Why is this playerbase so mean?

Frenz1·6/9/2019, 3:21:06 PM·12 votes·9,350 views

Honest question here, just got done having a very long 1 on 1 conversation with some guy in the after game lobby, and it inspired me to write this. I've been playing the game for a decent amount of time now, mostly focusing on ranked gameplay, and I've definitely experienced my fair share of toxicity, flaming and the like. However more often than not, I run into players that are genuinely just extremely mean. Like they aren't being toxic for the hell of it or whatever, it seems like these people are hell bent on legitimately making other people feel like shit about themselves or their skill.

Could this be due to the toxic standards of competition that society has set up? I know when I played American Football, there were a lot of alarming mindsets along the lines of "If I don't win I am a loser" and "Go out there and KILL the enemy." Just a thought.

33 Comments

GatekeeperTDS6/9/2019, 3:23:40 PM7 votes

Why is this playerbase so mean?

You remember the players who are mean to you. You do not remember the far larger number of players who are neutral/nice to you.

Vonyalo6/9/2019, 3:31:54 PM6 votes

because kids are cruel

bronze smurf696/9/2019, 4:27:17 PM6 votes

Toxicity exists in just about every single game. Even physical sports has some form of toxicity. But in a case of League of Legends, there are many things that lead to toxicity, and to my perspective is divided in 2 categories:

Personal behavior toxicity (where you should be a better person and know how to act but you're not): 1- ego. 2- having anger issues and taking things too seriously. 3- insecurity. 4- lack of maturity and decency.

To put it simply, you should be a mature person, and not have a kanye west level of ego and not be insecure and what not. Basically the general stuff on being a good person and such.

Game toxicity (gameplay in general, not related to personal behavior): 1- game balance 2- champion design 3- game issues 4- game fairness

When a game is a balance nightmare, or when a champion you play against is so tilting and frustrating, or when a champions lacks counterplay and fairness, the player becomes so pissed that he flames the enemy simply due to the champion he's playing against. That mostly involves the enemy team rather than allies.

Ahri Baka6/9/2019, 4:27:27 PM2 votes

Because the game is too popular that no one would care about it dying

Glaricion6/9/2019, 6:17:38 PM2 votes

Every mistake makes your enemies stronger and more likely they won't even be able to play the game.

If you are 0/4 in a lobby shooter the TTKs don't suddenly halve on your entire team and stop them from being able to play the game, but it does in League.

Being too focused on short term goals of winning one game rather than improving, having to spend 30 minutes stuck in a game they don't want to play (not getting their primary or getting straight up autofilled, mismatched teams, had to pick a different champion, ...).

There's also issues that LoL isn't like SC2 or CSGO where differences in skill are readily apparent, so people think they're just as good as some guy they saw on a stream or video despite the fact they're several tiers below that player and for good reason.

This leads to people thinking that they're being held back when really they are making mistakes left and right and are about where they belong, leading to intense levels of frustration.

etc...

CarpeConundrum6/11/2019, 11:30:19 PM2 votes

Here's a better question. Why is the player base so sensitive? I've been threatened with reports for asking... POLITELY... for lanes to ward so I can safely gank. People in this community are so fucking paranoid about "toxicity" and "meanness" that they perceive every comment as a passive aggressive slight. League of Legends community standards literally turn players into histrionic lunatics over time, either you become histrionic or you end up getting banned for trying to communicate with your team.

R107 Games6/9/2019, 4:50:00 PM2 votes

Playerbase is mean because it's cathartic to express yourself that way online anonymously, and with no presence of the social rules of irl that restrict expression.

That's why people are mean online anywhere; being able to express yourself freely

Teriyaki Bukkake6/10/2019, 12:02:22 PM1 votes

People are inherently bad. The ones who aren't are the ones who take steps to being a better person, whether thats being nice in game in general, helping people out etc aka you

Woodakoodashooda6/11/2019, 8:57:05 AM1 votes

Two Words

Competitive Environment

Everyone wants league points, everyone wants to promote, everyone wants out of Bronze/Silver/Gold/Whatever, everyone wants to win. And they place that want above all else. Sportsmanship. Friendliness. Cooperation. Compromise. Teamwork. Patience. And more positive qualities that could enrich the experience that is League are mostly absent from the player base itself.

League's player base is comprised mostly of self-entitlement.

"I'm not bad, my teams are bad." "I don't deserve to be at this elo." "I called someone a [insert derogatory word here] and got banned, but they went 0/20 and they're still allowed to play!" "All players are idiots except me!" "My allies are stupid!" "It's not my fault!" "My KDA is so good, how come I lose these matches?" "These champions are broken!" (or 'I refuse to learn how the champions that counter my one trick actually operate so as to improve as a player')

I've read it all and more. People are selfish and unforgiving and are prone to shift blame onto everyone but themselves.

"It's jungle's fault" Says the top lane. "No, it's our ADC's fault." Says the jungle. "No, it's support's fault." Says the ADC. "No, it's mid's fault." Says the support. "No, you guys all just suck." Says the mid laner.

Or any combination of blame shifting occurs frequently in many matches.

This is what League of Legends is, has been, and will continue to be for as long as it remains.

Participate at your own risk.

Turtles Are Okay6/14/2019, 4:49:09 PM1 votes

De-personalization of other humans happening because of anonymity, the fact that humans never think it's their fault, no matter what happens and even if they say it is, they still have an ounce of "yea but they made me do it" and the fact that the game is very competitive.

You've got the perfect mix for a toxic environment.

Turn On6/14/2019, 7:01:56 PM1 votes

Why is the player base so infatuated with being the victim?

Shadowbyte6/9/2019, 5:37:29 PM1 votes

It's mostly competition getting the better of people but there's also the amount of griefers and troll in the community. The players that are just extremely mean you run into have a negative impact on everyone else in game when they flame and especially when they intentionally feed/afk. This results in other players flaming the griefer which is punishable by perma-ban. Riot is focusing too much on punishing toxicity and flame in chat and not doing enough to catch griefers and troll which are a source of said toxicity and flame. It's pretty tilting to get chat restricted while the griefer gets off scott-free. Unfortunately a portion of the people that flame griefers eventually get perma-banned. You now have a group of players that got banned because they were (understandably) angry at someone throwing their games. Having nothing to lose, they then become the very same griefer that got them banned in the first place. While this case is a very unique one applicable to a small portion of the player base the process repeats itself over and over again, exponentially increasing the numbers of griefers each time the cycle repeats itself. This is why the community has gotten so toxic over the years. It's changed so much from S2 that you can barely recognize it.

MOuHahaHAhahaaaa6/9/2019, 6:07:47 PM1 votes

The real answer is that we humans have a real issue :

we are too individualist because of our wild instincts. that's the reason 1/3 of the world has 99% of wealth and 2/3 of the world less than 1%. Most of us think firstly about us and our private circle even if it is unright and unfair. Mankind selfishness is already destroying the planet's climate so it will self destruct one day. Our specie is not worthy of living because we don't respect anything the only thing we respect are our own ambitions. We are parasites reproducing and destroying nature ressources. I hope one day an alien civ will wipe off manking before it gets the technology to spread out of planet earth because we will harm and destroy other planets. there is still racism in our planet we still fight and kill each other for nothing how can we be worthy to get another new planet ? We are not and the issue is that one day we will have to leave this one because we are consuming it.

C9 Aphrolift6/9/2019, 6:25:24 PM1 votes

I've had mostly the opposite experience in those long conversations in the after the game lobbies.

Maybe it has something to do with what you put out? Usually they come into the post game lobby angry and tilted from losing or w/e. But, when I end up talking to them for a couple minutes, they tend to calm down.

Just as an example: I remember recently I played against this Illaoi and she was very fed in lane went like 5/0. Illaoi was typing a lot in all chat and I happened to be duo with our top lane. It took 3 guys for us to shut him down but with a few communication lines we were able to kill him without anybody dying. I used the Sona ult to kill him two of the times and he's like "NICE ULT ON 1 GUY SONA". I'm like "Thanks.". Then he goes on to talk about how his team will "out-macro" mine and win if we keep playing like that.

To be fair if his team was a little better that might have happened but as it turns out they didn't really take anything for those 3 kills and we had good late game scaling. Ezreal poked I pushed W as sona and they really couldn't handle it. After we got a slight lead I typed something like "how's that macro game working out for you?". The Illaoi was pretty angry. We eventually won not really losing any fights since the Illaoi was shut down.

Into the post game the guy playing Illaoi was obviously pretty tilted but we started talking and he got progressively less angry. Sometimes people just need a few minutes to get untilted and back to who they really are. After a few minutes they apologized and they ended up adding me.

Most of the kids that only are only purposely toxic move onto to the next game very quickly because they don't have the attention span to hold a real conversation...so I find most long post game lobbies to be fun conversations.

ı Sona ı6/9/2019, 8:11:52 PM1 votes

Most of the players you end up playing with have probably been stuck where they are for a while, constantly blaming others for their inability to adapt and change with the game, which leads them to lash out at others any chance they can get so they can avoid reflecting on their own lack of ability rather than admitting they are the problem. You just gotta keep playing till you get past them!

[sona-playing]

SammyDayspring6/9/2019, 11:53:49 PM1 votes

People are toxic because they mistakenly believe that pushing other people down raises themselves up, and it gives them a false sense of superiority. It does just the opposite. Toxic people are weak minded individuals who have to hide behind a computer to pretend to be tough. Be the stronger ones and ignore them. They don't really matter.

Kaisha6/10/2019, 11:47:44 AM1 votes

Its a top down problem and stems from the very core game design. Its been that way since it was DOTA running on WC3. The point of the game is to be a narcissistic selfish asshole. Its reinforced at every level of gameplay and design. Course no one will admit to it because of the implications, but its why it never gets better and never changes regardless of how many things they try to do to alleviate it or change it.

CrazyMonkeyCZ6/9/2019, 3:25:06 PM

Why are ppl so mean?