100%. I stopped playing a decade ago, but when I played I was always amazed at the behaviour it brought out in people. I would watch people who I considered friends IRL turn into abusive jerks when I played with them. It’s this weird prisoner’s dillemma of a game where the psychology of the game appears to encourage ganging up on the weakest player.
I think you’re on to something here. I play all kinds of games with friends, and DOTA was the only one where I’d actively get shit on for my lack of skill. And that’s from real life friends too.
League was the poster child for toxic communities a decade or so ago when I played. It must have gotten better (it certainly couldn’t have gotten worse!) if this isn’t the top comment by a mile.
Reporting players for in-game behaviour rarely did anything.
And there was no reporting mechanism at all if they decided to continue harassing you through DMs after the game was over - all you could do was block them.
I agree. But I want to give them some credit. I report people for being toxic or for afking. Recently the client tells me almost after every game that someone in my previous game was punished after my report.
Now, I can never easily validate this. But if its true it seems riot is taking a much more active role with automated punishment.
League of Legends is pretty fun. Just “mute all” every game and it’s a lot more tolerable. Don’t let the people that tilt after one or two deaths get to you. Recent comeback changes make the game playable until your nexus explodes
I’m convinced that some of the toxicity is tuned to your own contributions. I’m almost 40 and I still play League 8-10 hours a week.
Almost all of that is tipsy ARAM games, and considering I got my toxicity out years ago I find that, given I’m always positive and having a fun time, I solely run into others that are positive and having a fun time.
People might underestimate how much self sorting that game does based on behavior in their algorithms.
LoL
100%. I stopped playing a decade ago, but when I played I was always amazed at the behaviour it brought out in people. I would watch people who I considered friends IRL turn into abusive jerks when I played with them. It’s this weird prisoner’s dillemma of a game where the psychology of the game appears to encourage ganging up on the weakest player.
That’s what happens if you design a game in a way that makes it worse to have a bad player in your team than no player at all.
I think you’re on to something here. I play all kinds of games with friends, and DOTA was the only one where I’d actively get shit on for my lack of skill. And that’s from real life friends too.
League was the poster child for toxic communities a decade or so ago when I played. It must have gotten better (it certainly couldn’t have gotten worse!) if this isn’t the top comment by a mile.
Reporting players for in-game behaviour rarely did anything.
And there was no reporting mechanism at all if they decided to continue harassing you through DMs after the game was over - all you could do was block them.
I agree. But I want to give them some credit. I report people for being toxic or for afking. Recently the client tells me almost after every game that someone in my previous game was punished after my report.
Now, I can never easily validate this. But if its true it seems riot is taking a much more active role with automated punishment.
League of Legends is pretty fun. Just “mute all” every game and it’s a lot more tolerable. Don’t let the people that tilt after one or two deaths get to you. Recent comeback changes make the game playable until your nexus explodes
maybe ten years ago, but it’s a lot better now. still there’s toxicity but nowhere near as bad
Can confirm- playing that game, if you don’t have enough friends online to make a full team- is painful… Very painful.
Don’t play this game solo. Don’t play it with strangers. You will have a bad time.
maybe ten years ago, but it’s a lot better now. still there’s toxicity but nowhere near as bad
They clamped down so much that I get a 3 day chat ban for saying “sex”
Its cleaned up chat a lot but the people quitting as soon as the game goes down hill are still there
I’m convinced that some of the toxicity is tuned to your own contributions. I’m almost 40 and I still play League 8-10 hours a week.
Almost all of that is tipsy ARAM games, and considering I got my toxicity out years ago I find that, given I’m always positive and having a fun time, I solely run into others that are positive and having a fun time.
People might underestimate how much self sorting that game does based on behavior in their algorithms.