Understanding Toxicity in the Community
Hello all!
It seems that Riot is taking different precautions to prevent toxic behavior and enforce The Summoner's Code this season, which I think everyone can understand and appreciate. I am simply a dedicated player who has been frequently and recently punished, but still loves the promotion of positivity and friendliness. I would like to give my constructive feedback and facilitate civil discussion to assist in reaching the ultimate goal of a more inviting and respectful community.
I have been playing League of Legends for 4 years now and from my personal experience as a habitual gamer, I will tell you that Riot has created such an _extremely_ frustrating **art** compared to other games I've played that the reputation of toxic players doesn't come as surprise. I think many would agree. Some reasoning I have of the topic- it is a game that is neck deep into the competitive scene and forces teamwork with people who probably aren't as competitive, it is mandatory to have some sort of communication with your team through a ping system that 75% of the players don't acknowledge or even use, and then the enormous amount of game knowledge attainable and t multiple play styles along with all the different champion choices makes this game overwhelming and provocative. I'm sure Riot knows this already, but like I said above, I am a dedicated player and I'm not here to rant about League or excuse toxicity from myself or others. I admire the game as a whole and simply want to understand, explain, and improve, based from my personal knowledge, why the community has this reputation and how we can fix the source of the ugly interactions we encounter in-game.
Unless you are playing at a very high Elo (Diamond and above), I feel many of you run into similar frustrations in a **majority **of your games. I'm sure the the higher ranking people experience this at a lesser scale. I believe I can speak for all of us when I say SoloQ is the epitome of disorganization. A difficult game with people of age ranging from 16 to 61 that are forced to work together is destined to create what we all know today: 66% of your games containing a "toxic" player. Players who verbally abuse, insult, bully, harass, and just seem angry at the world are considered toxic. Our reform system easily finds these players through chat logs and banned these offenders over and over, yet they just seem to multiply. Personally, I don't believe these people are the source of the reputation this community has. I believe the cause comes more from players who intentionally cause chaos and work against the goal of their team, we will call these players trolls. These people will deliberately perform actions to create tension between the team. Some examples would be Tahm spitting out his teammates into the enemy team, players in lane interfering with jungler's camps to deliberately lower his gold input, players outright refusing to perform as a group or actually working _against_ objectives, players purposely building items that don't help their champion or the role being played, and until the introduction of the new queue system (thanks Riot) players who instantly lock roles with no respect of call/pick order. They find enjoyment out of causing frustration and they are doing what they can to make sure the team does not enjoy their gaming experience. This behavior is not the most common, but by the far the most irritating and passive-aggressive behavior for experienced players. For the newer community, these trolls go unnoticed and have virtually no impact on low level games, yet I know competitive players feel the pain more than anybody. We all have grown accustomed to this behavior and feel like it's what comes with the package when deciding to enter queue, but just because it has left its' mark on the community does not mean it has become easier to handle. These players who exercise the behavior above are one of the major factors contributing to the toxicity we find in every game, yet they are the percentage of players that can't be reported or go **undetected** by our Player Reform system while continuing to cause great frustration. Meanwhile, victims who are silly enough to provide these trolls with a reaction receive the backlash of these trolls' behavior. Victims may tend to flame and leave themselves vulnerable to evidence that is _easily accessible_ and are then very likely to be punished. I understand that retaliation is not justifiable, but finding the cause of this retaliation will prove to be the solution of an ongoing problem.
Most negative behavior that I encounter in-game are trolls and toxic players. I don't know how you react to trolls, but my responses aren't the best simply because _there is no counter play_. We can do nothing but _attempt_ to ignore the behavior even if it is ruining our personal gaming experience. It is similar to attempting a stun on Olaf with his ult popped... ineffective. These players avoid getting punished because their behavior is not easily detected or simply because they are playing how they like which proves to be hurtful to the team. They do not outright insult you, in order to avoid evidence through chat logs, and go as far as acting friendly in ALL chat to avoid several reports from both teams. I play several games a day and spend countless hours on League to be able to say the amount of trolling, out of rage or pure entertainment out of others' expense, **cannot** be avoided if you are queued with one of these players sent from Elissanda herself- they make the game that much more frustrating, as if it isn't already hard enough! The report options were reworked last year and lately, I'm unsure they even fit into a category even if they deserve the report. They are making a great impact in both the unranked and the ranked scene and continue to slip through the loopholes of the Reform System, while the focus remains on the most common reports in our community: toxic players. Now, if I run into a player who uses obscene language or become toxic towards me, of course it frustrates me and impacts my gaming experience, but it still does not affect me as much as a troll because of the fact I can use the mute feature and the problem disappears while my frustration fades. It is next to no doubt you will run into someone like this in the third game you play today. It is very common and sadly enough, I am sometimes part of that percentage, but who isn't? Everyone has a breaking point and rages sometimes, yet punishments continuously grow harsher and the toxicity fails to cede. Meanwhile, players using passive-aggressive techniques to interfere with your game play and irritate you in sly methods remain untouched and undetected. Trolls don't act off impulse or frustration, but their goal of existence is to cause distress and annoyance for other players. Even though toxic players can be muted, I am not excusing them from being a jerk to others. I still believe they should receive specific punishment to target the undesired behavior. I myself have gotten up to a permanent ban for toxic language, but did not receive any discipline from trolling behavior in my early League days. Having been the protagonist and the antagonist at both, trolls make an extreme dent in the games they inhabit and have a greater probability of causing their team to AFK or rage because there is simply no counter play and you can't just hit the mute button to make the problem disappear. Even though it took multiple chances before I received the permanent ban, other toxic players and I didn't deserve these harsh punishments especially when there are other options available. I have grown to understand the Reform System distributes these punishments because in-game chat logs are **easily accessible** and it is designed to respond as quickly as possible in hopes of reforming behavior.
Personally, I have received an extraordinary amount of discipline from Riot, more from the newer Player Reform System than I ever did from the older Tribunal. I have three accounts permanently banned, I have received multiple bans from 3 days to 2 weeks, I have received 20-minute Queue wait times from the automatic LeaverBuster system, and I have received up to 50 games of restricted chat. This gives me more knowledge needed on the different restrictions, how effective they are, and what improvements could be made to continuously benefit from the bad seeds in the community while simultaneously enforcing them to follow The Summoner's Code. I ADMIT - sometimes I can be that toxic Top who blames loss of lane on the Jungler or maybe I'm that 0-4 Vayne who blames my feed on the support for lack of synergy. I realize that my behavior is nothing more than unnecessary and immaturity in a nutshell and so should every other player who becomes toxic towards their team have this realization, but like I said occasional breaking points are inevitable. Even though I have been rammed by the Tribunal several times, this isn't the main focus of the discussion and shouldn't cause you to disregard facts and opinions I'm sharing, but should only help you see into the thoughts of a "toxic" player who wants to help in creating a better atmosphere throughout the community. Back in Season 4 is when I started Ranked which gave me a mindset of "must-win, try-hard" and probably contributed to the toxic attitude I developed. Riot gave me several chances on my first main, receiving about 20 restricted chat games, a few 3-day bans, and a couple 2-week bans before receiving a permanent ban. Every time I got banned, I simply went on a smurf and didn't learn a thing. You can say this is personal reflection of me and the Reform System indeed works for others.
Start of the Game Tip: 78% of the players punished in the Tribunal improve their behavior and are never punished again
I will tell you that you're right, but that doesn't change the fact there are far too many players being permanently banned for behavior that seems to just be getting worse. Out of all my offenses, I can say the most effective discipline I received was the games of restricted chat. I say this because I was still able to play on my main account, but I was limited to how much I could type every 5 minutes. This caused me to be extremely mindful of what I said to my teammates and prohibited me from flaming when frustrated so I wouldn't waste my chat privileges. My games ended up a lot more smoothly and I found out the reasons for being frustrated usually had no impact on the game's outcome. It helped me self-reflect on my gameplay since I wasn't able to dance into blaming fits with my teammates. **I've realized most toxic players aren't just trying to be jerks, but they have a strong drive to win the game and their frustration is taken out on other players. They actually get frustrated and flame because of their own lack of knowledge and understanding of the game, so insults should not be taken so personally.** This is mainly why permanent bans should be overlooked. While chat restricted you are still able to communicate in-game with players on your friend's list, which are people you are less probable to flame, it is a punishment specifically targeted for toxic behavior through chat, it is a great method of reform without losing players, and the community still plays for RP while playing the game they enjoy. And if the odd player uses the few chances of chat they are given to verbally abuse, then taking those few chances can always be an option. There are different levels for the LeaverBuster system based on the frequency of occurrences and the same occurs with restricted chat. No matter how you look at it, this is a win-win situation.
I respect the work that the Tribunal and the creation of the Player Reform System has accomplished and can't imagine the number of cases that are received with such a huge player base. I understand that Riot's goal to guarantee the behavior does not continue is by making feedback and disciplinary action quickly responsive. The logic is that the faster someone gets punished, the greater chance of correction and more respect is given to The Summoner's Code. The current system doesn't account the severity of the offense, but rather basis punishment off the player's discipline history. This is a very effective feature and I see it used through the LeaverBuster system and the restricted chat, but the system is becoming very hasty to ban players with minor offenses. This doesn't actually address the problem at hand, What tends to happen is a cycle of banned mains creating smurf accounts and new players of the community getting early exposure to League's toxic reputation. A good idea is to have a set punishment depending on the rule broken. Punishments would remain constant for each player with no specific concern of the situation, but only to the rule that was broken. Did the player AFK? A low priority means less games and less opportunities to AFK. Did the player flame? Restrict their chat so they won't have the chance. Was the player intentionally feeding? Low priority, less games, less chances to feed for fun. Here is an example to grasp the idea of how direct and effective it would be.
Player A disconnects often. LeaverBuster detects first AFK offense and puts him in a low priority queue for 5 games with a Stage-1 wait time. Player A disconnects in the game he just waited five minutes to join. Upon return, he is constantly BMed by the enemy team and starts excessively flaming his team. Player A is detected by LeaverBuster for 2nd AFK offense, low priority games doubled and issued Stage-2 wait time Player A has received first offense of Verbal Abuse and issued 10 games of restricted chat Player A doesn't disconnect, but constantly flames in his next game Player A received his second offense of Verbal Abuse and issued 25 games of restricted chat Player A continues to flame the next game and intentionally AFKs because his team won't surrender Player A is detected by LeaverBuster for 3rd AFK offense, issued Stage-3 wait time and low priority games doubled Player A received third offense of Verbal Abuse, 50 restricted chat games and removed privilege of limited chat
This is just a small glimpse of the system I had in mind. There's always room for improvement and it is seemingly identical to our current one, but the determination factor of punishments and the reform rate will be at a greater level. This slightly altered idea not only would fix the behavior by targeting the specific actions that are deemed unacceptable through community-driven standards, but feedback and action will happen at an even faster pace because the system will have predetermined punishments in place. As you can see, if the player has broken the rule once before, it will use the same punishment at a more extreme rate. The logic is unarguable to the players committing the offense, meaning it will be of no surprise what discipline they receive and therefore less tickets overflowing Player Support and less "Why was I banned" threads spamming the boards. A system that has a set punishment specific to the rule broken is a structured, organized way to correct the root cause of behavior while even maintaining a fair relationship with the players punished. As you can see from this suggestion, I am shying away from banning for minor offenses. You may ask, at what point does it become too much? It never becomes too much, the punishments should have no limit on wait time or restricted games in order to match the severity of the account breaking the offenses. This means if you are willing to wait 3 hours to play a game, you either need better internet or you learned going AFK for a 30 minute game isn't worth the wait.
Even with this new idea in place, trolls still remain undetected because the system doesn't know what to look for. Toxic behavior is easy to detect and they receive the heavy punishment that trolls should be issued. A method to the madness would be another re-work to the report options. A couple of them seem overlapping or don't really apply to the common issues I face in game. Once we are able to detect trolling behavior through the Reform System, it can then be punishable. Because these players do not play the game to win or succeed with their team, this behavior should be rewarded with low priority in order to ensure the least amount of games played possible.
I made this thread to understand the different trends and behaviors in our community in order for us to adhere to The Summoner's Code in the most interactive way possible. Permanently banning our players does not get rid of the problem, from experience they will just make new accounts and start fresh with the same behavior or newer players will adapt with the same behavior. Let our players enjoy the game and slap them when they deserve it, but don't banish our bad seeds Riot - they can help our community as much as the next person. I also realize that many other people face the same problem as I and would love to play this very competitive and frustrating game without risk of losing everything they spent countless hours earning. I understand the meaning of accepting the consequences for your own actions. But c'mon Rito, this game is full of trolls who are out there to deliberately waste others' time and cause havoc in-game yet remain untouched from reform. I think these are basic effective options to consider:
TL;DR
- Rework report options to apply to common in-game issues
- Better detection for passive-aggressive trolls
- Punishment specified to targeted behavior
- Chat restriction for verbal abuse / negative attitude
- LeaverBuster for intentional AFK / feeds
- Save bans for scripters and trolls
