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Our banning/punishment system needs a rework

Kovah··9 votes·863 views

Hello,

My name is Kovah and I have been playing this game since season 1. Not that it matters that much, but I've seen an evolution of this game as changes were made and the playerbase has grown. There is one thing i've noticed: This game is progressively getting more toxic. I would say 1 in every maybe 5 games or so back in season 1-2 had someone that was legitimately toxic. Now before I continue let me explain my definition of toxic. I think a toxic player is one that intentionally, FOR NO REASON, and without legitimate claims targets a player or group of players with the intention of being an asshole and tilting them. What I dont consider toxic is A. A player defending him/herself against said toxic player or B. Someone who calls another player/group of players out on a mistake with the intention of helping them improve/stop that action from continuing.

Ok now with my definition of toxic out of the way, let me continue. Since season 1, the game has gotten to the point where EVERY SINGLE GAME has a minimum of one toxic player in it. MOST games have at least two. Just as an example I would like to tell you about a toxic person from my last game. At about the 4 minute mark until the end of the game, they started harassing our mid laner, FOR NO REASON because they made 1 mistake. They were referencing their stats, how many games they have played, and using this to tell them how terrible they are at mid, and how the game is already over because of how bad they are. In my opinion acting like that is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than two players just yelling profanity at each other for a few minutes and then its over. Why? Because in any competitive arena, trash talk and temper/adrenaline will exist and its natural. There is a level of trash talk that is not detrimental, and actually drives people to do better. When there is healthy trash talk the attitude most people take is "oh yea? I'll show him who's the best ADC!" then they proceed to try hard to prove themselves. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is the player who I just mentioned that gets off on harassing other people for the sole purpose of destroying moral.

Now our punishment system is clearly not working. The way our punishment system works is it targets a certain type of language, and do not look at the context of something "unless a person actually takes the time to read it". What this does is punish mostly the healthy type of trash talkers and shoves them into the naughty corner. What doesn't happen is isolating the players who don't necessarily use a ton of profanity, but go out of their way to just be, and sorry for the simplicity here, straight up mean. You know what i'm talking about, they are the person when you are playing, and nothing has even been said in chat up until this point, and they out of nowhere go "Amumu you're absolutely garbage dude, gg this guy has no idea what hes doing. Go back down to bronze kid". For some reason this is not going punished. These people are consistently in my games. Every game I have to deal with this. You know what I don't see? I don't see any of the fun, NATURAL, NORMAL, FUN trash-talkers. They are all gone, replaced with these "under the radar" toxic jerks.

It is making this game a drag to play. It's hard to have fun when someone SO IGNORANT is on your team. How can they get away with this? How are they allowed to exist but the players who grew up playing halo 2, and gears of war, and warcraft 3 and just simply trash talk a little with no intent of hurting someone else are all banned?

The system needs a rework. We need to focus on getting rid of the ignorant players who simply want to ruin the game and get away with doing it. This has already been long enough so I think I'll stop but it is very important to me because this game has been such a big part of my life. I have been playing this game for years and feel very attached. But lately when I play all I feel is negativity surrounding me and it feels terrible because you cant even talk back to these people. They harass you, get you riled up, then if you tell them to stfu you end up getting a chat restriction or a ban so you just have to sit there and take it or mute them while they continue to just be ignorant. I miss logging on and having fun competitive matches anymore, it seems like that is gone.

If you didn't read this and just came to the end, here is EXACTLY what it feels like now. It feels like you are in school and you are in the middle of class. A student next to you (toxic player) keeps whispering so the teacher cannot hear him and he keeps harassing you. Finally you snap and say something back, but it was loud enough so the teacher (riot) can hear and you end up getting sent to the deans office (chat restriction/ban) while the other student gets away with it.

Please, fix this system, get rid of all these people getting away with destroying the fun of this game.

-Kovah

Edit: Just got done playing a game where at minute 4 our top laner said "fk you noob feeder" "trash NA player" "noob feeder trash" I am NOT KIDDING he had this on repeat for 30 minutes. He did not stop repeating the same thing, for THIRTY minutes. Can't even attempt to enjoy or even play a game with someone like that on my team. I'll actually be upset if he doesn't get banned.

14 Comments

xXMrPeanutXx4 votes

I think the main point the OP is trying to get across, all nonsense aside is very clear.

Context should be taken into consideration during banning.

I am with him on this.

Deep Terror Nami3 votes

the healthy type of trash talkers

Trash talk is healthy when all people involved are ok with it. If they report you for it then someone obviously was not ok with it.

Kovah3 votes

I can agree with that. However, I'm talking about something like "omg get wrecked dude". If you can't handle that then maybe you shouldn't be playing a competitive online game...

Now saying "omg get wrecked you complete shitter. You're so bad kill yourself" is not ok. Its just really difficult to isolate between the two, and I don't have the best solution for it but what we are doing now just isn't working.

Deep Terror Nami3 votes

Let's assume all you say is "get rekt" or the like. That alone will never result in you being punished regardless of whether 1 or 9 people reported you. However, if you do that in nearly every game you play and people keep reporting you for it, you may get punished due to the sheer number of people you are bothering with your behavior.

If the majority of players don't like you doing something, you just don't do it because you joined that community by choice. There are certainly many other gaming communities where trash talk like this and even considerably worse behavior is normal and accepted, this just isn't one of them.

If you are playing with a full group that is ok with whatever trash talk you're doing, then by all means trash talk each other, but when there are players present that are bothered by it please be considerate of them. I recommend using a third party form of communication (VoIP) for the latter, which allows you to say whatever you want within the standards of that isolated group.

Kovah5 votes

There is a certain point though where our society gets too social justicey. This is life. As a person you need to be able to deal with a small amount of discomfort. Right now in society, and in this game in particular, everyone is being pushed towards acting like a little flower, with rainbows overhead. And if anything even remotely non-positive is said that person is crucified. I don't believe this is ok, and I don't believe that harassing someone is ok either. There needs to be a happy medium. I'm not sure about you but I get almost scared to type anything for fear that it will offend someone, and prompt a report on me. I'm not talking about being toxic.

In real life there is free speech, you can say whatever you want. But once that free speech turns into harassment, then you can get in trouble. I guess that's what I'm looking for. I don't think we should be monitored for everything we say, but there is a line people shouldn't cross.

Regardless what I think, that is off topic. My entire point is there is a large majority of toxic players who scoot under the radar. I constantly have people like this in my games, and there needs to be a way to sort them out.

MUSHROOM MIDGET3 votes

this dude is right.

http://www.auplod.com/u/poldua8017b.png

BestGinNAreformd3 votes

Very true OP. I've played since season 2 and as far as I can remember up until about Season 4, minimal trash talking (without racism or calling someone a f*ggot/kill themselves etc) was pretty much never punished. Now I rarely say anything in chat, as you said, for fear of someone being offended and typing out a full report in the end of the game resulting in my account being punished.

Karunamon1 votes

. What I dont consider toxic is A. A player defending him/herself against said toxic player

I'm just gonna stop you right there. Riot considers that toxic, which is the most important thing, and furthermore, most other people consider it toxic as well. If someone calls you a name, and you call them a name, guess what? You're both namecallers. Mute the instigator and report them after the game.

That is how you "defend yourself".

Kovah2 votes

"I'm just gonna stop you right there".... like I just said something SO absurd. I believe people have the right to defend themselves. At what point did I say you can call them names? I didnt say that. I find nothing wrong with maturely defending yourself. The issue would have never happened if the toxic player didnt open their mouth. If Russia attacked the USA and the USA defended itself, would you say "woah woah USA, im going to stop you right there, that is NOT ok. You should have just let it go". No. Everyone has the right to defend themselves, WITHIN REASON. And please dont put words in my mouth, thank you.

Karunamon1 votes

Ah yes, because global geopolitics is directly applicable to what words you type in a chat box.

Kovah1 votes

Its an analogy used to explain my point. The idea behind defending yourself, not the literal translation of what I said is what applies here. Please don't try to have an argument if you don't understand.

Karunamon1 votes

It's a rather awful analogy, which is why you probably shouldn't have made it.

The idea behind "defending yourself" from words coming up on the screen is absurd, doubly so when it involves counter-flaming the flamer, which can, does, and should get the banhammer dropped on you.

Don't flame. Period. It's that simple.

Telephone Booth1 votes

{quoted}

I'm just gonna stop you right there. Riot considers that toxic, which is the most important thing, and furthermore, most other people consider it toxic as well. If someone calls you a name, and you call them a name, guess what? You're both namecallers. Mute the instigator and report them after the game.

That is how you "defend yourself".

Ya that is the way it goes. I think the point of his post though is that that way isn't working and shouldn't be the way it goes.

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