Source
r/leagueoflegends•
Azoreo

Ugly Community

I initially stayed away from League of Legends because I had beta tested Heroes of Newerth and seen how bad the community was. Eventually I tried League of Legends because a couple of people (on Reddit, I think) insisted the community *wasnt as bad* as HoNs.

After playing for a little while Ive concluded that the difference is not in the community, but in the game design. HoN offered a lot of ways for people to be abusive - one of the common ones was starting a 5v5 and spreading your team of 3-4-5 clanmates out over both sides. When pubbers joined, the host would auto-sort and launch the game, leaving his team on one side, pubbers on the other. Its easiest to start playing League of Legends through their automatch system, so new players aren`t thrown into the abuses available in the custom match system they would find when beginning to play HoN.

However, the verbal abuse and general retardedness in both communities is the same. New players have to suffer through constant verbal abuse and personal bashing just to play the game. It makes enjoying it difficult, if not impossible. If I was younger, I think I might slug through it. Now, 26, married, and with limited time to play? I have to evaluate what is and isn`t worth my time, and like HoN, LoL is a pretty obvious pass.

Posted Mar 8, 2011, 10:30 PM UTC

018
Kontu•

/ignore <name>. /ignore enemy. /ignore ally.

Community verbal harassment solved. However, enjoy your time with your wife. She'll appreciate it. (Being genuine there)

5
Davebo•

bow chicka wow wow.

1
st3amb0y•

tl;dr 26 year old doesn't want to play the game. You won't be missed

3
AzoreoOP•

Definitley not.

-2
Falleth•

Well.. Woah, that 26yo guy do not have skin thick enough.

2
AzoreoOP•

With over 15 years online, which is probably far more than you Im guessing, my skin is damned thick. If MY skin isnt thick enough to survive this community, it says a lot more about the community than it does about me.

-1
Falleth•

Roughly 5 years more, sure, but seems like it doesn't really matter with you being 3yolder than me. I have barely to no trouble with people around there - if someone's getting annoying, /ignore xxx, just like in every other game and don't give a shit.

But while we are at it - don't play Bloodline Champions, nor incoming DoTA2 or anything from that genre. Also won't recommend SC2, and pretty much any other similar, semi-competitive game, where people tryhard too much.

1
[deleted]•

Also 26, mute is your friend. If your team or the enemy team is trolling you, muting them makes it like you are playing with exceptionally creative computer opponents. You get the best of pvp but also the best of not pvp.

But also at the end of the day we are not shopkeepers who are going to be pissed off about your departure. If you don't like the game, don't play it, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

2
AzoreoOP•

Sorry, but every time I hear "just mute people!" I wonder why I would want to play online anyway. The point of playing online is to play with other people, not come up with apologetics for a bad community.

Second, the "don't let the door hit you on the way out" attitude has never been conducive to improving communities. Good to see you support it.

0
[deleted]•

For me the point of playing online is competing with entities more intelligent and interesting than computers. I don't know what kind of community you expect to develop in 30 minutes of play without voice chat with people you'll never play with again.

Before you start talking about how conducive my behavior is to whatever, consider this thread you started. Exactly what good do you think, "Hey guys, I just started playing this game, but I hate it, so I'm leaving," is going to do? So when you're done calling the kettle black you better try again another way, Mr. Pot.

What kind of reaction did you expect, honestly? Aren't you 26? You should have figured these things out by now.

1
AzoreoOP•

I was expecting a supportive reaction, but too many people like you here.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

I don't know how you could have expected that. We've got whining, preaching, and claims of superiority ("if I was a loser like you kids, maybe I'd keep going, but I'm a big man and I've got a wife and a job, so I'm too good for this shit"), all of which you foist on a bunch of perfect strangers. And you want a receptive audience. OK. Life has led you to different sorts of expectations than it has me.

1
somethingrelevant•

Why are you typing ` instead of '? It's turning all your text into code.

2
AzoreoOP•

Just an accident.

2
ShadedNature•

Hate to break it to you bro but no matter what video game you play people will be annoyed with you just for being a noob. Happens more so in team games where your team is really depending on you.

1
AzoreoOP•

Sorry, but no. Noobs always tend to get raged at a little, but many other communities have far better methods of supporting them and bringing them into the experienced section of the community. Look at EVE. That game is HARD to pick up - its practically meant to shut out new people in favor of more experienced players. However, the one thing preventing that is the massive amount of community support new people get.

DOTA communities have a significant problem.

0
FellatioRex•

The community is not all-around terrible, but it can get pretty bad at times. Very frequently when I play, I always get a "gj" or "ty" or any other encouraging statement from my teammates. And I always say in response "you too" and what not. Be a bro to your teammates, and chances are you won't get shit on by them.

However, you do get the players whose life seems to revolve around winning games and such, and LoL does actually apply some despair when things look grim. But in the end, if you do not meet teammate expectations, be prepared for some criticism. This game does have a learning curve (which one can argue is relatively high), and if you don't put the same effort your teammates have in learning the game, then dispute will arise.

also, /ignore would help.

1
AzoreoOP•

This is a weak solution, and its WHY this game has a problem. Strong communities build strong games, and /ignore is not a method for building its a community. It`s a stop-gap to prevent the worst of abuse. What does it say when you have to have /ignore on hand just to play the game to begin with? It says the community is broken.

A point I made in another reply is that the community itself is not geared towards bringing new players into the fold. The whole idea of being abused because you havent climbed the learning curve is ridiculous when people are kicking you on your way up. You could get ganked in EVE and if you explain youre a newbie the ganker would probably spent 30 minutes helping you out afterwards. I`ve even had ganked ships reimbursed by particularly sorry parties. Talk about a helping hand upwards.

1