Riot Games Seeks Reform for League of Legends Trolls

[kailus13]

I wonder what it is about LoL that brings out the worst in people?

It's the acronym, a constant voice in the back of their mind telling them to laugh out loud. They rebel against this voice by being miserbale all the time.

10% isn't that great a reuction. It still means that there's 90% of insults still there.

 

[Fanghawk]

10% isn't that great a reuction. It still means that there's 90% of insults still there.

A potential 10% drop caused by changing a single sentence seems pretty significant to me.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I wonder what it is about LoL that brings out the worst in people?

Anonymity comes with great responsibility.

...Except that a lot of people forget this, and as a result you get people like ragers, griefers, trolls, flamers and flamebaiters. Making them aware of what they're doing might actually surprise themselves, and even more so if you can get someone who personally knows them to reveal this. Otherwise, if they do know and don't care about the consequences, and it's possible to take away your anonymity on the Internet no matter where you are, will they still want to do those things once their anonymity gets taken away?


...Yeah. Someone being able to take away your anonymity on the Internet would be quite the consequence, perhaps even worse than jail if made the wrong people mad. It's why we should remember that anonymity comes with great responsibility, and also share that responsibility to remind others of the same.

 

[geizr]

Perhaps the most encouraging result of Riot's experiments wasn't the decrease in aggression, but the increase of self-awareness. "A lot of these players wrote letters in to us," Lin noted. "One player wrote, 'I just didn't realize how offensive the f-word was.' He wrote in just to apologize; he didn't realize how bad it was. He's been using it in all these other games. There was another player, we showed him his logs, and this player said 'I'm really disgusted by my own behavior. Can you guys give me a little guidance?'" That's a far cry from the racist and sexist diatribes that most of us recognize as standard internet protocol. If all it takes to change is a few gentle reminders, maybe a world of friendly online games is easier to achieve than we thought.

This right here is what I see as the basic issue with the Internet, in general. The rude, crude, racist, and sexist language are so pervasive on the Internet that people think it's just a normal way of talking and communicating when online, and they don't realize the true effect their words have on others. It just never enters their conscious thinking. It's like trolling. Everyone does it because they think that's just normal Internet. They don't realize that it's not normal human; it's just being an asshole.

Really, there's only two basic principles one need follow, in my opinion: 1) realize and remember that there IS another human being on the other side of that screen that you are talking to, and 2) think how you would feel if someone said or did to you what you have said or done to someone else. Politeness and etiquette are still important, even in the anonymous realm of the Internet, because you are still communicating with human beings, who have feelings just the same as you or me.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I like what Riot has done recently, but as long as where people are ranked are tied to the performance of your teammates, there will be ragers.

I never see ragers in ARAM, because the wins and losses don't matter. Same for Co-op Vs. AI.

I have seen a few ragers in co-op, it's hilarious as hell to be honest.

 

[DugMachine]

Good on em but I'll still call someone out on their bullshit if they're pretty much losing the game for us. I'm looking at your duo queue assholes that went Ryze/Karma bottom and lost before they even got to lvl 6. Normally I wouldn't care if it was a normal match or a bot match but when I'm playing Ranked you either play the fucking meta or get out. I got put into Bronze division because of disconnects, rage quitters or people who want to experiment and play champions in rolls they're not designed for.

It is just a game but I'M not having fun if others want to screw me over. I never go full on frothing at the mouth mad but if someone throws the game I'll be sure to let them know where they fucked up.

 

[Maerx]

I wonder what it is about LoL that brings out the worst in people?

It's an inherit estigma of the Dota/MOBA community.

 

[antipunt]

As an avid League of Legends player, I can confirm that this is pretty much a joke. Toxicity decreased 'temporarily' with the release of the new honor system. After people started realizing that you didn't get any benefits whatsoever (except some silly emblem), griefing came back in full force. I haven't at all noticed a decrease in griefers in the game;

although, maybe it depends on which elo we're talking about, i dunno. Though as far as I see, most people laugh at you when you say you're going to report them, because they're pretty sure nothing will really happen to them

See, they think that, and then they get banned. Threats of reporting someone are kind of in bad taste anyway. I mean, I think I've told people that before, but extremely rarely. When you retort to a troll/rager/whatever they tend to simply rage/troll/bananas harder then before. The best thing to do is A: ignore them and try to have a good time yourself, or B: calmly address them when they're going all noscope420esports on everyone. Granted, I'm usually part of the crowd that does stupid shit all game, so I guess I can't really talk.

OT: Eh, the playerbase is really nothing to write home about but it's not the horror story everyone seems to be referencing it to be. Out of MOBA crowd, from personal experience anyhow, LoL has relatively nice populace. The crappy part is that it's a team game that focuses on individuals, which means that it's oftentimes "everyone's fault". It's why SC2 isn't a rage-fest, because when you lose your 1v1 you know it's because YOU fucked up, or got outplayed, not because someone down in the bot lane fed the enemy Draven, and since you didn't do so hot top lane you can reassure yourself by blaming them so the loss doesn't hurt quite as bad.

Just a bad case of needing to put everyone on the sinking ship with you.

Kudos to Riot for trying though. I know if I got a reminder of what I act like in games sometimes I would probably calm down a bit at my worst games.

Sorry had to respond because of my hate for Draven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA85IsVR6Zo

edit: also, nice response. Seems pretty fair

 

[D3P1KT]

Riot needs to understand a few key points, although others in the thread have already mentioned some of these. The different game modes, Co-op VS AI (Beginner / Intermediate), Summoner's Rift (Normal, Draft, Ranked), Twisted Treeline (Normal, Draft [Not 100% sure], Ranked) and the Capture and hold base map all attract different types of players.
I'm amased that they haven't compared the different demographics of 'toxic' players in each instance of each map, instead of making assumptions that the community is full of verbal players.

That is to say that in any ranked match, regardless of what map. Players are going to get verbally abusive. Especially in the lower ladders where players are stuck trying to get out of them, whilst being pooled in solo matchmaking with bad players. The level of abuse varies, but you can see usually the level of maturity involved when people start saying stupid things like 'Kill yourself'. These players usually 'call' a role without asking who can play what roles, ensuring bad team composition.

That being said. I tend to be a 'toxic' player because I simply point out bad plays, bad positions etc. People have reported me for trying to help them play better. Its a ridiculous concept. Players aren't going to improve unless someone tells them how to improve, and no, I'm not being a wank about it. Its simply the truth. But many players don't want to improve.

I've been playing LOL since season 1, back when mordekaiser was first released. I can honestly say that the community was different back then. Its also the case when players start getting past the gold ladders. Players tend to co-operate and co-ordinate so their team doesn't fail.

Riot needs another way to separate the 'good' (wanting to advance in ranked & can play more than 1 role) [Even if they are verbally abusive] and the 'bad' (feeders, don't know how to play roles or champs in general, state that they are 'good' etc) [The ones who get defensive and threaten to throw games]. It would be a hard process. But in my opinion it needs to happen to stop this from happening.