Open Letter to Riot about Community Behavior: Your Community is a Reflection of Your Standards
Submitted this a couple of days ago, was told to put it here. P.s. Devs, I get it . . . you don't always have final say in what happens and some of you really are doing your best. We love you. Keep fighting the good fight. It's just too bad that Marc Merrill (or whoever is in charge) doesn't take enough responsibility to make a positive impact in the gaming community. As eSports grows, the need for standards is going to grow, and whoever positions themselves as the "gold standard" is going to reap HUGE benefits.
Of the last 6 ranked games I have played, 4 of them have had one or more AFK/Inting players who just don't give a shit.
Honestly, I have no idea how you don't think this is an issue in your community. You have toxic as fuck "professional" streamers who play your game and get away with shit ass behavior, and of course it leaches into the rest of the player base.
Game 1: Player got killed, raged at jg, proceeded to afk
Game 2: Mid lane got pissed for some reason, blamed rest of team, int'ed and AFK'ed
Game 3: Same story
Game 4: From the very beginning, bot lane ints, then proceeds to troll the entire game.
Like holy shit. You make plenty of money, this should be priority number one if you want a sustainable game that isn't going to be dog shit in 5 years. Nobody cares about your shit ass skins and Legends of Runeterra or whatever the hell you are developing if the community is allowed to be so toxic that nothing is enjoyable.
Look, I have pretty thick skin, most of the games where someone AFKs I still attempt to talk the team into winning 4v5 (and sometimes we do). I make a bad play and someone flames me, sometimes I get upset, usually I shrug it off. My teammate is playing poorly, oh well, everyone has bad games. I also understand that the internet has been in the past a way for people to hide behind their accounts and play like toxic little shits. That being said, you need to take radical responsibility for your communities behavior.
Want some easy fixes? It doesn't take groundbreaking human behavior analysis to figure this shit out, just someone inside riot who actually gives a fuck about anything besides profit from the latest skin release.
I also understand that whoever is reading this is probably more like me, and enjoys the game, yet doesn't think they have the power to make any changes. Well guess what, you make enough noise internally and you will get heard by the right people.
So here are some simple fixes to implement, some more realistic than others:
1 - **Require a "deposit" in order to play ranked each season. **Make it $10 or $100 or I don't care what. The deposit gets refunded at the end of the season if you weren't a toxic little shit. Use whatever metrics you need to figure this one out. Then any player who forfeited their deposit by being toxic will naturally gravitate towards unranked queues (and hopefully reform their behavior, or short of that leave the game to find another place to troll). If you want to be extra nice, and do the community a solid, then reward the honorable players with the $ that the toxic players forfeited. Simple.
"Well what about the underage kids who don't have money to put down a deposit???" Yeah, right. Their parents already fork over money for skins, and even if not, it will help them be prepared to enter the community as a responsible player who can manage their emotions.
2 - Force players to link their accounts to a real social presence if they want to play ranked (or force them to make an actual profile). Yes. No more anon troll. If you are playing ranked, I am going to know exactly who you are, and if you behave poorly, your personal reputation suffers. I understand there needs to be some care taken here because minors play the game, and because the internet can be a very mean place and social "mobocracy" can lead to some terrible situations. That being said, this could be a plausible way to let the community know, 'hey, we are serious about you guys behaving like decent human beings.'
3 - Give actual cool as fuck rewards to honorable players. Key fragments? Seriously? Holy shit rito. You know what happens when you "reward" the player base with absolute dog shit for "good behavior"? It reveals how little you actually care about the behavior. Parenting 101 mates. If you want to show that you actually mean true by your "summoners code" or whatever shit you wanna call it, then get some real ass cool shit together for the player base. Make exclusive free skins that are cool as HELL that are gifted to the most honorable players at the end of each season. Easy fix.
4 - Implement some sort of LP counter for trolls and AFKers. If I win a game with an AFK on my team, I better as hell get more LP for it. If I lose a game with an AFK or an INTing troll on my team, why the HELL do I lose RP for that? Look, I understand that this one is a bit more complicated because it could be abused. However you have plenty of data to figure out how to implement something that shows when this should be applied. For example, if 4 members of a team all report the same person for trolling or AFKing, that should trigger a review or some sort of response that says "hey you know what? maybe these folks shouldn't be losing RP for that match . . . an 0/20 bot laner with 10 cs probably was a troll"
5 - **Take RADICAL Responsibility for Online Behavior: Become the GOLD STANDARD. **You guys are positioned well in the gaming community. You used to be widely respected. Now, I am not so sure. That CAN change though. Make Riot Games the ABSOLUTE GOLD STANDARD for good behavior in the online gaming community. During your Worlds and other live events, have someone talk about exemplary behavior. Have a training on how to be mentally strong in adverse situations. Use some time to recognize random people from the player base who have been phenomenal. YOU DECIDE what your legacy is, and right now . . . it's shit.
