Improving the Report System; Clarity on the Report Window
As we know, the Instant Feedback System (IFS) is a pretty impressive system, churning through millions upon millions of reports daily to either pardon or punish potential rule-breakers based on their behavior. And as it stands, the system is pretty good at doing its job, with high accuracy and low false-positive rates.
But, as anyone would also know, no system is perfect, and the IFS is not an exception. While some potential points for discussion could revolve around the punishments themselves, the punishment tier system, or the effect punishments have on a player's Honor - or dozens of other subjects, I just want to focus on something that the IFS may need just a bit of sprucing up in.
Clarity.
And, as the title of this post implies, I'm going to focus on the Report Window that comes up when filing reports in the post-game lobby. I don't have any screenshots (since I'm largely too lazy to bother with getting screenshots, putting them in Discord, and then uploading those images here), but thankfully there's no real need for a visual aid here.
When you begin to file a report against a player, you're introduced to a number of options, of which you can choose three:
Negative Attitude Griefing, Giving up Verbal Abuse Harassment, Offensive Language Leaving the Game/AFK Intentional Feeding Feeding is griefing, not just having a bad game Hate Speech Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Cheating Unapproved Third Party Programs Offensive or Inappropriate Name
Alongside a text box to insert notes regarding the player's behavior - which is particularly useful in cases of trolling, feeding, or griefing.
As it stands, though, some of these titles and descriptions don't read well or show the full extent of what the report category is for - Intentional Feeding and Offensive or Inappropriate Name being the two worst offenders of not detailing the most of what they're for.
Before I suggest an improved Report Window, though, I feel it necessary to go through the report categories and what they're for, just for clarity's sake:
Negative Attitude
While it says "Griefing" in the description, as far as I know, the Negative Attitude report is moreover for low-key toxicity and - as the name implies - negative attitude. Stuff like passive-aggressive remarks, defeatist attitude, and outspoken, disruptive complaining.
I've seen some people on the boards confuse the "Giving up" part of this report category as meaning players who open/vote for a Surrender, but, that neither makes sense nor is the case. Giving up, as mentioned above, refers to having a defeatist attitude (calling "GG" early, asking/badgering players for FF@15 or FF in general).
And, of course, it applies to other lighter offenses that would validate a report, such as "BG", "GG EZ", and so forth.
Verbal Abuse
If Negative Attitude refers to the more mild, low-key negative behaviors and rulebreaks, Verbal Abuse encompasses the more aggressive, directed forms of negativity. The things this category covers include flaming, insults, report rallying, derisive comments, rank shaming, etc.
And what I mean by "derisive comments", I of course mean those that generally fall in the same sphere as insults, such as "learn to play", "uninstall", "go back to norms/bots/tutorial", etc.
Another thing that can validate reports for Verbal Abuse, from what I've seen, is build dictating, since it falls under harassing a player for their build (much like rank shaming is harassing a player for their rank).
Leaving the Game/AFK
This category is pretty self-explanatory, to be used if the player you're reporting either decided to AFK to the detriment of your team, or left the game (whether connection issues or ragequitting, doesn't particularly matter.)
While the system that handles AFK's and Ragequitters (LeaverBuster) is separate from the IFS and seems to not need reports to trigger, it is still advisable to report players for AFK'ing, especially if they're making an effort to try and cheat the system by moving or performing small actions while not contributing to the game. Those players do get caught, and they get punished with far worse than a LeaverBuster penalty.
Intentional Feeding
The Intentional Feeding category has something of a misnomer, as it actually encompasses all forms of detrimental gameplay, including trolling and deliberate AFK'ing.
Between Intentionally Feeding (deliberately giving the enemy team advantage through kills), Trolling (using gameplay methods to sabotage teammates, like walling off allies with Anivia or using Tahm Kench to spit them into harm's way), and AFK'ing (avoiding fights, AFK-farming, or otherwise just trying to avoid LeaverBuster penalties), Intentionally Feeding is probably the most deserving of a title change.
Hate Speech
While the description does plainly cover hate speech, this report category also deals with players who encourage self-harm or make threats of violence.
And, since there can be some confusion about what constitutes hate speech, here is the definition;
Hate speech is speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Hate speech, encouragements of self-harm, and threats of violence are all on Riot's Zero Tolerance policy, and as such result in a 14-day ban on the first validated report.
Cheating
This, as the description states, refers to the use of unapproved Third Party Software and scripts. Nothing much I can really say about it.
EDIT: Also refers to ELO/Rank boosting, thanks to Kei143 for pointing that out to me.
Offensive or Inappropriate Name
This, like Intentional Feeding and Hate Speech, also extends to more than just the title states. The rule against Offensive/Inappropriate Screennames applies to Club Names and Club Tags as well. This report category is detailed in the Terms of Use, Section 5, Subsection 1, Article XI.
xi. Selecting a Summoner name that is falsely indicative of an association with Riot Games, contains personally identifying information, or that is offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable. You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent this restriction on Summoner name choices. Riot Games may modify any name which, in the sole and exclusive judgment of Riot Games, violates this provision, without notification to you, and may take further disciplinary measures, including account termination for repeated violations;
So, with all those report categories detailed a little more thoroughly, it's time to finally propose the updated Report Window:
Negative Attitude Unsportsmanlike Behavior, Defeatism, Passive Aggressiveness, etc. Verbal Abuse Harassment, Offensive Language, Flaming Leaving the Game/AFK Intentionally Assisting the Enemy Team Intentionally Feeding, Trolling, etc. Zero Tolerance Chat Hate Speech, Encouragements of Self Harm, Threats of Violence Cheating Unapproved Third Party Programs, ELO Boosting Offensive or Inappropriate Name/Tag Applies to Summoner Names, Club Names, and Club Tags
This is a roughed out update proposal, with an effort to better clarify the report categories. I'm unsure how exactly to approach Hate Speech, though, since hate speech doesn't quite cover self-harm encouragements or threats of violence, but the two offenses also deserve mention somehow, so I decided to simply add them in the category's description.
All said, though, I believe that putting forward a change like this could certainly help improve the system, giving players clarity on what report category is for what behaviors, which may also consequently increase the clarity on Reform Cards for punished players, since some of the categories (Intentional Feeding) encompass multiple behaviors while only displaying one.
I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this suggestion - if the Report Window needs sprucing up, and, if any of the suggested options could be improved on.
