Player mentality and hostality in game

[Deleted]

I'm sure you've all stumbled upon raging mad people while playing League of Legends. You know, the people who constantly talk, complain about their team, harass and laugh at their fellow team members. While I despise people with such a mentality, I'm genuinly interested in why the phenomenon occurs.

• Why are people unable to accept the fact that other players happened to play better than them?
• Why must said people form their irritation over the loss into insults, and blame the loss on somebody else?
• Why do they feel the need to constantly inform everybody on the other team that it's not their fault that they lost - but the other person they chose to blame their loss on?
• Why must they constantly harass and make fun of the person they chose to blame their loss on?

From my own experience, the person who gets to take the blame is seldom "worthless". The person who gets the blame may not be on the same level as the others in the game, or might have made a mistake at some point during the game, but a mistake or two doesn't make a player "worthless" and definately not worthy of constant harassment. It's not like there's somebody who's never made a mistake, missed an opportunity, fucked up or whatever.

So why do people feel the need to be hostile towards others? Is it for them to feel better about themselves somehow? Do they need to vent anger from things unrelated and do so on strangers online?

Why is it so hard to give a compliment or even help others instead? If there's anything that'd help you win games, it'd be when all your team mates feel good about their performance and feel like their fellow team members are nice people they depend on.

I've always tried to praise good plays or good avarage performance, and help people who make mistakes or seem confused. It often helps creating an extremely nice and friendly atmosphere, but occasionally I meet people who think I'm trolling them just for trying to be nice.

What are your experiences? Do you try to spread a good atmosphere in your games?

[thoukaia]

• Why are people unable to accept the fact that other players happened to play better than them?
• Why must said people form their irritation over the loss into insults, and blame the loss on somebody else?
• Why do they feel the need to constantly inform everybody on the other team that it's not their fault that they lost - but the other person they chose to blame their loss on?
• Why must they constantly harass and make fun of the person they chose to blame their loss on?

John Gabriel's "Greater Internet Dickwad Theory":

Normal person + Anonymity + Audience = Total dickwad

And there are 2 more factors that apply in League of Legends.
-Most people take the game way too seriously, as if them losing has any more consequences than a defeat showing up on match history.
-Losing a game to a team member when you did well yourself is not something that happens often IRL. In most situation, when someone (for example a football player, or a colleague, or a student you're working with on a paper) performs poorly, you have the option to stop working with them and recruit someone else, so in the end the result will be better. In LoL, when a team member feeds first blood 45 seconds in, you just know you're stuck with him for the next 19 mins 15 seconds and there's nothing you can do about it. This creates a very negative feeling that just grows with time, and can only be expressed through flaming.

[Deleted]

I normally dont type shit in chat, only ss. I can ping, but i dont type. Im playing at 1900 elo.
People that say elo hell is noobs that cant play. - Same shit for 1900 players really.

But i dont need to rage or tell players if they're bad. Cause ALL players have there bad games, everyone.
- Theres only a few times, i go completly insane in the chat, and i haunt that player down in the chat. - But only happend 2 times, in 2 years.

I dont know if they're 13-15 years kids, or they're actually 20+, cause i think that. And i imagine some shit virgin with sunglasses, and his jacket, feeling super cool infront of screen, and i bet my middlefinger on they arent like that in real life. Its just so sad.

[Kurdiern]

I try to stay positive. But if someone seriously starts talking shit that's uncalled for and is being a complete negative impact, I'll go off on them.

Also it's a teamgame. People want to win. People have 4 other people to blame and as most of us have by now witnessed, they would rather blame others than actually critique themselves.

[Mortezu]

It's just blind rage that needs to be vented somehow. Ironic thing is that when you flame someone or laugh at them for making mistakes, it'll create the opposite. The one who's getting flames isn't going to play better, in fact he might play worse on purpose just to get back at the flamer, or troll in the next game. Sadly it's a never ending vicious cycle that can't be solved easily.

[Deleted]

-Losing a game to a team member when you did well yourself is not something that happens often IRL. In most situation, when someone (for example a football player, or a colleague, or a student you're working with on a paper) performs poorly, you have the option to stop working with them and recruit someone else, so in the end the result will be better. In LoL, when a team member feeds first blood 45 seconds in, you just know you're stuck with him for the next 19 mins 15 seconds and there's nothing you can do about it. This creates a very negative feeling that just grows with time, and can only be expressed through flaming.

This is what boggles me. Of course it's more fun to win games than to lose them, but it's not like it's you can't have fun despite losing. I've had really long, really tight games ended with both teams rushing the Nexus. Whoever won, there's always people on the other team going "bg" and blaming the loss on somebody. I bet 10 000 IP that they wouldn't have considered it a "bg" but a "gg" if they had won. Did those last seconds during which the victory was the decided make the entire hour-long game before boring?

I guess what I want to say is, why consider oneself "stuck" with bad team mates? Why not making it a positive experience for everybody by doing your best and perhaps even help the guy who's performed poorly? I can't understand the obsession of having to win every game, giving up the very instant you see somebody on your team make a mistake and harassing them for it.

---------- Post added 2012-03-08 at 04:48 PM ----------

I try to stay positive. But if someone seriously starts talking shit that's uncalled for and is being a complete negative impact, I'll go off on them.

I've caught myself doing this as well. If I see somebody acting like a douche towards somebody else on the team I usually end up going against him by his own means. Double standards to an extent, I guess, but I don't feel like such people deserve kindness.

Also it's a teamgame. People want to win. People have 4 other people to blame and as most of us have by now witnessed, they would rather blame others than actually critique themselves.

Probably because it's difficult to admit that oneself is lacking, I guess. But why? I know I'm not the best player around and I will most likely never be, so I have no problems admitting when I make mistakes. I feel like that mindset helps me evolve and become better at whatever it is I'm doing.

Are this kind of people simply unable to accept the fact that they aren't pure awesome at everything always? Or do they know inside that they could have done better but still chose to harass others? Either way seems weird to me.

[Restos3]

I just don't feed the trolls. Seems to work sometimes, but some trolls just don't care if anyone replies to him or not, they just keep the trash-talk...
What everyone should do is get on vent with 1-2 friends, and Q with them. There's no other way really. You'll still get trolls and whatnot, but being 2-3 (or even 5, if you can) friends on the same game, and talking on vent is really relaxing. We just lol at them and have fun.

Even if we have feeders/trolls or whatever. Someone is throwing your game, goes afk or feeds on purpose? Np, we just keep playing (we barely use/see chat) and we try to do some silly moves. It's a great challenge to play 4v5 because someone went afk. It's a great way to improve IMO.
That's what I do at least, and works perfect.

[Jersovic]

What really got on my nerves was the first week I was playing this game. I was level 1, and doing 5v5 "BEGINNER" against AI (cpu opponents) and had people raging at me, and others. Why in the hell do you Queue for the most noobish of games if you're going to attack new players for not performing like professionals? I will never understand this. At least queue for intermediate or something and then maybe your rage would be justified.

[sadface]

I'ts human nature to do ALL the things you have stated...

and if you are not doing these things you are not human? Or you are pretending not to be human for some reason

Oh that's right because humans are retarded.. why wouldn't you want to be retarded?

Oh ok i get it now

Winner win
losers lose

that's the game folks... get better or fail

[Restos3]

What really got on my nerves was the first week I was playing this game. I was level 1, and doing 5v5 "BEGINNER" against AI (cpu opponents) and had people raging at me, and others. Why in the hell do you Queue for the most noobish of games if you're going to attack new players for not performing like professionals? I will never understand this. At least queue for intermediate or something and then maybe your rage would be justified.

Playing against bots and raging is not justified. Not even against the hardest ones, not even in normals at level 30, not even at low elo in ranked games.
In my eyes, it is only really justified at high elo (elo whores) and because is hard to get there to lose 30 elo for some random playing terrible.
And even then, you shouldn't rage at all in a video game. Exceptions are the ones who make a living off it.

[Deleted]

I'm sure you've all stumbled upon raging mad people while playing League of Legends. You know, the people who constantly talk, complain about their team, harass and laugh at their fellow team members. While I despise people with such a mentality, I'm genuinly interested in why the phenomenon occurs.

• Why are people unable to accept the fact that other players happened to play better than them?
• Why must said people form their irritation over the loss into insults, and blame the loss on somebody else?
• Why do they feel the need to constantly inform everybody on the other team that it's not their fault that they lost - but the other person they chose to blame their loss on?
• Why must they constantly harass and make fun of the person they chose to blame their loss on?

From my own experience, the person who gets to take the blame is seldom "worthless". The person who gets the blame may not be on the same level as the others in the game, or might have made a mistake at some point during the game, but a mistake or two doesn't make a player "worthless" and definately not worthy of constant harassment. It's not like there's somebody who's never made a mistake, missed an opportunity, fucked up or whatever.

So why do people feel the need to be hostile towards others? Is it for them to feel better about themselves somehow? Do they need to vent anger from things unrelated and do so on strangers online?

Why is it so hard to give a compliment or even help others instead? If there's anything that'd help you win games, it'd be when all your team mates feel good about their performance and feel like their fellow team members are nice people they depend on.

I've always tried to praise good plays or good avarage performance, and help people who make mistakes or seem confused. It often helps creating an extremely nice and friendly atmosphere, but occasionally I meet people who think I'm trolling them just for trying to be nice.

What are your experiences? Do you try to spread a good atmosphere in your games?

So actually your saying u never met any bad players that totally suck and dont care about winning the game but just play for fun? And if you tell them you DO play for winning the game you have no life and they start to troll you, which makes you rant on them.

private server or what?

[Restos3]

As hard as it looks for you to understand: some gamers do play for having fun.

[Deleted]

I'ts human nature to do ALL the things you have stated...

and if you are not doing these things you are not human? Or you are pretending not to be human for some reason

It's human nature to be egocentrical to an extent, that's why we want to feel good, why we want to win and dislike losing and that's all fine.

But why does that have to be at the cost of other people? I'm not saying everybody should be kind at all times, but why do some people have to revert to some sort of primitive state of mind where they must protect themselves from feeling bad by acting like complete douchebags towards other players?

---------- Post added 2012-03-09 at 02:20 PM ----------

So actually your saying u never met any bad players that totally suck and dont care about winning the game but just play for fun? And if you tell them you DO play for winning the game you have no life and they start to troll you, which makes you rant on them.

private server or what?

Of course I've met bad players. I've met terrible players too. I've also met decent and good players making mistakes. I haven't, however, done the things I listed with dots in the OP.

I can't understand why some people must harass and put the blame on other players, neither can I understand how people aren't having fun unless they win. Is it that fun to see the Victory-screen that the entire process of reaching it doesn't matter?

Yes, I prefer winning, but that doesn't mean I'm not having fun while the winner is still uncertain. Yes, I sometimes feel like we could've won if it wasn't for a mistake from a certain player, but I feel no reason to harass him and make him feel terrible about it. It's not like people aren't doing their best.

[Duilliath]

What really got on my nerves was the first week I was playing this game. I was level 1, and doing 5v5 "BEGINNER" against AI (cpu opponents) and had people raging at me, and others. Why in the hell do you Queue for the most noobish of games if you're going to attack new players for not performing like professionals? I will never understand this. At least queue for intermediate or something and then maybe your rage would be justified.

In their defense (devil's advocate, mostly), if you do drop into bot games as a lvl1, you would mostly have zero idea about the game. Doing the two Tutorials gets you to lvl 3 or 4 at least. It explains the shop and the fact that turrets are bad.

That said... I don't see the point in raging anyway. In my last game yesterday we had a Shaco who had zero idea bout how to jungle. He went jungling without smite (I can see that happening as Shaco, even if I think it's stupid), but didn't realise why Shaco doesn't need smite. It's because he hardly spends time in the jungle once he gets level three + red buff and is running around ganking mostly. He was building box nests and didn't realise that humans don't just blindly follow you into that trap. Was it annoying? Yes. Will it change anything if I start raging at him? No, I'll still be stuck with him for however long that game lasts and with an unpleasant atmosphere it'll only feel worse.

[cherb]

The community can be pretty ridiculous at times for even the smallest mistakes, even at low levels. People in this genre just aren't very forgiving most of the time.

However, I also hate the part of the community that reports for the smallest things. If "gg noobs" or "too easy" really bothers you that bad, you need thicker skin.

[Duilliath]

I don't care about those. In tribunal, I generally give that a pass, despite what Riot said. However, it's seldom that this is their only transgression. I can see why Riot doesn't like it though - there really is no need to rub it in when you win.

[Thigrai]

I'm a decent person. In life and on the internet. I try to be helpful and teach people things they are missing. But occasionally you get this troll or flamer who will speak back to you after failing. I will rage. I will rage so hard my most played champion will turn into Tryndamere. It's not about anonymity for me. If someone had this terrible uptight attitude and constantly insulted me i would smack him in the face because he's deserved it. You can't do this over the internet so the only thing that's left is to rage at them.

If someone is failing i will tell them to fix the problem. If they reply with an uptight attitude i feel frustrated. Not only are they failing, but they're taking your positive aproach and shoving it back up your ass. Not cool bro. This is where Tryndamere comes in.

I got banned twice for it though so i try to keep it to a minimum :/

[Bombkirby]

I'm a decent person. In life and on the internet. I try to be helpful and teach people things they are missing. But occasionally you get this troll or flamer who will speak back to you after failing. I will rage. I will rage so hard my most played champion will turn into Tryndamere. It's not about anonymity for me. If someone had this terrible uptight attitude and constantly insulted me i would smack him in the face because he's deserved it. You can't do this over the internet so the only thing that's left is to rage at them.

If someone is failing i will tell them to fix the problem. If they reply with an uptight attitude i feel frustrated. Not only are they failing, but they're taking your positive aproach and shoving it back up your ass. Not cool bro. This is where Tryndamere comes in.

I got banned twice for it though so i try to keep it to a minimum :/

The problem is, trolls are TRYING to get an over the top reaction out of you. You're feeding them by raging. What I do is go on a calm rant about how the ragers are taking LoL too seriously and how they should log out and take a break because they're acting a bit strange. This brings the conversation from being about your mistake...to being about them.

[Deleted]

It's not like people aren't doing their best.

You dont know if they even try to do their best or alt tabbing and watch a serie at the same time (yes i met such players)

---------- Post added 2012-03-10 at 02:05 PM ----------

In their defense (devil's advocate, mostly), if you do drop into bot games as a lvl1, you would mostly have zero idea about the game. Doing the two Tutorials gets you to lvl 3 or 4 at least. It explains the shop and the fact that turrets are bad.

That said... I don't see the point in raging anyway. In my last game yesterday we had a Shaco who had zero idea bout how to jungle. He went jungling without smite (I can see that happening as Shaco, even if I think it's stupid), but didn't realise why Shaco doesn't need smite. It's because he hardly spends time in the jungle once he gets level three + red buff and is running around ganking mostly. He was building box nests and didn't realise that humans don't just blindly follow you into that trap. Was it annoying? Yes. Will it change anything if I start raging at him? No, I'll still be stuck with him for however long that game lasts and with an unpleasant atmosphere it'll only feel worse.

Well you could atleast explain him what he did wrong (i do that) and give some tips on how to play shaco.
But even if you do so players can feel attacked and start ranting at you that u should play your own champ and stfu cause they know what they do and what more they throw at you.

Its rlly hard to stay polite when i try to help them and they start calling me noob and i should stfu ><

[Mascotte]

The tutorial should be mandatory, not optional.
People not grasping the concept of towers in normal games just fails on all levels.
Sure, everyone was new sometimes, but its basically an instant loss if you get grouped with people that cant figure out why they die.
And that happens at higher levels as well, not just the first few.

Make the tutorial mandatory, expand it a little bit and presto.
You gain some xp from it and IP iirc so your getting rewarded plenty for going through the steps and even the newest of the newest players will come out better then he went in.