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Why does the Player Behavior System not prevent harmful messages from being sent in the first place?

Oelyk·6/8/2017, 5:29:09 AM·3 votes·460 views

Disclaimer: I don't care for swearing, everybody does it to express frustration, to exaggerate, etc. This is about words used to assault and harass others, which actually hurt.

Look, I know language filter is a thing.

But it's an option, not a permanent thing. People are naturally curious and insecure when someone is just spewing out of a storm of asterisks, which often is clear enough just based on the number alone and context that I could probably have someone used the most obscure filtered words and still get the gist that that I should just go die and that I'm useless or the likes. It hardly protects anyone who is aware of those words. I also know the mute button is an option, which I myself maybe overuse sometimes, even if it's a perfectly fine player who is just frustrated with me for a disagreement in judgement. But I feel like I can say that it's used reflexively more than initiatively, It doesn't block the first attack. The "I just mute everyone" people have lost hope in the player base and just protect themselves by blocking out everything, even the good, just because of that one potential attack. Currently the game does have protective options, however they are absolute, and they are not passive, it requires action by the player spurred by a reason to mute someone. As for the language filter, I honestly find it hilariously underwhelming of an actual protective option due to it only blocking key words, which it's easy enough to read between the lines.

So, I ask:

Under what circumstances would messages like KYS, retard, autistic, etc actually have any positive effect on the game?

Just flat out block messages containing key trigger words, the entire message just deleted and never sent. Make it not an option, but a permanent feature. If people need to use those words to communicate and win games, or express themselves in a non-negative way towards others, they can find other ways to communicate that without those words.

To my understanding, the judgement system picks up these words from the logs, but the fact remains the damage has been done! Why persecute a serial killer after he murdered dozens of people when you can prevent him from ever killing in the first place! To be honest, the judgement system, although cleaning out toxicity is kind of just cleaning up the remains of a hurricane. The "I'll get to it later" approach.

Preventive action. I beg of you. Protect the players who get hurt each an every day before they are affected by stranger's words. Riot can't stop toxicity from existing, and I certainly can't, but a gun cannot shoot and kill a person if it cannot be fired.

17 Comments

Chermorg6/8/2017, 5:34:32 AM1 votes

I think the biggest problem with this is it'll just encourage people to use more negative but subtle types of toxicity. If someone says "kys" and slurs repeatedly, they're an easy ban. If those messages get blocked, then they'll probably still be toxic in a harder-to-detect way.

To go with your analogy: Banning guns doesn't stop murders because there's other weapons out there that are less traceable than others. To bring up a recent event, the most recent terrorist attack in London didn't use guns at all, yet many people still died.

It's not just that these words should never be used, which is probably true. It's that people who use them are easier to detect and ban altogether when they're allowed to say them. If the messages are just blocked and logged, but not sent, then players have an argument "well I knew it'd be blocked anyway so I said it because nobody would even see it" to try and get unbanned. It's a hard thing. But I can support it given more information on how it'd work.

Essychu6/8/2017, 8:57:31 AM1 votes

club penguin player here .

Kei1436/8/2017, 4:29:37 PM1 votes

kys can be used in a gameplay form, to tell a teammate to suicide at a tower when the enemy is closing in from all sides to deny gold.

NinjaGuy696/8/2017, 5:03:46 PM1 votes

Under what circumstances would messages like KYS, retard, autistic, etc actually have any positive effect on the game?

Those examples don't have any positive effect on the game. However, as Chermorg stated, auto-filtering certain words would just prompt players to find ways around the language filter. For example, the language filter blocks out the word "fuck" so people started abbreviating the word to "fk" instead. People are always going to find a way around the language filter.

Your suggestion essentially comes down to "Let's censor free speech because we're going to automatically assume that it's always stated in a negative context". That then begs the question: Where does Riot draw the line in between inappropriate language and trash talk? Where do they draw the line in between inappropriate language and harmless self-expression? Inappropriate language has no place in this game, but it's wrong to fully censor some forms of language, especially when people just want to use it to express frustration (or even joy) instead of directing that language at others.

People exercise their free speech in this game all the time, but you're not obligated to listen to it. Riot already provides you with a language filter (that they're constantly working on updating), so it's on you if you're not using it. And if you're that triggered by some of the language that isn't detected by the language filter (regardless of the context) then you have the option to mute others as well.

Chønklord6/8/2017, 5:48:16 PM1 votes

This is an interesting concept no doubt. I think the primary reason riot doesn't take steps to make a preventative system for certain extremely offensive words like racial slurs for example, is because players who would use these types of insults to harass and be toxic, generally have a disposition to be toxic already. At least with the current system, they can punish and remove them once they've hit a threshold or utilized severe toxicity against the zero policy rule.

PandaPenyihir6/8/2017, 11:20:02 PM1 votes

words hurt

yes maybe if you are a woman or completely emotionally weak person, in that case, you shouldn't even be on the internet in the first place.