League is composed of the dregs of toxic internet society

Trufflshuffl·Dec 1, 2015·1 votes·972 views

This game used to have a lot more friendly players in it. People were keen on helping others learn, and took advice from other players when offered in a polite and sincere manner. It was fun to play, win or lose.

Fast forward a few years ... LoL's success has grown exponentially and the playerbase has grown commensurate with the game's rise. What did not develop at a similar rate is Riot's commitment to helping maintain a positive, friendly environment for players to enjoy. Trolling and toxicity are rampant. Meaningful positive incentives are non-existent. Negative incentives short of permabans fail to deter those that are hellbent on creating as horrible a gaming environment for others as possible.

I'd be 10x more likely to play this game again if Riot, instead of spending money on new skins for the public to spend money on, spent it instead on the resources necessary to take the game back from the toxic playerbase and create a more positive and fun game for all. They used to get money from me, but the no longer do, and no longer will.

No doubt some smarta** commenter will make light of my comment here, but it will only prove my point accurate.

6 Comments

SmokedAlmondsDec 1, 20151 votes

I'm always curious when people say its getting worse. I have played since season 1 and have only seen it get better(at least for the last couple years). And I almost quit a couple years ago because it was so bad. I suspect this is due to people influence the environment in their games. Incidents stick out in peoples minds so after enough time playing they start wearing you down and you start being negative too. This negativity brings it out in others.

I definitely agree on minor punishments being largely ineffective(especially since I hate that chat restrictions exist, but that's a rant for another time). That's why I love their new punishment progression where people are perma banned on their 4th offense.

I don't know how you can say they don't put in effort. Questioning their results I can understand, but not their effort. I have seen no company put in even a fraction of what riot has to curb these problems.

Also skins make money. So they are not only not taking away from other aspects of development, they pay for everything.

PIMPSMOOTHDec 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I'm always curious when people say its getting worse. I have played since season 1 and have only seen it get better(at least for the last couple years).

How the hell is that even possible unless you solely play on a 5's team in ranked or with 4 friends 24/7 in normals/customs? Last season was a complete abomination of the highest order from years past and this one is shaping up to be worse since a majority absolutely loathe the preseason changes.

SmokedAlmondsDec 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

How the hell is that even possible unless you solely play on a 5's team in ranked or with 4 friends 24/7 in normals/customs? Last season was a complete abomination of the highest order from years past and this one is shaping up to be worse since a majority absolutely loathe the preseason changes.

I have played a lot with groups, mostly 2 and 3 but rarely 5. I don't play a ton of ranked so that does account for some of it since ranked is worse in that regard. But even the ranked I played over that time was way better than what I experienced in season 2 and 3.

You would be surprised how far putting even a little effort into how people perceive you can go to changing your experience. Even something tiny like an icebreaker at the start of the game can have a huge impact on how people take the things you say for the rest of a game. Negative experiences stick in our heads so much stronger than everything else so people often have a view of "everyone is a asshole". So even a simple introduction can change peoples perception of you from "random asshole" to an actual person.

I am by no means a saint, not at all. I am typically pretty blunt but I always remain respectful. I speak with purpose and am as clear and concise as possible. I always cringe when people's "advice" containing obviously put downs as they are completely counter productive and usually make saying nothing a better alternative. Someone tries to tell someone to play safer or just farm, but include garbage like "stop feeding and..." or w/e generic "your bad/stupid" insult. It is literally going out of your way to communicate less effectively. The other big thing I notice is people failing to recognize and accept when someone isn't being receptive to w/e advice(I am guilty of this sometimes but I do my best). Sometimes you just have to let it go and do what you can with the rest of the team. Pushing it with someone is more likely to further tilt them than it is accomplish anything productive.

Something else to keep in mind is that no matter what percentage of games you run into a problem person most of the people you still run into are neutral or positive. There are almost always people you can work with in your games focus on that rather than w/e other crap that threatens to derail the game.

StrangeStrategyDec 1, 20151 votes

What do you mean, "instead of spending money on new skins, spent it instead on the resources necessary to take the game back from the toxic playerbase"??

Toxicity isn't really something you can throw money at to fix. It's the internet, and a competitive game. You'll never have a perfect experience, no matter how much toxicity is punished or how much good behaviour is rewarded.

Be less sensitive, and don't think "Well, they won't get MY money anymore!" is helping anything. You're also not helping the community become more positive by calling people who may disagree with you a "smarta**".

TrufflshufflDec 1, 20151 votes

merely disagreeing doesn't mean 'smarta**"

more like a comment of "lol you suck nurd"

and to your point of being less sensitive - I couldn't care less if people try to go off the chains on me - I'll mute them and move on. But what I can't control is are other teammates being affected by toxic players. Its so often the case that once one person earns the ire of a toxic player, they will quit, or they might play worse as a result of the verbal abuse, or they might start trolling and feeding as a result of the first player. Game after game after game this occurs, and its cumulative effect has been to suck the fun out of the game for me completely.