Boards›Player Behavior

What Riot's Player Behavior Scheme Looks Like (A Critique)

Arakk01·7/22/2018, 8:06:40 AM·2 votes·1,086 views

Let me start out by saying this. I've been punished by Riot's automated system up to and including a 14-day ban. Two power surges in an evening? LeaverBuster was there. Tell Yi to fuck off your lane, or to build a BoRK? Hope you like chat restrictions. Now, if I say that discipline was unjustified, Riot Player Behavior staff will imply I should kill myself again for disagreeing- so I won't. Rather, I'll assume I'm literally acting like a Teemo main and being a total dick to everyone.

Enter how Riot provides feedback. Mechanical, unclear, and unflinching. Why is 50% of what I hear direct verbal assault on me personally if the community is so well-moderated? What makes me being 'passive aggressive' about how people should build so much worse than that? If a human being reviewed the case and mentioned, "Hey, you were being kind of a dick to Brand," that would be clear feedback. "The behavior you displayed in these logs is unacceptable under the terms of the summoners code' or whatever it is now is vague as hell, especially when the logs show you talking some good old fashioned reason out of context.

The phrasing and presentation is accusatory and toxic in its own right- if just being condescending or passive aggressive warrants a 14-day ban, then literally the very popup window informing you of the punishment deserves one too. And for that matter.. Riot's lovely support staff. In their heads, everyone is fresh off of Tumblr and understands what 'microaggression' is without having to Google it. You're a monster for not understanding how you possibly, potentially were overbearing on someone's feelings in telling them what to build, and they're simultaneously incapable of understanding that the person who reported that wasn't upset, but just wanted to blame someone else for losing. The robot is always right, and apparently anyone who even hints otherwise is immediately terminated (like, with an axe, Darius style) before they can post it in a support ticket- because none of the staff will ever even hint that the bot is a bit particular.

Instead, they'll make it very clear that they don't care about you as a player, person, or customer. As long as they can delete the record, Riot staff are totally allowed to imply you should kill yourself- 'If that's how you are, maybe you just shouldn't exist' isn't very subtle, Rioters.

So here's what this latest change to honor really drives home to me:

Riot doesn't want to look at players in its Player Behavior system. It wants to look at accounts. By demonizing, directly attacking, and generally making the game harder for players they punish, they strongly incentivize just giving up and starting a new account- and to that end, they made the journey to 30 that much easier. On the flipside, by locking Ranked rewards behind Honor 2, they literally make it logistically easier to level a brand-new account and climb to your old rank than to climb back up from a year-plus old suspension or chat restriction.

Here's what that means: Your old account will never be reported again! And they can count it as 'reformed', because the reform rate has a nice, broad inactivity window. Meanwhile, your new account is armed with a knowledgeable player who probably has a general idea how to avoid automated punishment- and since it will never be reviewed by a real human being, that means a general idea how to avoid punishment. You 2.0 is a model statistic! It reaches Honor 2+ and stays there, because you want those ranked rewards, yes you do. This Honor 2 push, in short, is Riot's response to Blizzard's recent player behavior incentives for Overwatch- but in the traditional Riot fashion, rather than give, they're doubling down on taking away. In their minds, this is their best shot at getting a Kotaku headline about their greatly improved community, like Overwatch did!

Now, taking that with a grain of salt- Riot, you may contain real people. Some of you may even have basic human decency or the barest lash of empathy. Get some real psychologists on your Player Behavior team and stop focusing on accounts. As someone still fighting clinical depression, your support staff implied I should end myself at probably one of the best times- a defiant streak where I felt like I had to fight the world back for being so shitty to me. If they pulled that garbage three weeks ago instead, I might have taken the advice. Without an element of professional psychology in your player behavior model, you're doubtlessly going to have more cases that don't go as sweetly- so that's on your conscience. The unknowable number of people dead over your basic inability to not double down and make them 'Understand' that they are human garbage after an already harsh punishment dropped on their escapism mechanism.

Now let's look at how you might get the same results Overwatch did. See, Blizzard clearly employs at least a couple of people adequately trained in human behavioral psychology. They use POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT in the form of special.. Emote-things..?? I don't understand Overwatch, if we're being honest, but they offer cosmetic items that are literally only obtainable through especially positive player behavior. That is what positive reinforcement is, in essence- rewarding the things you want to see, or offering something to be chased- the carrot, not the stick.

Positive reinforcement is not taking away something we were already supposed to have unless we do better. Positive reinforcement is providing additional rewards to recognize positive behavior- major difference. This Honor 2 push is taking away something players have already earned by climbing through the reeking sewage that is your ladder- the incentive to climb and play well. In other words, it's devaluing the Ranked experience. If you want to give positive (honor 3+) players a bonus skin and icon, with a special border and emote? That's positive reinforcement. That displays sincere investment in the positive PLAYERS that promote the kind of behavior you claim to want to see.

As things stand right now, you are empowering toxic players to continue their account-bouncing patterns and lashing out at players who maybe, perhaps, you know, had something else going on and sincerely do -want- to be nicer people. Anyone 'in the process' of reforming has at least twice the miserable trudge through low-honor that a habitual troll with no attachment to his account does. If that troll just keeps up the facade on his ranked account, he might even seem 'more honorable' than the reformed player in perpetuity. Is that really what you want out of this system, and what you want us to see in it?

9 Comments

Jamaree7/22/2018, 8:30:36 AM6 votes

{quoted}

Let me start out by saying this. I've been punished by Riot's automated system up to and including a 14-day ban. Two power surges in an evening? LeaverBuster was there. Tell Yi to fuck off your lane, or to build a BoRK? Hope you like chat restrictions. Now, if I say that discipline was unjustified, Riot Player Behavior staff will imply I should kill myself again for disagreeing- so I won't. Rather, I'll assume I'm literally acting like a Teemo main and being a total dick to everyone.

I'm not really sure how anyone is implying for you to kill yourself...but ok?

Enter how Riot provides feedback. Mechanical, unclear, and unflinching. Why is 50% of what I hear direct verbal assault on me personally if the community is so well-moderated?

No one says it is, there will always be people who tilt or are simply deadset on being assholes, because this is the internet.

What makes me being 'passive aggressive' about how people should build so much worse than that?

It isn't any better, it isn't any worst, both are just as bad because both do the same thing of attempting to sabotage your allies and bring the whole team down.

If a human being reviewed the case and mentioned, "Hey, you were being kind of a dick to Brand," that would be clear feedback. "The behavior you displayed in these logs is unacceptable under the terms of the summoners code' or whatever it is now is vague as hell, especially when the logs show you talking some good old fashioned reason out of context.

Because with the millions of reports going through, having manual reviews would slow punishments to a crawl, hell, why do you even need context or things to be more clear then simply don't be a dick?

The phrasing and presentation is accusatory and toxic in its own right- if just being condescending or passive aggressive warrants a 14-day ban, then literally the very popup window informing you of the punishment deserves one too.

Pretty strawman, but ok.

And for that matter.. Riot's lovely support staff. In their heads, everyone is fresh off of Tumblr and understands what 'microaggression' is without having to Google it. You're a monster for not understanding how you possibly, potentially were overbearing on someone's feelings in telling them what to build, and they're simultaneously incapable of understanding that the person who reported that wasn't upset, but just wanted to blame someone else for losing.

Telling someone how to build is fine, if you say "Hey Yi, you should buy a BoRK because XYZ reason, you aren't going to get punished, but I VERY much doubt that is what you said, unless you would like to post your chat logs to prove such.

The robot is always right, and apparently anyone who even hints otherwise is immediately terminated (like, with an axe, Darius style) before they can post it in a support ticket- because none of the staff will ever even hint that the bot is a bit particular.

It isn't always right, no such thing as a perfect system, there will be cases of it fucking up, however, most people who get punished, rightfully deserve it.

Instead, they'll make it very clear that they don't care about you as a player, person, or customer. As long as they can delete the record, Riot staff are totally allowed to imply you should kill yourself- 'If that's how you are, maybe you just shouldn't exist' isn't very subtle, Rioters.

I ask again, how is that even implied?

So here's what this latest change to honor really drives home to me:

Riot doesn't want to look at players in its Player Behavior system. It wants to look at accounts. By demonizing, directly attacking, and generally making the game harder for players they punish, they strongly incentivize just giving up and starting a new account- and to that end, they made the journey to 30 that much easier. On the flipside, by locking Ranked rewards behind Honor 2, they literally make it logistically easier to level a brand-new account and climb to your old rank than to climb back up from a year-plus old suspension or chat restriction.

Stretching a bit.

Here's what that means: Your old account will never be reported again! And they can count it as 'reformed', because the reform rate has a nice, broad inactivity window. Meanwhile, your new account is armed with a knowledgeable player who probably has a general idea how to avoid automated punishment- and since it will never be reviewed by a real human being, that means a general idea how to avoid punishment. You 2.0 is a model statistic! It reaches Honor 2+ and stays there, because you want those ranked rewards, yes you do. This Honor 2 push, in short, is Riot's response to Blizzard's recent player behavior incentives for Overwatch- but in the traditional Riot fashion, rather than give, they're doubling down on taking away. In their minds, this is their best shot at getting a Kotaku headline about their greatly improved community, like Overwatch did!

https://kotaku.com/its-now-even-easier-for-overwatch-players-to-throw-game-1827397563

Now, taking that with a grain of salt- Riot, you may contain real people. Some of you may even have basic human decency or the barest lash of empathy. Get some real psychologists on your Player Behavior team and stop focusing on accounts. As someone still fighting clinical depression, your support staff implied I should end myself at probably one of the best times

Please explain, this doesn't make any sense, when and where did they imply this. Because you can't keep your temper doesn't mean they are implying anything.

Now let's look at how you might get the same results Overwatch did. See, Blizzard clearly employs at least a couple of people adequately trained in human behavioral psychology. They use POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT in the form of special.. Emote-things..?? I don't understand Overwatch, if we're being honest, but they offer cosmetic items that are literally only obtainable through especially positive player behavior. That is what positive reinforcement is, in essence- rewarding the things you want to see, or offering something to be chased- the carrot, not the stick.

How is that any different then getting loot crates and the victory skin?

Positive reinforcement is not taking away something we were already supposed to have unless we do better. Positive reinforcement is providing additional rewards to recognize positive behavior- major difference. This Honor 2 push is taking away something players have already earned by climbing through the reeking sewage that is your ladder- the incentive to climb and play well. In other words, it's devaluing the Ranked experience. If you want to give positive (honor 3+) players a bonus skin and icon, with a special border and emote? That's positive reinforcement. That displays sincere investment in the positive PLAYERS that promote the kind of behavior you claim to want to see.

I repeat, what about the loot crates and keys you get...and you do get an icon and ward skin for having higher honor.

As things stand right now, you are empowering toxic players to continue their account-bouncing patterns and lashing out at players who maybe, perhaps, you know, had something else going on and sincerely do -want- to be nicer people.

Then do it, not a single person is forcing you to type.

Anyone 'in the process' of reforming has at least twice the miserable trudge through low-honor that a habitual troll with no attachment to his account does. If that troll just keeps up the facade on his ranked account, he might even seem 'more honorable' than the reformed player in perpetuity. Is that really what you want out of this system, and what you want us to see in it?

Personally all I see here is someone trying to find every excuse on why they can't control themselves and would rather blame everything else then themselves.

disregardable7/22/2018, 8:18:50 AM2 votes

If that's how you are, maybe you just shouldn't exist

Full screenshot + copy paste or it didn't happen.

The support people could be replaced by copy+paste bots. Admittedly it's better now than it was two years ago, but still 95% of what they send is copy/paste.

As for your concern, no, Riot isn't incentivizing people to make smurfs, although I agree that is an unintended side effect of the honor system.

HalcyonDweller7/22/2018, 9:21:36 AM1 votes

I'm skeptical of a lot of your claims here. But I will add that I agree that riot should try other things first before tightening down on restrictions and punishments against players who have crossed lines.

For example ranked should be cleaned up or split into casual ranked and competitive ranked, so that people who wish to actually try to win have their own queue where their teammates cant do stupid shit, for example, first time a champion that they will do shitty as.

Or hell, maybe a shorter season with easier climbing and falling would work. Hearthstone resets everyone's ranks each month, and you get rewards based on what you achieved. It might not be practical for Riot or it might not fit with their systems, but it's at least worth consideration.