Game Design - Essay 1

(For my game design class, I have reworked my last post into a more formal essay)            

             As far as online games are concerned, League of Legends is generally recognized as having one of the most toxic communities. In fact, if you Google “most toxic game community” or “most unpleasant game community”, MOBA games like LoL or DOTA crowd the top results (as well as some mentions of Call of Duty). Why do these types of games breed toxic players? To try and figure this out, I tried to analyze my own behaviors and thoughts while playing the game. This might not be the most scientific approach, but it may give some deep insights on what is ruining the player experience for this game.

                The most obvious reason for why I get angry playing LoL would be that I don’t like losing, and while that may be true, it’s not enough. As a counter-example, I point to my own days playing soccer in high school. It’s important to note that my team was not good at all. We would win a handful of games each season, but for the most part, we would lose day in and day out.  While frustrations were certainly shown after some matches, for the most part the team remained civil. We were just there to have fun, and while losing wasn’t fun, the act of playing the game was good enough.

                Perhaps it’s the fact with LoL, there is something at stake with every match. I am talking of course of LoL’s ranking system, where you gain and lose ELO for every match. It’s a plausible theory, but again I would like to point out a personal counter-example. In addition to soccer, in high school I played a lot of chess. Unlike soccer, I was actually pretty good at chess, placing fairly well in tournaments. When I did lose, I never really got angry, but rather I got sad. There was more at stake here than my soccer matches (which was just a fun recreational league rather than a USCF rated tournament), but when I lost, I had no one to blame but myself.

                That might be the core issue. Unlike in soccer, when we lose, I can’t talk to my LoL team afterwards and we can’t address the issues in practice. Unlike in chess, when I lose in LoL I can point out another person’s mistake that cost us the game. When I play LoL and lose, I feel helpless. And for a lot of people, feeling helpless makes you angry. And if you’re angry, you’re more likely to express yourself in a toxic manner. This is especially true if you are online and have some degree of anonymity.

                So as game designers, what’s the solution? The best bet is to alleviate the causes of toxicity. We want to get rid of the things that make players feel helpless. In the case of LoL, I think an in-game voice chat would help a lot. Firstly, it would get rid of some of the online anonymity that causes bad behavior. But also, it would alleviate helplessness because players could tell others that they should be careful or that they want to go in or that they should split push. If a player knows their ally is listening, they won’t feel as helpless. The current in-game system of pings and chat are ok, but don’t provide nearly the same feedback that voice chat would.

                Helplessness causes frustration, which kills fun. Players specifically play games to do things they wouldn't ordinary do in their real lives. Helplessness is the last thing they want to feel while playing a game. Challenge in a game is good, but a player must feel like they can overcome it. If a player feels helpless, they will simply stop playing. Riot recognizes this problem, which is why they have started experimenting with ways to reduce the frustration as  this Gamasutra article indicates.  Only time will tell if they are successful.