Boards›Player Behavior

Toxicity

rujitra·12/22/2018, 4:03:38 AM·11 votes·10,103 views

This is a follow up to a prior thread I posted.

Human decency is sorely lacking on the internet. People point this out by saying that "someone toxic in League may be a saint in real life". This is a true statement. There are many people, if not most, who are toxic only on the internet, and in many cases only in a video game (not on, say, forums, chat rooms, etc).

Why is this the case? Is there something inherently toxic about League of Legends and other video games of the MOBA/similar genres that causes people who aren't toxic to think that it's okay? Is it something to do with the fact that players are battling each other, and so the most minimal combative attitude in humans which they normally keep controlled is magnified?

I find it very hard to believe, based on my studies in psychology, that this is true. While it's true that certain situations can magnify underlying impulses/urges (for example, someone on a subway in a new city may keep their belongings closer or avoid talking to people), that does not seem to be the case here. If that were the case, then I do believe we would see much more toxicity in League than we do. Further, this attitude is prevalent in League but not in other combative situations, such as debates occurring on forum/discussion sites such as the Boards, Reddit, etc.

I have always said that "it's not the chat that's the problem, it's the attitude". I stand by this sentiment, as it's been proven that players who don't express toxicity through chat are more likely to be toxic in other ways (such as afking, griefing, etc). That being said, I've never expanded on that to try to explain why the attitude exists, in what way it can be corrected, be that by society or Riot, and whether Riot should even try to correct it or just try to remove it.

Why do toxic attitudes exist?

Simply put, the fight, flight, or freeze instinct is likely a large part of this. Individuals are predispositioned by genetics and environment to have one of these responses to tense, combative, or related situations. Some individuals will fight back, some will leave the situation asap (such as muting, afking, etc), and some will freeze (and stop playing well, or lose reaction time). This seems to be the cause - but I do not think that this can be the only explanation, as the fight/flight/freeze response is present in other situations yet results in much more civilized responses when people "fight".

So what else could explain toxic attitudes? This is likely to be controversial, but to put it bluntly, society and schools are not teaching people that the best response is not to fight fire with fire. Everyone knows this saying, sure, but it's meaningless nowadays to many people, especially younger. People are being taught that they are entitled to what they want, and it's hard for people to accept they are wrong about something. Humility and humanity are severely lacking. People are more concerned about themselves and their feelings, opinions, wants, and desires than they are other peoples' and the goodness of society as a whole.

But in what way can this be corrected?

Well, it's like training a fucking dog. Spray them with water every time they misbehave until they correct their attitude. You may think I'm joking. But I'm not. Continually make them uncomfortable, take things away, or suspend privileges they have until they realize that they are problematic. Yes, it's negative reinforcement. Psychology has proven that negative reinforcement in a non physical way (ex: not including spanking, imprisonment, etc) is the most effective way to correct negative behavior. Similarly, positive reinforcement is the best way to reinforce or encourage positive behavior.

What negative reinforcement can be done? Well, we already see this. People who refuse to be basic decent human beings are already fired from jobs, removed from businesses, have privileges removed, etc. Riot does this by restricting a player's chat, giving them temporary suspensions, giving them lower priority in queue, removing free rewards, and ultimately permanent bans in severe or repetitive cases.

Should Riot be correcting people's attitudes in League?

There's no right answer to this. Some people will say that it is not Riot's job to correct a systematic problem in society. Some people will say it is futile to attempt to correct a problem that goes well beyond Riot's scope (League of Legends and related boards/websites). Some people will say that it's improper for Riot to attempt to control players' attitudes/actions.

But on the other hand, Riot is a business. Their goal is to make a profit. If Riot's customers are less happy with the game - including if the playerbase itself is making itself unhappy, that's a real problem for Riot. Further, Riot has some of the best tools at its disposal to correct attitudes - they can remove what for many players is a very enjoyable experience until they improve their attitudes. Does this have an effect outside of League? Doubtful, given Riot at most can only correct a few dozen million players, and the world's population is in the billions.

Should Riot try? Well, yeah. I think they should be. People who say Riot shouldn't be trying to correct players' attitudes are saying that the government shouldn't ticket people for speeding if there's no accident from it. Homeowners' associations shouldn't fine people who leave their yard looking like shit (even though that decreases the value of houses throughout the neighborhood). Companies should not fire employees who are creating a negative work environment, decreasing productivity.

Will they succeed? No. But why the fuck shouldn't they try? Society is going down a treacherous path of loss of humanity. This same thing has happened in many instances in history, and has at times led to some of the worst genocides of history. People wonder how we had a recent election that over half of America felt was "picking the worse of two evils" (not a political statement, this is a fact, and the subject of this is not politics).

Well, all of these things happened because society has fucked up and toxicity in video games is only one sign of it. And any small part Riot can play in it will at a minimum make League a better place, but has the potential to have an impact, however small, on society as a whole. That kid that let you over a lane in heavy traffic this morning even though he was late to school? Could that possibly be because he realized that everyone's human and deserves to be treated like one? The cashier who told you about the special on something being buy one get one free when you only wanted to buy one and she didn't have any obligation to? Could that be because she just got off a chat restriction in League and made it her mission to treat others better?

Will we ever know the impact Riot has on society as a whole? Hell, we won't ever know the impact on toxicity in League Riot has unless they decide to remove all punishments for a while to get a baseline. But is it logical to say that they're having no impact at all? Nope.

To anyone who's read this entire post, thank you. I hope you've learned something, or if not, at least have a better understanding of my opinions as to why toxicity exists and Riot tries to fight it. I welcome your comments, feedback, debate, or discussion but ask that it remain civil as many of these topics have a tendency to devolve into attacking each other and that's really useless (if also very ironic given the subject of this post).

Regards,

rujitra~

53 Comments

Shacobroyo12/23/2018, 6:34:54 PM5 votes

I'm calling intellectually dishonesty on so many levels.

You're not taking the situation of environment into account. You're entirely ignoring key facts about the game that are divisive.

First if you know anything about psychology you would know trapping an animal in an environment they find threatening causes extremely severe reactions. For instance league traps you inside a game that if people are intentionally trying to harm you psychologically you have no ability to get away from, and you cannot defend yourself for fear of the larger power extremely harshly punishing you without caring about punishing the first cause or caring about resolving the main problem those that prey on others. The reason this game is toxic, and most games are toxic is because there is no social contract.

Eedat12/22/2018, 4:46:01 AM3 votes

You are ignoring several major points

A ton of human communication is non-verbal. Facial expression, eye contact, body language, etc are missing in a chat room so a lot of social queues are impossible to communicate. These have a strong impact on people's actions and they are completely gone. For example, if you make someone cry it both consciously and sub-consciously registers the consequences of what you've done and the negative impact you've had on someone else. Seeing someone cry as a result of what you've done is far, far more powerful than someone simply typing "I'm crying". There is a disconnect with the consequences of your actions on the internet. The missing non-verbal communication queues results in not responding or registering the situation in the way humans normally do. Non-verbal communication arguably has a larger impat on how to interact and express ourselves than actual words do. Typing to a screen just does not register the same queues as being face to face with someone.

Also, the anonymity of the internet has a huge impact. We evolved in a manner to get along with the people around us in mutually beneficial relationships. Strength in numbers and such. Generally speaking, we want to be accepted by the ones around us and we know that behavior that is not deemed socially acceptable negatively impacts this. This is why emotions like embarrassment, loneliness, shame, etc are generally perceived as unpleasant or negative and why receiving praise or thanks is rewarded with more positive emotions. On the internet, this gets thrown out the window. Your negative behavior is not linked to you. It's linked to some random account you made. This erases your natural avoidance to socially unacceptable behavior. You can do whatever you want and people are only going to hate your username, not you. The disconnect of social punishment plays a big factor.

I'll come back to add to this later. Gotta go for now.

mlm olo mlm12/22/2018, 2:15:47 PM3 votes

How much are you paying for those upvotes?

Kaisha12/22/2018, 6:16:52 AM2 votes

Ahh typical pseudo-science drivel... you'll do well as a psychologist I imagine.

At its core the DOTA and hence league gameplay 'catch' promotes selfish gameplay, an hence promotes toxicity.

See some history here. When WC3 came out Blizzard was going off the success of SC, one of the 1st true 'esports' and this idea of skill was important. So WC3/TFT was built from the ground up to have a high skill cap. Skill really did dictate success in that game... and it was brutal. I loved it, most did not. See most players are used to single player games where they are the hero, and winning is relatively easy. In the multiplayer world though you had to actually be good to succeed, and this lead to a huge loss of the player base. The ranked ladders quickly became quiet and were replaced with custom games, tower defense, endless cash, and... AoS clones (what MOBAs were really called back in the day). DOTA was popular because it was dumbed down/simple. You didn't have 3 heros + an army and multiple bases to control, you had 1 hero and the AI controlled the rest for you. All you needed to do was get the right hero/item combination, get a little luck, get fed, and then you were god-mode unstoppable.

This snowball mechanic is why league is so popular. If the game was pure skill and/or strategy the masses would not play (see Atlas Reactor as a great example), but throw in a bit of RNG and a snowball mechanic and now even crappy players can become unstoppable, occasionally. Doesn't happen every game but it only has to happen enough to feed the addiction.

Its designed to be both selfish and addictive. This isn't by accident, it is the very core mechanic of the game. And its the primary driving factor of the toxicity. The toxicity isn't accidental, it isn't 'indicative of the modern political climate' or any other BS. Its a game that rewards selfish behavior, and has removed all reasonable forms of conflict resolution. All people are left with is to go big, or go troll, there's just nothing else to do in the game.

Jinxsterr12/22/2018, 4:09:56 AM2 votes

Long read but worth it, very well put .

Upvoted.

I'm a bit worried about coming back to this post later and seeing all the replies from people who read 2 sentences and proceeded to the reply box.

mack911212/22/2018, 4:12:15 AM2 votes

I think we as a community have the power to change we need only take the step.

Kalikko12/22/2018, 4:25:23 AM2 votes

**People are toxic on the internet because they can be anonymous. **

Blizzard tried to curb toxic behavior several years back by linking people's battle.net accounts to their real names, and had a HUGE backslash, not to mention several legal suites filed before implementation.

Not going to change as long as you can be anonymous.

C9 Aphrolift12/22/2018, 4:58:40 PM1 votes

Backbone.

That's what's lacking on the internet and IRL these days.

I'm for a more free flowing league of legends chat. If you don't like it, it's okay...I believe in you...I know it's tough but.....you can press that mute button.

R107 Games12/22/2018, 5:00:04 AM1 votes

i think its pretty simple to why people are toxic in this game.

League is competitive in nature, so it attracts a lot of competitive players. Players that are competitive have a stronger desire to win the game. They often take the game seriously to complete that goal. When a player looks like they aren't trying, or are making poor decisions that reduce the likelihood of winning, the competitive players naturally get upset and frustrated when they encounter those kinds of players. The frustration then turns into toxicity.

EL HAMSTERO12/24/2018, 4:05:56 AM1 votes

the way the game is setup is toxic. i still think LoL is a great game but it is just the truth.

not allowing players to leave games is toxic. many of these games take 30+ minutes. with any other video game you can just leave when you stop having fun. but in LoL you are stuck in that unfun situation for a very long period of time. that causes toxicity.

the snowballing nature of the game is toxic. everyone knows the feeling of being up in top lane fighting your hardest while your bot lane feeds kill after kill to the enemies. how is it possible to not get at least a little bit upset with them? they might be doing their best but every death makes your enemies stronger. and eventually they will be unstoppable monsters that you have to try to fight. they are the ones having a bad game but you have to suffer the consequences of their feeding. that is toxic.

matchmaking is toxic. LoL is designed so that every player will win 50% and lose 50%. that means for every win you will have to take a future loss. that leads to players wanting to lose in order to get easier games. and that is toxic.