‘League of Legends’ Pushes Negative Players Out of Ranked Matches
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Although it probably shouldn’t, negative behavior in multiplayer games has practically become par for the course.
Although it probably shouldn’t, negative behavior in multiplayer games has practically become par for the course. And while numerous games have implemented new featuresto keep overly abusive in the periphery, there’s still no perfect answer to fighting negative behavior.
League of Legends is trying its best to curb negative behavior with a new system that puts players into a Player Behavior program before reintroducing them to ranked games. The Player Behavior program has been secretly testing behind the scenes in League of Legends , and just this week it began live testing in North America and Europe.
The end goal of the program is to single out players who gravitate towards negative behavior in ranked matches. Once tagged, these players will then have their chat restricted and will have to re-earn their stripes in the Normal Draft mode, before being able to return to the Ranked mode.
The rollout of the program has drawn considerable criticism from both sides of the issue, with some applauding Riot Games‘ decision and others maligning it. Some believe that restricting players to the Normal Draft mode will treat that mode like a prison, forcing players who prefer Normal Draft to have their mode soured. On the flip side, gamers who have been on the receiving end of this unsavory behavior are all for the changes.
Given that League of Legends is one of the biggest online gamesout there, it’s easy to see a decision like this splitting the populace. There may be noble intent on Riot Games’ part, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the system will have the desired results. Microsoft tried a similar thing with Xbox One gamers, for example, and few saw any appreciable change to the atmosphere.
However, since most Ranked mode players are working towards a set of rewards at the end of the season, it’s entirely possible this new program will work. As Riot mentions in their forum post, some players who do not change their behavior will be ineligible to receive any of the Ranked Rewards.
As we mentioned, the program is only operating on NA and EU servers at the moment, before Riot presumably rolls it out to all League players. It will certainly be interesting to see how players respond to the program after a month or so.
What do you think of League of Legends ‘ deterrent to negative behavior? Have you noticed an overabundance of negative behavior in the game?
Source: Riot Games