Boards›Player Behavior

Why are chat flamers banned, but in game trollers aren't?

Äsh·8/15/2018, 9:33:14 PM·7 votes·3,162 views

League is a toxic, dying game. There's really no way around it, but with all of that being said, why is Riot so strictly enforcing "good behavior." For example, players who play stupid shit in games like a troll support pick in ranked or "innovating" with ad tank annie top in ranked go totally unpunished. But the instant somebody types "kys" that's apparently worse in Riot's eyes than ruining a game through any of the following ways: Soft Inting (taking normal summoner spells and items but just dying over and over to lose the game) Troll off meta picks that wind up losing the game, people who give up and AFK only get a leaverbuster which is annoying, but not an actual penalty to their rank. There's probably more ways that people lose games, but none of them receive any punishment, or at least not near as much as "toxic players" who flame in chat. Me calling someone a dumbass shithead f*ggot (don't want a forum ban) changes nothing about the actual game. Sure it isn't pleasant, but neither are any of the above listed behaviors. Plus, there's an in game system called muting which is designed to prevent players from being tilted if there's a toxic player in the first place. Flaming certainly doesn't have near the affect of trolling, but it's punished far more because Riot (in my opinion) are a don't want peoples' feelings hurt. It's online, it's a game, none of what I say is gonna matter in 15 minutes and I'll never meet any of the people I'm playing with or flaming. But because I really hate the players in my game, I'm not gonna call them any of that because why call em bad shit and get banned after winning a game, when I can type oops hehe and run down bot lane with normal items just feeding on purpose without getting banned?

To summarize this rant, being toxic in chat isn't even toxic because the players make a choice to be upset by it rather than muting the flamer. Troll pickers, "Innovators", soft inters, and overall bad players are toxic. They're the ones that end up losing games, not the flamers. Now once a flamer afks or starts inting, they've ruined a game and should certainly be banned since they're now not just a flamer, but I'm sick of my accounts getting banned for calling someone a slur, or just bad with very descriptive language when they can choose not to read it. It doesn't ruin games, it hurts feelings, so fuck off and get over it. EDIT: They removed me calling Rito a bad name :c. Proves my point right there

59 Comments

AeroWaffle8/15/2018, 9:37:28 PM9 votes

Both flaming and trolling is bad. But trolling is much harder to detect and prove. That doesn't mean that Riot should just ignore people behaving like assholes.

ModPeriscope8/15/2018, 9:42:00 PM5 votes

I've removed the insult in your post, as it violated the Golden Rule: treat others with common courtesy on the board, be they Rioters, moderators, or other posters.

If you have any questions about this moderation, feel free to reach out to us in the Boards Discord.

The Highest Noon8/15/2018, 11:00:27 PM3 votes

What is with this assumption that rolls aren't punished? They ARE punished. Just because you don't get a notification every time you report someone doesn't mean they're not being punished. And, if they're NOT being punished, guess what? That means they either weren't rolling or aren't repeatedly trolling games. Riot does not punish people for one-time instances of most cases, but if you ARE punished that definitely means you do it all the time and deserve it.

ModPrandine8/16/2018, 3:08:20 AM3 votes

Here's the thing though: Chat is meant to be used as a tool for helpful communication with others. When a person (let's call them Jack) uses that tool to verbally abuse and harass others it causes a breakdown in communication and gameplay. How? Because Jack is now more interested in typing out insults and flame than he is actually playing the game, essentially forcing his team to play at a one-man disadvantage, which in turn makes it more difficult for his team to actually win the game. Yes Jacks teammates can just mute or ignore him, and maybe that will get Jack to refocus his efforts on the actual game itself, but it doesn't change the fact that he forced that decision onto his teammates in the first place with his actions.

The chat restrictions are meant to convey the fact that chat is not meant to be used as a tool to abuse, threaten or harass others. If Jack decides to ignore those warnings then he gets hit with one final warning in the form an actual time ban from the game, warning him that continued poor behavior will result in a permanent ban from the game. If he ignores that warning as well, then he's proven that he has no intention or interest in behaving properly and thus is no longer a customer Riot wants, hence the permaban.

Now before you say "oh just permamute him", that's not a be-all end-all solution as Jack can just easily resort to gameplay trolling and/or intentional feeding to harass his teammates, things that are harder to detect and prove intent for than simple chat related offenses. Many players did this when Riot tried permamutes in the form of infinitely scaling chat restrictions, and it's exactly why we have the current 4 strike system in place today. From Riot Tantram:

It really breaks down into two categories.

1.) Helping players reform 2.) Shielding others from the behavior, at a cost.

We used to issue chat restrictions that essentially scaled indefinitely.

We were able to determine that after a certain point the penalty no longer helped with reform. The 10-game and 25-game counts for chat restrictions are based on data that they were both light enough, and felt strict enough to encourage people to understand their behavior is unacceptable in game and change it.

We also saw that the players in this 'large restriction' category defaulted to gameplay altering means of harassing their team. It caused an increase in feeding and trolling.

The sample size of this population and time frame is huge. Essentially the time spanning from the introduction of chat restrictions to the introduction of IFS.

So my question for you is, would you rather have more feeders and less negative chat?

It's pretty clear: if someone isn't gonna behave properly despite being given multiple chances to do so then why shouldn't they be removed from the game?

Finally before you say "oh just permaban them when they're caught trolling" that's not the issue here: the issue is players like Jack intentionally misusing tools in order to abuse and harass other players. Neither Riot nor the community as a whole want the Jacks to just swap between different methods of abuse, they just want the Jacks to be removed if they refuse to learn their lessons from the multiple warnings they're given.

P.S. Trolls and inters do get banned but because they're getting smarter about how they avoid detection (and because Riot wants to try to avoid punishing innocent players as much as possible) it's harder to catch them in the act compared to simple chat-related offenses. Gameplay related offenses when proven to be on purpose are assigned a 2-week ban as the first punishment. In case you don’t believe me on this point here are a couple examples of gameplay trolls being banned. Yes it’s just a few examples, but it proves that they do get punished.

YerroFever8/15/2018, 10:50:42 PM2 votes

One is a lot easier to detect than the other so it feels like one isn't punished because it's such a slow process?