Why is League of Legends so toxic?

SplitpushingNoob·2/13/2019, 4:08:45 PM·1 votes·4,918 views

Hello fellow summoners, i am currently writing a research paper about the League of Legends community. One of the questions i would like to answer (or at least try to answer partly) is why some individuals of the League of Legends community are so toxic. I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Is it because of certain game features that support toxic behavior? Is it because of the age group of League of Legends? Is it because of its competitiveness? What do you think contributes to the toxic behavior we can see almost every day in League of Legends? Please share your thoughts with me!

13 Comments

R107 Games2/13/2019, 4:45:29 PM3 votes

There are a lot of factors in why players are toxic:

**The competitive nature of the game **

Some people that play videogames like competition, and League offers that very well. Especially the ranked system. This also attracts people that will get angry when a teammate is reducing the likelihood of winning, which is the main goal from these player's mindset.

The punishment system

Some players feel dissatisfied on the rate and efficiency on how trolls/inters are caught/punished. And some trolls/inters are formed on the bases that chat is moderated strictly, meaning they can't express their negativity in chat so they do it in gameplay means instead.

The game being team oriented

When 1 player is doing bad, it impacts the game dramatically. Meaning players will get upset when another player is playing badly.

The game being online

The anonymity gives people the freedom to express themselves, even negatively.

The state of the game

I can't go into details because I honestly know fuck all (haven't played the game in a month). But the state of the game right now gets a lot of players angry and frustrated.

Butterwood2/13/2019, 4:58:49 PM2 votes

Because puberty and hormones and RAGE

GatekeeperTDS2/13/2019, 5:06:09 PM2 votes

You're starting from a very faulty, very subjective premise for your research paper - Why is the League of Legends community so toxic?

It's not. The entire community as a whole is not toxic. The vast, VAST majority of players are not toxic.

For reasoning as to why certain players exhibit toxicity in this kind of environment, the items listed by R107 Games in another comment are good examples, but I'm still not sure what you're getting at with the assumption that the whole community is toxic.

Tailypo2/13/2019, 5:35:03 PM2 votes

Yeah post a link to your finished paper please.

insomniacjezz2/13/2019, 4:29:20 PM2 votes

Because it’s a team game where one’s success depends heavily on how four other people play and because there’s a mental disconnect between people when they’re behind a keyboard vs how they’d talk irl.

banana boy2/13/2019, 10:31:35 PM1 votes

Many reasons:

Ego When a player is playing really well and killing everyone else, they are very proud of themselves and decide to use this as a bragging right and decide to make the air unpleasant by dumping the crap on the inferior people.

Tilt Believe it or not, being flamed at can impact your performance. When the enemy kills you and then taunts you in chat, it makes you angry and want to get back at them. This, in turn, can result in you playing even worse.

Anger There is much room for anger, as players can be playing poorly, trolling, afk, not helping, not being a team player, etc.

Competition Only so many players are Challenger, and so many others want to be. This constant NEED of climbing ranks can make them overreact in anger when the team is not doing well.

Team It's not battle royale where everyone relies on only themselves, it's the collaboration of 5 people. When that fails, it gets the other 4 people angry.

Fuzzy zombie kit4/2/2019, 9:34:58 PM1 votes

Because the punishment system. And the fact that anyone who doesn't simply "take it" is bound to eventually end up with a banned account.

Telephone Booth4/2/2019, 11:11:00 PM1 votes

Because its a competitive game and American culture (cant speak for other servers, just NA) teaches you to have a big ego and that expressing your opinion is paramount.

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