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Pleas for help in player behavior and toxic community fall on deaf ears with riot.

IceJustice·7/21/2016, 12:31:23 AM·2 votes·3,212 views

For at least a year now I have been pleading with RIOT to reform player punishments. Currently the system of punishment largely works for punish "unpopular" players more than anything. Players (most who are young and immature) would rather report the person who identifies the misconduct because they are "whining" than the person engaging in the misconduct. Often times the underlying misconduct goes unaddressed and RIOT hates when you submit a complaint through the support ticket function. The ultimate failure of the current reporting system is that absent obtaining enough support (3 votes) - players get away with virtually everything. The moment you identify an issue and ask for a report, you're labeled as "whining" or "bitching" and end up getting reported yourself. AND THEN RIOT PUNISHES YOU.... With the current system, if the person is queuing with even one, let alone two people, it's nearly impossible to get enough reports from your teammates. And, of course, the enemy team hates hearing your complaint, regardless of how legitimate it is

Just in the last few months I have encountered players making jokes about shooting up schools to player enabling misconduct.

Lately a trend of enablers has plagued our community. Often times the enabling is more egregious than the underlying misconduct. Everything from saying you'll honor the miscreant, reporting the person who asked for the report, and flat out encouraging that player's continued misconduct (or joining in in the slurs). Absent punishment for people who abuse the current reporting system to bully other players, the toxicity will continue.

I hope that eventually riot will reprimand people who enable or encourage misconduct as much as the wrong-doers. Lately this has been a theme in league games: you play a game where a player is engaging in some form of misconduct and you ask that the player be reported. The enemy team starts enabling/encouraging the miscreant to continue his or her bad behavior (EVEN HONORING THIS PERSON!!!! - or at least saying they will). And of course I must reiterate that I have serious concerns that the current reporting system (and evidently the honoring system now too) is commonly misused by players to silence or punish those who are the real victims in the situation (but of course - that is not my primary concern here - merely a general concern that I hope riot will address eventually). Riot (in certain ways) and the league community routinely use the reporting system to punish those who have legitimately concerns about wrong doing and then explain the misconduct or defend their actions. Often times the victimized player has been abused by players throughout the game because of non-misconduct things that the community disagrees with (e.g., non-meta, different builds, etc.). Players will often say things to the effect of, "they are allowed to do and say those things to you because you played that champion, " and the like. And the player who had a legitimate concern about misconduct or being harassed by the other player ends up being the player who gets punished by the reporting system because people enable's others misconduct (without fear of consequence) and more often punish the initial complainant. I have had my own run in with riot for a similar situation before where Riot's actual advise consisted of something to the effect of, don't defend yourself from attacks - just let it happen and use the report feature. In the day and age of rampant cyber bullying problems throughout the online community I would implore riot to adopt a more aggressive approach to harassment to the effect of, "See something say something." Those who stand silent (or god forbid enable) and do not report the bad seeds in the community ultimately side with the miscreant. What I wouldn't give to work with Riot on meaningful reforms to better address misconduct and encourage players to work together to help reform (or eject) those from the community who ruin the game for others.

7 Comments

RiotRiot Tantram7/21/2016, 2:11:42 AM8 votes

The ultimate failure of the current reporting system is that absent obtaining enough support (3 votes) - players get away with virtually everything. The moment you identify an issue and ask for a report, you're labeled as "whining" or "bitching" and end up getting reported yourself.

With the current system, if the person is queuing with even one, let alone two people, it's nearly impossible to get enough reports from your teammates.

It only takes a single report for a game to be reviewed. I'm not sure why you think, or where you heard that something takes 3 reports.

You will end up reported for asking for reports on others because there is no need for it. The only reason to ask for more reports is to flaunt it in the person's face that you are reporting them.

Riot (in certain ways) and the league community routinely use the reporting system to punish those who have legitimately concerns about wrong doing and then explain the misconduct or defend their actions.

I don't really know what you mean here. Players are only punished for their own actions.

Pleas for help in player behavior and toxic community fall on deaf ears with riot.

For at least a year now I have been pleading with RIOT to reform player punishments.

I'm pretty active on these forums and always speaking with players about the punishment systems. We actually reformed the punishment systems about a year ago.

Kei1437/21/2016, 2:50:01 AM5 votes

You need to update yourself with how the current behavioral system works.

  • You don't need group reports to punish people, 1 report is enough to flag the system for review.

  • Pre-made are not immune to being reported.

  • defending yourself is allowed. just don't swoop down to their level and be toxic with them.

  • asking for reports is considered harassment

  • community makes up the rules of what is punishable, not riot

  • don't believe everything people say on the internet. Most the time they are either twisting the truth or omitting information to make themselves look better, and put the blame on Riot or other players

  • People using words to trigger others (typically passive-aggressive words) will be punished as well

  • just because you don't see the cases being built up against a person, doesn't mean the system isn't working

finally, do break up your paragraphs. It makes reading so much easier.

Koonta Kintae7/21/2016, 3:38:38 AM1 votes

When an enemy team calls out one of their players for bad behavior or AFK, this is how I respond:

  1. I note anyone asking for someone to be reported and subsequently report them, as asking for someone to be reported is a summoner's code violation that Rito's ban bot will flag for punishment.

  2. If an enemy team complains of an AFK or a feeder, I tell them that they should forfeit @ 20. If they refuse to forfeit, I note the name of the target of their complaint and honor him post-game. I may also be obliged to run up the score on this team just to see if they will tilt into further violations.

The report system has created a new meta where the goal isn't to win, instead the goal is to get as many players punished/banned as possible. Since more players are breaking Rito's confusing chat rules than ever it's pretty easy to get that 'a player you have reported has been punished' message to pop up and that's a juicier victory than being promoted to a new division.[slayer-jinx-wink]