Two months after the Honor rework, opinions on the new system
Hey everyone! I'm the Mordekaiser bugcatcher™, but I was also one of those people caring a lot about the old Honor system. Two months in, here are my feelings about the new honors, and particularly the things I would like to see changed, or improved. And because this is not a whining post, I'll mention the reasons behind every point, as well as the downsides that any of those change could have.
So, first of all, the goal of the revamped honor system was to put something that people would care about, and would use. How? By making it more visible, both in its use and in its rewards. You get a big pop-up instead of a small button hidden unless you hover over someone, and you can get rewarded for your honor without having grinded thousands of honors to get a ribbon. And for sure, the honor is way more used than before.
I'll tackle the issues I found, and then will add the solutions I could come up with... when there are any.
Issue 1: For many people, the criteria to honor isn't the behaviour, but rather the level of play. Some only take the latter in account, some care about both but would rather honor someone who silently carried over someone who was trying their best to keep the spirits high, but without being outstanding by their mechanics - in both cases, they're not using the honor to the way it was meant to be. I won't say that it is the case of most people, in fact, I don't have any clue of the proportions. But I've seen lots of people think that way, both on Reddit and in games.
Issue 2: Sometimes, more than one person in your team deserves to be honored. Sometimes, more than one person in your team really deserves to be honored. If you see two super positive people but can only honor one, it's unfair for only one of them to be rewarded for their actions. Yes, the way it currently is, honor is only meant to be given to the one most positive person in the team, but... When in one game, you honor someone who's slightly positive just because they were the most positive, and in the next one, you can only honor one of the two outstandingly nice people... it's not very logical.
Answer 1: Option to solve issues #1 and #2: Give us the ability to honor more than just one person again (This would also require a change in formulation about the most honored player: it wouldn't be "most honored player", but "player honored by most [of the team]", and several people could receive the badge, so long as they receive three/four honors).
Pros: a) Solves issue #2. If you can honor several people, you won't have that dilemma forcing you not to honor someone deserving it. b) Should also solve issue #1. If you don't have to choose between honoring the positive player and the one who carried (be the two different), one honor would probably still be granted to the one actually deserving it.
**Cons: ** a) Lowers the meaning of each honor. Right now, receiving one honor means that to someone's eyes, you were the one and only most positive player of the game, and being able to honor several people would defeat a part of that purpose. b) Not as simple as the current honor system where you just have to click one button. Here, you'd have to click on one/several people, then on the dismiss button.
Alternative solution 1: Give the ability to honor several people, while reducing the value of the honors given that way. So, honoring one people would have the value of one full honor and would be shown as such, while honoring two would split the value between both. Maybe not 50% to each, perhaps something higher such as 70-80% to both, decreasing with each further honor given (so, something along the lines of 100%-80%-60%-40% value of each honor based on how many people you honored this game).
Pros: You'd see if someone honored you only, thus removing the previous disadvantage.
Cons: Brings back a part of the issue #2, and potentially #1 as well. If two people were very positive, why would each of us receive less honor than a person who was only somewhat positive, simply because the latter happened to be the only positive person in a team?
Alternative solution 2: Here's another way to have that feature: Leave the honor as it currently is, but once you've honored someone and accessed the post-game chat, put a button somewhere on the screen to be able to honor some more people.
Pros: Gets rid of the simplicity problem.
Cons: None, I think? Sure, this option wouldn't have as much visibility as the "main" honor option, but the ability to honor several people would only really be useful in those situations when you tell yourself "man, those two (or more) people really both deserve that honor". And in that case, the lower visibility issue isn't really detrimental.
Issue 3: You can only honor your allies. That's especially frustrating when all of your teammates have been toxic, while some of your enemies seem nice. Or if all of your teammates are being toxic in this game, and one of your enemies could say the same.
Issue 4: You're rewarded for honoring people, in the hope that everybody honors someone. But sometimes (or often), there just isn't anybody deserving to get it. So you have to choose between giving an undeserved honor, or not getting that boost. That could be somewhat solved by being able to honor opponents.
Answer 2: Option to solve issues 3 and 4: Give us the ability to honor enemies as well as allies.
**Pros: ** a) Solves issue #3, no need to expand on this. b) Also helps towards issue #4: If nobody in your team was deserving it, but one of your opponents did, you can still have a shot at getting that honor boost without giving an unjustified honor.
**Cons: ** a) I have no clue of how that would influence the amount of honors given to each team depending on who won and who lost. b) People don't always communicate with their opponents. So someone who would only talk to his team would have on average less honor than currently (aka without this idea): each of their teammates would have to pick one person to honor among 9 instead of 4, and they probably wouldn't be likely to be honored by their opponents if they remained quiet in all-chat (assuming that they've understood what the honor means). c) Pretty much same as the option #1 (reminder: option #1 is about being able to honor more than one person): More people to honor, which means that the system is less simple, straight-forward and quick to use.
Alternative solution 1: Combine options #1 and #2.
Pros: Removes the cons 2.a and 2.b.
Cons: Same cons as the option #1.
Alternative solution 2: Give the ability to honor one ally and one enemy (or several allies and one enemy, adding the option #1).
**Pros: ** a) Removes the cons 1 and 2, again. b) Honoring an enemy would work the same way as honoring an ally works live, if you can only honor one of them. You go through that screen where you can honor your allies, and you then get another one for the enemies. Having two things working the same way is generally easier. Cons: You can only honor one enemy, bringing back the issue #2.
Alternative solution 3: Combine the option #2 with the alternative solution #1.2.
Pros: Removes the cons 1.b, 2.a, 2.b and 2.c.
Cons: Keeps the downside 1.a.
Issue 5: In Twisted Treeline, you'll never see the "Most honored player" icon.
Answer 3: Option to solve issue 5: Show the "most honored player" icon in 3v3 when someone receives two honors. This also works for Dark Star Singularity, even though honors have little meaning on that mode, because players don't have any time to chat in it, nor is there much to shotcall about.
Pros: Adds that feature of the honor to 3v3 - and let's not forget that it was one of the big things with honors, allowing everyone to see when you've been honored. And the honor page clearly reads: "If the majority of your team honors you, your summoner name gets a special treatment for allies and enemies to see." Two people out of three does seem like the majority, to me. Solves issue #4.
Cons: I don't see any.
Issue 6: It feels like getting honored doesn't even speed up the level up process that much, and that the primary factor to increase it is time, as well as games played.
Answer 4: Options to solve issue 6: Two ideas there. The first one is to tweak the algorithm to make honors mean more, but that's a pretty pretentious call, considering that the PB team probably thought that one out more than I did. The second one is to give more transparency on how much honor helps you: We have no idea of the relative values of playing, being honored and getting the honor boost. The only thing we know is that Riot said that consistency was the main factor.
Issue 7: If you had an AFK in your team, you won't be able to receive the honor boost (note for every further time: every time I write "honor boost", I'm referring to that thing you get when all of the team honored a teammate). Playing a 4v5 isn't really a great experience to begin with, the fact that you're then denied some honor because of it doesn't make it better.
Answer 5: Option to solve issue 7: Give that honor boost if everyone who was connected at the end of the game honored someone. If your team had four players connected and one afk, meaning that the afk isn't going to honor anyone, give the honor boost of these four players honor someone.
Pros: Solves issue #7.
Cons: There again, I don't see any.
Issue 8: Before, only the most positive players would get rewards, which was why the honor wasn't really a great motivation for many people. But now, the most positive players don't really gain anything, or rather, it doesn't feel like they do. The FAQ mentions that there would be something given... but without hinting anything about what it would be, not making it really appealing.
Issue 9: I've commonly seen people (... and myself, too) try to close the chat window after getting out of a game, to end up clicking right aside and misclick an honor on someone that way. But there probably isn't much to be done about that, it's just people screwing up and habits to be gained, I suppose.
Issue 10: The maintenances. Every now and then, the honor system undergoes a maintenance, meaning that during about half an hour, you won't be able to give or receive honors. It's always saddening when after a game where you knew that you'd be honored, and where you also wanted to honor someone, you notice that the game is skipping the honor phase, due to it being on maintenance. Now don't get me wrong, honor shouldn't be the main motivation to behave like the standards for human beings in a society suggest you to. And that's why I'm glad that you don't learn about the maintenance until the end of your game. But that doesn't make the problem any better.
Issue 11: It's harder to rank up if you play in premades often. Honors from premade don't have much value (as stated in the honor FAQ), so the more you play in groups, and the bigger the group sizes, the less honor value you'll get. Similarly, once you're rank 3 or above, the hardest setup to get the loading screen crest is to play with one premade (that premade can't do anything to give you the crest, and you need to be honored by one out of three allies, instead of one out of four, reducing the odds).
Issue 12: There no longer is a reliable way to tell that someone has been banned. It used to be very easy: If you suspect that someone was banned, check their profile. If they have 0 honors, it means that they very recently got banned. It was nice when you reported two people and got the report feedback popup, as it would allow you to see which of the two got banned.
Answer 6: Option to solve issue #12: Make the honor level viewable by everyone.
Pros: Solves issue #12.
Cons: I guess, all of the reasons why Riot didn't want to make the honor level viewable by others.
I guess that was it! Thanks for your attention. So, the most important issues of the post are the #1, #2, #3 and #4, and the things I'd like to see implemented the most would be the alt. solutions 1.2 and 2.3. I don't have a solution for all of these, perhaps not all of the issues actually have an answer, but that was what I could come up with.
TLDR: The honor system is probably not ideal, and I pointed out the things I disliked about it and gave some possible changes. If you don't want to read all of it, refer to the two lines right above to see the most meaningful parts.
