i would assume some of the player base does not agree with my opinion in this case) Rank shaming for no reason is a form of harassment though in my books is 100% toxic.

[NOTE: I include some when talking about our opinions shaping the guidelines for in-game behavior because we communicate this through reports, but for some short sighted reason, Riot believes that some players reports value decreasing is a good idea. Unfortunately their idea of what is and what isn't a "false" report can be rather misguided at times.]

Anyways thanks to any who took the time to read, please share your opinions as well. I hope this gave you something to work with aTinyKittenYAY.

Telephone Booth8/17/2018, 3:15:37 AM1 votes

Your last paragraph pretty much sums it up correctly. Dramatic, sensitive kids, fostered by a society that tells you words mean everything and should hurt, exaggerating their victimhood online. Pretty typical.

Edit: of course there are toxic players. There are also really nice players. You will have times where you are told to F your mother, but to me, that's no big deal. Just internet strangers being assholes. Pretty typical of any online game in my experience. Some good, some bad. There is no extreme one way or the other. People just love to play the victim and get attention telling others how hurt they are.

SugeMinPikk8/17/2018, 3:23:10 AM1 votes

People like to say low level experience is bad because their smurf experience is bad. Riot has a fairly decent system that detects whether or not you're actually new to MOBAs and matches you with people accordingly.

Also, league's no different from any other online video game, as far as "tock sick city" goes. You're just stuck with them for 30+ minutes.

So combine confirmation bias with negativity bias and long game times and you've got a game famous for its "tock sick city"