Player Toxicity and How to Solve IT

Hi, my name is Fitz

[Edit: This thread is quite long and some people who like reading the tops and instantly form an opinion => this thread isn't for you. It is for serious people actually looking for solutions to this problem]

This is just an idea developed on a previously discussed subject, player toxicity and punishments. TL;DR

I often enjoy contemplating the human psyche and I find that people who are overly negatively reinforced often revert to their bad ways, now more frustrated than ever. And what a better game to vent your frustration than League of Legends.

I have split this into sections to make it easy to read.

Low elo, unranked, especially sub 30 is now really hard to get by.

Why?

Because now, newer players have to pummel through malcontent/banned smurfs, the pinnacle of toxicity (unreformed players).

And thus one main cause for new players not liking the game and leaving early, leading to a sub 30 matchmaking oversaturated with unreformed "smurfs" and the cycle repeats itself only making it worse.

Most of these "smurfs" are alt accounts created after a ban albeit I've seen reports of even people with a chat restriction immediately giving up, instantly creating an alt, by predicting the restriction to eventually lead up to a ban.

This is also a concerning issue of addiction, which is not subject of discussion for this topic.

This consistent punishable behaviour doesn't provoke positive alterations in the majority of these players I have seen.

I don't exactly have the numbers for this but my conclusion derives from the trend of behaviours, overrall insatisfaction and a wide report of new and old players, and observing the deminishing number of new players. [(And yes this last one is very debatable because of fortnight) but lets be real here, league of legends has an insanely good reputation on the competitive end, and hasn't/shouldn't be shaken by a cartoon bootleg pubg (sorry) and fortnite is already losing its numbers, so lets just call it a fluke (for the sakes of avoiding an argument about this)].

What I see on my every-day league experience concerning this matter:

Variable but inconsistent degrees of punishment.

Some very loosely applied punishments, afterwards pled against and defended with some rather unimpressive reasoning skills. (primarely chat restrictions and temporary bans, as unescalated permabans are due to extremely exceeding levels of toxicity which I won't defend in any way shape or form)

People coming back angrier than ever. (when ppl react negatively or toxicly to some other form of toxicity and after getting punnished, they start immitating this new form of toxicity instead of "reforming") ===> and then there be trolls

People outright demoralized by getting punished in the most backward-reasoned punishment deliverances, coming back in "auto mode", seeking to bring down as revenge the game itself by frustrating others.

Very minute trust in riot's systems.

How to fix this:

I've played this game for a very long time (8 years to be exact), and I picked up on certain behavioral patterns, that seem coincide with a general incongruent and inconsistent tribunal system. At this point in time I would defend that the rope of punishment needs to loosen up a bit.

Give players the oportunity to sort out verbal conflict. They have tools to do so (like the mute button) and their own inteligence (which sadly I think riot grossly underestimates)!

Obviously if a player verbally harrasses another player and causes him distress, punish him accordingly, but riot needs to stop dishing out punishments for banter, jokes, coordination aimed negative reinforcement (which to me was a tool to learn how to play this game better, perceiving people to like me less for doing X, and henceforth I only do Y). Allow the use of words such as "R%%%%%", "Pussy", "Idiot", "Cringe", "Asshole", "Gtfo", "Noob", "Gay", etc., because nega%%%%%behaviour is often socially reflected on someone's actions and it naturally regenerates into reflection and correction. These words often have a figurative and soft meaning which imperatively ought never ever to be decontextualized. Doing so will anger the punished player and not prompt him to reform. Although rather comicly I think CK lewis describes this idea in a very ingenious way in which all can understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-otAJrtY-w

You're welcome.

In reports I often see the poor distinctions made by possible lack of context or imagination in the identifiaction of banter. And sure it might not be very nice to hear these words, and indeed they are not intended to sound nice, but there is much more behind them than what meets the eye.

We have to understand, some people live in an environment that taught them to be competitive or defensive and react in such ways using such terms. Riot shouldn't attempt to actively re-educate them, because obviously it doesn't possess that capability. As they like the game, they will keep playing it in lower level matchmaking, where this behaviour is a bit more dilluted due to constantly increasing in numbers and newbies will be inevitably targeted. (we musn't forget that noobs become pros and not the other way around, without noobs the number of high elo players also deminishes)

Lets say "Hard harrassment" is inting or throwing, heavy racism or sexism, afk, high toxicity and so on which is easily identifiable, things like "Kys", not things like "stop being a %%%% about it".

Lets say "Soft harrassment" is offending someone, lying about someone in chat, running it down once or twice, or ragequitting and then returning after 2 mins but to a degree of "rubbing people t%%%%rong way" and not outright "pissing them off" levels of toxicity.

I think, although counterintuitively, we should Negatively reinforce players who practise "Hard harrassment" and Positively reinforce players who practise "Soft harrassment", so they can at least this way try and leave the loop of negativity.

The intelligent way of actually re-educating one's behaviours would be, not to "fight fire with fire", and dish out punishments left and right, but a softer aproach, like leaving the player to vent out his anger momentarily, and allowing for him to recover without any interference.

Seek to giving positive reinforcements that actually have a more applicable direct meaning, like a small reward of blue essence for honors directly after a match, or a message reminding players the values these honors imply. More even on those who are indeed indicated as having a history of soft harrassment. So many possibilities and ideas to explore in this area. So lets!

And do not forget! Hatrid only breeds more Hate! So lets stop treating Hate with Hate.

Thank you for reading and I can't wait to see your comments and ideas.