League of Legends Proposal

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A proposal to reduce the toxicity on League of Legends

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Samantha Rivera League of Legends Proposal University of Central Florida

2 A League of Legends Proposal: Reforming Behavior and Reducing Toxicity Have you ever played a game where your teammates were nonstop raging and refused to cooperate every single time? In League of Legends, the community is toxic, turning off new and seasoned players alike. By appealing to the community through the League’s sub-Reddit and forums, I will propose a solution to increase the number of honorable players. With enough attention on the issue, Riot Games Inc. will have to take notice and make a change. Current Functionality of League League of Legends, LOL or League for short, is an online MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena, game with elements of an RTS, or real-time strategy. With use of communication, strategy, and teamwork, two teams of five compete to win. Teams are matched based on one of two factors: 1) if a player queued with friends, and 2) on a hidden match-making rating based on individual skill. The game is frequently updated; minor updates are made every week and major changes are implemented every month. Above all, the game’s main purpose is to have fun. However, toxic players have made this nearly impossible, even though two systems – to report and to honor players – have been created to fight against this. Riot Games Inc., or Riot for short, developed League of Legends back in 2008 and released the game in October of 2009. Riot is the creator of the in-game content. They are the ones who implement the continuous changes to the game, introduce new champions, and make announcements. Riot is the rhetor of gameplay and design. However, the way the game is played and how the in-game content is utilized is molded by the players. The professional players stream their games nearly every day, getting anywhere from 1000 to 60,000 viewers for the more popular fan favorites. Based on their credibility as professionals in the world of e-sports, casual players let these pros dictate the Meta game. Among the casual players of the community, the League forums and sub-Reddit promotes interactivity of the players by allowing the community to exchange ideas, share creative custom content, and report bugs. The community has become a prominent voice regarding gameplay, in the past even urging Riot to make in-game changes which were later put into effect. The audience is the community, the players of League of Legends. But who sits in front of the computer screen? Statistics calculated by the Riot team say that 85% of the players are between the ages of 16 and 30, and 60% are enrolled or have completed some sort of secondary education. Over 90% of the players worldwide are male, and when there are 12 million daily players, it is say to assume that not only the target audience but the actual audience is indeed male. Riot tailors to this fact with scantily clad female champions with disproportional breasts. The male champions are not forgotten; the men of the game are on average muscular and exude strength with few exceptions. League of Legends started off as a North American game. The players were American or Canadian, and cultures had no extreme deviation from the norm. Today, based on hours played per

3 month, League is the most popular video game in the world. Servers are now located in California for NA (North America), Germany for EUW (European-West) and EUE (European-East), China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Oceania region, Latin America, Brazil, Russia, and Turkey. The audience as a whole is now multicultural and multilingual with different beliefs and value systems for each location. The design of the game is efficient and easy to navigate yet aesthetic enough to appeal to its diverse audience. As the most popular video game in the world, Riot manages to appeal to each one of these multicultural, multilingual cultures and form a sub-culture all its own. In-game communication is done through use of pings – danger, enemy missing, assist me, and on my way – which are understood by players no matter the region. No matter the geographic location, a gamer has the innate drive to win. With few constraints, the game is made to be enjoyable and fun. Through varying demographics of age, gender, education level, and cultural background, the audience of League has one thing in common: they play the game. Every League of Legends player – from the newbie to the professional – has become part of a gaming sub-cultural. Often times, references from the game and LOL slang, such as “op” or “gg”, enter real life conversation. It really is a unique community that spans age groups, geographical barriers, and cultures. The purpose behind playing may stem from enjoyment, procrastination, or boredom; it may be a fun way to pass time with friends or there might be an innate competitive nature in a player to climb the ranked ladder to Challenger tier that keeps one playing for hours. Whatever the reason, every player makes an active choice to play the game, and this decision makes them a part of the League of Legends community. Needs Analysis for LOL League of Legends, despite being a well-coded game relying on teamwork and strategy, is known for the toxicity of the community. There is an ever-growing need to reduce this. There is already an honor system implemented, but people often forget about it or simply do not care. A ribbon, which is one’s reward for receiving x amount of honor, is not something to strive to work for. Being a polite, kind human being is a rarity in League. While decent players are out there, they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the number of trolls, ragers, and mean people in the game.

As a whole, LOL is a toxic environment. This toxicity turns potential players away, makes new players abandon the game before they reach the level 30 cap, and has even made seasoned “summoners” quit after a year or more of gameplay. Starting in team chat during champion select, many players often “auto-lock” a champion, or selecting a character to play without the ability to change it, and call a specific role without first communicating with the team. Since there are 5 players on each team, there are also 5 roles. Some players might excel at one role and do horribly at others. Rather than discussing beforehand to see who is good where for the best possible team composition, toxic players

4 are essentially cutting the ties for future communication before the game has even started. “Mid or feed,” is the only explanation for his actions. In-game toxicity is a whole other story. Once the game starts, one must remember that people make mistakes, teammates included. Instead of saying, “Np, man, just don’t let it happen again,” when a teammate gives “first blood,” which is giving the first kill of the game to an opponent and an extra 500 gold, the community is often toxic and has the tendency to rage. “HOLY F***, u noob!!11 Wtf was that! Uninstall!!” or a more commonplace, passive aggressive comment of “what” or the infamous “?” are frequently the responses. This, in turn, makes the teammate who such anger is directed at only more frustrated and will remain discouraged for the remainder of the game. Players can be both punished and honored. If reported, cases are reviewed by other players and are pardoned or punished. Those punished receive a warning, temporary ban, or permanent ban. If honored, one can receive a ribbon that is only seen during champion select and the loading screen (pictured left). If any area were to be improved, its giving the players motivation to honor and be honorable – as sad as that is. Riot needs to offer more of an incentive for being friendly, helpful, or team-oriented. Project Description League of Legends is known as one of the most, if not the most, toxic game environments currently in existence. Many “summoners” know of the problem but do little more than report an offensive player via The Tribunal. While removing toxic players all together is implausible, not to mention nearly impossible, the ability to reduce toxicity overall is real. As a single player out of millions, I alone cannot change the game. However, by appealing to the community, I want to bring awareness to the problem. By posting on the League of Legends sub-Reddit and game-provided forums, I will suggest a system that, if implemented, could reduce toxicity. The theory behind it is simple: rewarding players will be more effective than punishing them. The Honor Initiative, after first being introduced, reduced the number of reports by a significant margin, but overall progress is at a standstill. There needs to be incentive behind the system, making people want to give and receive it. As of now, there is The Tribunal, a jury of your peers system to punish players based on their actions, and the Honor Initiative, a reward system to give honor to teammates for being friendly, helpful, or a team player and opponents for being “humble in victory and graceful in defeat.” Progress with the latter is at a standstill. Ribbons are awarded to honorable players but are hard to come by and have little meaning. For my proposal, I want to reward players for being honorable rather than punish them; toxicity breeds toxicity.

5 Based on number of honor received outside of a party (this prevents one’s friends for abusing the system), and number of reports (fewer the better), there will be four levels for rewards. Level 1 is the easiest for obtain; as long as a player is not banned during the season, he or she receives an exclusive summoner icon, or avatar picture representing the player. Level 2 tailors to the Tribunal. Based on accuracy rating and amount of Tribunal cases reviewed, a player receives Level 1 rewards and IP, or influence points, which is a way to buy in-game content. This will encourage players to review cases thoroughly and more often. Level 3 is an exclusive “honorable” skin, which is an alternative look with special particles for the champion played, based on honor received and reports against a player. As so not to discourage players, this is more readily available than its exclusive title proclaims. Be a decent human being, and it’s yours. Level 4 is a letter and merchandise from Riot. This is for the select few who have positively contributed to the community. A similar reward has been distributed by Riot for “summoners” who were positive influences on the community, so there is no reason this could not be done for the suggested reward system. *Each level of reward also receives the rewards of the lower levels. For example, Level 3 would be rewarded the honorable skin, as well as the IP boosts and honorable summoner icon.     Level 1: An exclusive, honorable summoner icon Level 2: IP boosts Level 3: An exclusive, honorable champion skin Level 4: A letter and merchandise from Riot

Currently, one’s MMR, or match-making rating, is based on level of skill. This should expand to include honor, so the honorable are matched with the honorable. Toxic players would be matched with other toxic players, essentially creating an island in the match-making system where the trolls and ragers would be isolated. This system, known as Prisoner’s Island, already exists in the game Dota 2. It would be a good design practice to use an already effective system in League of Legends. It must be noted that feedback after posting is both welcomed and recommended. To get the best possible system, the community must collaborate and get on board. Past ideas have been implemented after being suggested by the players to Riot. For example, the community suggested World of Warcraft’s Dungeon Finder, in which a player is able to queue up for a specific role, be added to LOL. Last month, this system has recently been introduced to League of Legends. Team Builder is currently on the PBE, or public beta environment, and will be implemented soon. If revised and tweaked enough, the community can design a system that has a positive effect in reducing toxicity on the Fields of Justice. Riot will have to take notice.

6 Design Benefits for LOL If implemented, the benefit of this proposal will be a reduction of toxicity in the LOL community. League of Legends is known as one of the most toxic games out there. There is hardly a game that goes by without “f*** this,” “f*** you,” or “WTF noob, uninstall!!!!11 You’re such a worthless piece of s***!” New and seasoned players alike are turned off by the attitude of the in-game community, causing them to quit and abandon the game overall. This reward design has the potential to make the most played video game in the world a more enjoyable and pleasant game to play. Reducing toxicity will also improve the usability of the game. With less people raging at one another, players’ effort will be focused into communicating as a team and strategizing to win. As the game stands now, teamwork among randomly assigned allies is a rarity. This is Riot’s chance to rebrand League of Legends. No video game wants to be known as the “most toxic,” so being able to state that they were able to reduce the toxicity problem would give them the opportunity to be known for other, more admirable traits, such as the community’s ability to work together. By rebranding, League will broaden its audience. New players will be more willing to join and stay. New players equal more players. More players directly results in more revenue for Riot through micro-transactions of in-game content. More revenue leads to new in-game content and more competitive LAN events, which will give Riot and League of Legends a greater physical appearance outside of the game and gaming community. The design, if found to be effective, could also be implemented into other online multiplayer games, such as Dota 2 or Smite. League of Legends has recently announced a new match-making system, Team Builder, based off of World of Warcraft’s Dungeon Finder. With this system, a player queues as the role he wishes to play, rather than being stuck with one he does poorly at and does not enjoy. Work Plan There is no possibility of this project being completed before the end of the semester. This suggested system takes time, an estimated 7 to 12 months to even get Riot considering this or a something similar. However, I will do my part to set the wave into motion. To do this, I need to know who my audience is and how to get up-voted on the sub-Reddit and forums. As an avid player of League of Legends, I spend numerous hours a week playing the game. I know each champion and what they do; I understand match-ups and mechanics; I understand the situational aspects of the game-play. This is why I am currently ranked in the top 2.49% of all players in North America. I care about the community, both in and out of game. I by no means want League to be

7 known as the most toxic, and this is why I am taking the effort to appeal to the rest of the community. By letting our voices be heard, Riot must act to reduce toxicity. I chose to appeal to the community with the League of Legends sub-Reddit and forums because this is where the players are most active outside of the game. This is also where ideas have been noticed by Rioters and have later appeared in game. Changes have been implemented this way before. Back in March of this year, the community overwhelmingly suggested that there be a team builder option, based on WoW Dungeon Finder in which a player is able to choose beforehand the role he wants to play. Last month, the system has been introduced on the PBE, or public beta environment, for testing and is to be put into effect in the near future. The game promotes and encourages interactivity. The audience, or players of League, has the opportunity to become the authors. How to appeal to them was a whole different issue. I know that 90% of the players are male and the majority are in or have attended some sort of secondary education. I need to make the suggestion relevant to them (the reward system doesn’t hurt either; they’re getting free stuff). The rest of the community, assuming the non-ragers and trolls are the ones commenting on the posts, has to deal with the toxicity, too. Most LOL players are in silent, or not so silent, agreement that toxicity is an issue. Ideas have been suggested and lost within the thousands of other, forgotten posts. The end of the season is here, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect. People are talking about the Season 4 changes constantly. I am introducing a potential new one. Up-votes are given to posts that people find interesting, relevant, or could better the community. If someone considering my suggestion a good idea, it will likely be up-voted on the League sub-Reddit or brought to the top of the threads on the forums. By fleshing out the post to make it as clear and concise as possible and including a TL;DR at the end, I believe the value of the idea will speak for itself by getting the post to the front page. Bullet points, sectioned paragraphs, and a high-school reading level will also help me to appeal to the League Reddit and forum demographic. Including the fact that this started off as a school project is also almost guaranteed to get up-votes. Project up-votes and views on the sub-Reddit and forum posts, as well as feedback received, will be verification for its success. To post costs nothing. To receive feedback is free. If implemented, Riot will have to pay its employees to create the new reward system for honorable behavior. However, Rioters are already being paid to come up with and create these designs. Time would be the main resource spent, seeing as how it could take a whole League season to accomplish. In the end, reforming the community and reducing toxicity would be the result.

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