Better Reporting Categories
Overall I'm quite happy with League of Legends and I'm not in this thread because I'm frustrated by bad etiquette. The reason for this post is that Riot just changed the reporting categories and for a long time I've felt that the categories could be slightly better named/oriented. The biggest problem I've run into, at times, is that I know that the behavior I witnessed should be reported but its difficult to find an appropriate category.
Here is Riot's official page on reporting players: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752884-Reporting-a-Player
This page is outdated, though, as Riot just introduced new reporting categories. I'll quickly address some of them.
Negative Attitude: I've never liked this name for a category for several reasons. First, it seems sort of weak. "Can a player really get punished for a negative attitude?" Even though the answer is "yes," it doesn't feel very strong, partly because its overly broad. And when is a negative attitude reportable and when is allowable (e.g., "I don't have a good feeling about our Veigar picking into a Talon.") The examples say "Griefing" and "Giving Up." It seems to me, though, that there is a big difference between some minor griefing (while still playing your ass off trying to win) and adjusting your play-style in a manner where you're not really trying (but falls short of intentionally feeding).
Verbal Abuse and Hate Speech: These are two different categories. I really like the addition of "Hate Speech" as it is clear and precise and can, hopefully, draw prompter and stricter action. But left over in the description of "Verbal Abuse" is "Offensive Language." It seems like the vast majority of offensive language is hate speech (unless you wish to ban profanity) so what is left for offensive language seems rather vague. I've found in my experience that I most often report people for verbal abuse, although I do think this category is a bit broad.
Cheating: I have no problem with this category but should it also include players who admit they are elo boosters or are really diamond playing on their friend's silver account?
Now I'll discuss the types of behavior (and categories) that I'd like to see. But as a qualifier, I don't really know how Riot handles the tribunal. Supposedly you can get in trouble for false reports. Clearly, Riot cannot go and check the logs of very many games where there is a report, so lots of this system has to be handled automatically. But I'd guess for some of the most heavily reported accounts (or reporting accounts) Riot might take a closer look at game logs to check on the offenses.
But what would they look for something like "negative attitude?" Would it merely be checking the chat logs. Or would they never look in depth at this category and let it be 100% automatically handled? In any event, I think players feel better about a negative experience when there is a proper category for them to report under. Here are my suggestions:
Categories that are fine as are: Leaving Game/AFK, Hate Speech, Cheating, Offensive/Inappropriate Name
Harassment - Threats and Degradation: This category represents threats made to another player or harassment designed to intentionally discourage a player from participating in League of Legends. This should be a seldom used category but should be very serious (as I would assume hate speech to be).
Toxic - Verbal Harassment: The player harasses teammates that creates a toxic environment for the team, which tends to reduce the quality of play from the team. Typically this includes crucifying a player for a mistake or poor play. Simply pointing out a mistake or a suggestion to improve play does not qualify. Key features of this harassment includes: (1) Indicating anger towards the other player; (2) A repetition of comments toward the player.
Toxic - Abandoning Game Prematurely: This represents when players, through their comments, signal to their team that the game is lost far too prematurely. Examples would be after first blood is given up or, suppose 13 minutes into the game, the kill score is 7-3. This doesn't try to define the exact line when hope should be given up, but is simply saying "It is FAR too early for these comments." When I think of the current "negative attitude" report, this is probably what I think of.
Toxic - Abandoning Team: This would include intentionally feeding, a very serious offense, but would also include similar behavior. For example, one game I was playing mid-lane and my team got an early gank on the enemy team’s ADC. The next thing I know, I’m squaring off against her in mid-lane. Why? She was raging at her team for allowing the gank and said, “Screw you guys, I’m mid now. Live with it.” This deserves more than "negative attitude." Another example would be if, during champ select, the last pick says "mid" and someone else takes mid-lane ahead of him. When it gets to the last pick, he picks a mid-laner anyway and goes mid. This category does not include people trying unconventional strategies or builds, nor does it include legitimate disagreements over strategy (split push or group mid) but it includes all sorts of behavior intentionally designed to troll or undermine the team.
While Riot understandably wants to streamline the report categories, I think players would feel better if categories were slightly more broken up so that they would properly represent the report the player wants to make. I also think punishment for certain categories should be harsher than others. Currently, there are lots of offenses on par with "intentionally feeding" that would be pushed into "negative attitude." And my suggestions don't really add much baggage. There used to be nine categories. Now there are seven. My suggestions, which include Riot's new "cheating" category, would total eight.
