Boards›Player Behavior

Restorative Justice System in League

AriCei·9/11/2017, 8:10:27 AM·1 votes·522 views

What are people's thoughts on using a system more akin to modern criminal justice systems in the banning system, as opposed to the archaic thing they have going on now?

This is a bit of a read, but I think it is worth it- basically I am proposing a system that "soft" bans instead of permanently banning an account. You get your skins, your champs, your icons, your ability to participate in the new quest system etc. removed for a period of time of up to a year depending on how serious the offense is. There is even room eventually for using a version of the computer program that detects negativity to detect positive or constructive comments, and makes the offender give these each session. This is based on the idea that trolls using disposable accounts won't bother, but people who have worked hard for their accounts and gone through some rough patches and actually care, will reform and become contributing members to the community instead of making endless alt accounts to retaliate. Furthermore, reformed individuals are often powerful voices and rolemodels for inspiring others to change their ways. Please see the detailed explanation below:

Currently, if you are a "soft toxic" player, someone who is negative but not hateful or spiteful or using slurs etc., you still get banned by the generic robot system that just looks if you said words like "noob" or "shit". You then get very little feedback on what you are actually doing wrong- the chat logs are out of context, and if you've been defending yourself you get told to mute, rather than address problems like an adult. Once you get a couple of these chat bans, you get a temp ban. At this point, then no matter what you do- you can raise your honour level back up, try to be a better person- and all it takes is one group of trolls to report you, and you get a permaban.

I am proposing that a permaban is a sentence not to be taken as lightly as it is by riot. It feels like you go through the whole process without having a meaningful direction for reform. I cared about my account, I put a lot of work into it over the course of 4+ years, and a lot of money. I was not one of those extremely toxic "burner" accounts with nothing to lose, and I don't have a lot of money. It feels like a harsh sentence with no recourse when I was never being malicious or hateful. I've suffered through games with such toxicity I can't believe people like that even exist, whether they are joking or not, and yet here I am. Lumped in the same crowd.

Modern criminal justice systems have started to adopt a process of "restorative justice" when they actually care about addressing the root causes of problems in their communities. The most violent and serious offenders don't usually get a chance at participating in restorative justice, but it's used for some assault cases, drug charges, theft etc. Basically anything short of rape and murder it's been tried. The offender has to be a willing participant and want to change, and they are given the chance to actually make ammends for what they've done, as opposed to being punished retributively. I feel like a system like this would fall along Riot's supposed guidelines of "no eye for an eye" type of approach to negativity. It doesn't matter if you are defending yourself, if you consistently argue with people who are harassing you, you will be banned along with them. There is no place for a victim, no place to have your report looked at in it's context. If that harasser has 2 buddies with him, you'll get 3 reports whether you did anything wrong or not. Riot wants you to think this is a myth but it isn't. A computer system cannot administer justice properly, it's not their fault, they just have to stop believing it's working correctly.

Instead of permanently banning an account, how about actually reviewing it's chat logs in context? If they are actually being extremely toxic and negative, but them in a restorative justice system. This could be something like a long term restriction program- kind of like house arrest. You lose all your skins, all your icons, all your champions even(?) You could get actual helpful messages when you sign in like "hey if you are feeling frustrated, take a break" or some more detailed excerpts from conflict resolution. It wouldn't be hard, not least of all with your vast resources. Take some excerpts from a text book on how to be respectful etc. There are a lot of readily available resources out there. You could even get real fancy one day and make them complement a player on a play they make or something, say something positive using a similar computer program as your negativity detector. Make them do this once per session or something. This period could last a month, 2, or 6, hell make it a year if it's been serious enough. But don't steal everything they've invested and give up hope on them as if they aren't even human anymore because they've had a hard time interacting with the sometimes abrasive community.

This is a more humane, more reasonable approach, and is frankly far less lazy than the current system. Furthermore, I don't think it's an unreasonably complicated thing to introduce, and it gets you as a support team actually involved in your community instead of just dictating generic decisions based on out of context information and treating people like animals instead of building a sense of remorse.

Anyways- hopefully this interests some, thanks for reading- Ari

19 Comments

RallerenP9/11/2017, 8:35:26 AM6 votes

and if you've been defending yourself you get told to mute, rather than address problems like an adult.

What is the one thing adults ALWAYS tell children to do when handling bullies? Ignore them, they'll go away when you don't react. Handling the situation by "defending yourself" means handling the situation like a child.

At this point, then no matter what you do- you can raise your honour level back up, try to be a better person- and all it takes is one group of trolls to report you, and you get a permaban.

This is 100% false.

  1. A false report will never get you punished. (Except in very rare cases, which has always been reverted)
  2. Reports don't stack. A group of trolls has no more power than a single troll (Which is 0). And a group of people reporting correctly, has no more power than a single person reporting correctly. They are treated the excact same.

If you actually reform, you will not get punished, but when you are at 14-day ban you have no more chances to reform. If you arent reformed after a 14-day ban, you get punished. Which I think is fair.

Players already get second chances with their accounts. 10-game chat restrict, 25-game chat restrict and eventually 14-day ban. The type of player that can't see their own toxicity and reform after being given those chances, are the type of players Riot doesn't want playing their game.

Besides, Riot already tried giving permabanned players a second chance and it had a 95% failure rate.

AriCei9/12/2017, 2:23:56 AM1 votes

There seems to be some confusion about my post, so I just want to try and clarify- this is not about my personal situation, I was using it (perhaps ill-advisedly) for examples as to what different situations might be out there instead of what I think the typical view of a player who has been permabanned is.

It's easier to label these offenders as less than human and beyond hope so that we don't feel like we have to do anything about it. I understand that there is a personal responsibility in reforming- it is inevitably up to you to change. The difference between a punitive system and a restorative one, is that the former gives you avenues to change, to really reflect on what you've done, and to make amends for it. The latter just dishes eye for an eye brand of justice and sticks it's head in the sand about it.