Table of Contents
- Player Behavior Design Values: Punishment
- Patch Rundown 5.6
- Lyte on Team Builder Fill and Mirror Matches
- No Sion R change in 5.6
- New Champion Select Music in 5.6
- Meddler on Mordekaiser and Ashe
- Champion Mastery Beta on BR
Player Behavior Design Values: Punishment
First up we have Lyte and Devarius with a dev blog on the Player Behavior Design Value of Punishment:
"TLDR: We believe punishment is most effective when structured towards reform, because other designs often address symptoms, not root causes. Walling off the overflowing garbage room might hide it for awhile, but the smell sticks around and you aren’t any closer to having a clean house.
Hey everyone!
We’re here to wrap up our Player Behavior dev blog series. We’ve already discussed reform andreward, and now it’s time for punishment. It’s important to note that while punishment remains the most obvious way to deal with negative player behavior, we only utilize it in very specific circumstances. We only outright punish players when we’re really, really sure (false positive rates below one percent) a punishable offense occurred.
In every other case, we believe punishment should be structured to encourage reform. Drevarius explores an example of that in action with chat restrictions, but first Lyte tackles the core problem with Prisoner’s Islands (where negative players are matched with other negative players in a separate queue) and why ranked restrictions don’t create one.
Before we dive in, it’s that part of the blog where we reiterate our overriding philosophy on player behavior in online gaming: there’s no silver bullet. We strive to find a mix including punishment, reform, and positive reinforcement.
Why “Prisoner’s Island” is almost always bad for everyone
Prisoner’s Island, matchmaking negative players together, is a tempting, obvious solution to combating poor player behavior, but it’s ultimately just lazy design that only encourages further negativity. As players are exposed to more negative behavior, they just become more likely to quit playing any particular game--up to 320% more likely, in fact. That old saying about everything looking like a nail when all you have is a hammer applies here; low priority queues can work well in one very specific situation, but that doesn’t mean you can extend it to every player behavior problem.
When players know and understand exactly what lands them in the low-priority queue, they also know exactly how to return to unrestricted matchmaking.
We do use low-priority queues in League of Legends with LeaverBuster, a system that recognizes AFKs, leaves, and rage-quits. But even in that situation, as clear-cut as it gets (a player knows when he or she ditched his or her teammates,) we still steer towards reform first.
But if the behavior becomes a pattern, the player is punished with low-priority queues, forced to wait before entering matchmaking.
But what about ranked restrictions? We’ve seen some players concerned that by removing negatively-behaved players from the ranked queue into normal draft, we’re creating a Prisoner’s Island and just calling it something else. The key that makes ranked restriction different is that the overwhelming majority of players in normal draft are still neutral to positive. By slowly and intentionally introducing a very small minority of negatively behaved players and keeping them chat restricted during their path back to ranked play, we don’t disrupt the queue and players can compete in a more relaxed atmosphere as they work to reform.
With both LeaverBuster and ranked restrictions, social pressure acts as a lever, encouraging reform. We’ve found the approach of surrounding bad behavior with good influences tends to lead to the best results for improving the experience and helping the community actively reject negative behavior. Next, Drevarius finishes up the series by addressing how chat restrictions fit into our punishment philosophy.
-Lyte
How turning chat into a resource management game encourages reform
Hey everyone! I’m Drevarius, a designer on the team behind chat restrictions.
We wanted to design a system to discourage bad language and outright abusive communications. Again, punishment should encourage reform, so simply muting foul-mouthed players treated the symptom, but failed to create a solution where the player could learn and improve their communication skills. After a number of tests, we landed on chat restrictions, a punishment that hard limits the amount of team-wide chat messages a player can send per game.
Limiting the number of messages a player can send turns chat into a limited resource. This messaging “ammunition” can either go toward useful comms that help coordinate a successful gank or toward flaming an underperforming teammate. Chat restrictions challenge players with a resource dilemma and a moral decision.
Since most players want to win, the clear choice between helpful comms and negativity leads to a substantial reduction in most chat restricted players’ negativity. Many chat-restricted players realize using chat positively has an impact on their win rate. Because of this, some chat restricted players even asked to make their restriction permanent! When we compare the old ban-first, ban-later strategy regarding negative language to the new combo of chat restrictions and bans, we’ve seen 40% more players reform in the new system.
-Drevarius
Why we believe League is only going to keep getting better
League’s currently at an all-time low when it comes to AFKs and leavers, and the community’s taken a hard stance against racism, homophobia and sexism. Cumulatively, only 2% of games globally include excessive harassment, racist, homophobic,or sexist language.
There’s still work ahead, and knowing that you’re experiencing something rare doesn’t help when it’s still horrifying and disappointing to see in game, and we know negative experiences linger in a way positive moments don’t.
Moving forward, we want to make it even easier to be positive. We’re also making it more convenient to find and play with your friends through expanding Suggested Players and new features like Party Rewards. We’re not done yet and we’re looking forward to working with the community to make League even friendlier. Good luck, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!"
Patch Rundown 5.6
Scarizard, FeralPony, and Zirene are here with a patch rundown for 5.6!"The Patch 5.6 Rundown is here! Jump on the couch with Scarizard, Zirene and Feralpony as they discuss the changes coming in 5.6, including the state of the jungle, the live gameplay team’s philosophy, and the queen of spears, Nidalee."Over in the corresponding reddit thread, Scarizard noted:
"I really appreciate the kind words, y'all. I'm really passionate about the Rundown, and all the criticism from Twitter/YouTube/reddit has helped it get to where it is now. I don't think we're the best thing ever, but I was really excited with the panel here and the discussion that managed to come from it. We're going to continue changing the format and some other things here and there ever so slightly, but I'm glad you enjoyed it."
Lyte on Team Builder Fill and Mirror Matches
"I agree.
Picking two positions would be great, love the idea of a "Fill" position, and mirror matches are bad."
No Sion R change in 5.6
When asked if the change made it into the recent 5.6 patch, Scarizard confirmed:
"Did not go through."
When asked why, Scarizard explained:
"Balance, actually. This functionally would allow Sion (a powerhouse of 5.5) to essentailly 'double hit' w/ R"He continued:
"Not in a ton of situations, but still hadn't been tested enough to just throw it in."
New Champion Select Music in 5.6
Patch 5.6 includes new champion select music (one for Blind pick and one for Draft ).When asked if there are plans to make the old champion select music available in client, Utora noted:
"Hey Tryndamemes , while nothing is for sure - we have been actively talking about the possibility of adding additional music options to the client. Things like being able to have options for Team Builder Lobby, Draft, and Ranked pick music have all been discussed. No decisions have been made nor do we know when we'd do something like this or if we ever will - we as players really want it too so we'll have to see what happens!
I honestly think once you get a few games in with the new music you'll have the same response we did - which is we really love the new music. Can't really hear it as anything else right now and I've been playing the game since 2009! I miss the old music too - but I really think the new stuff will grow on you. Just give it some time.
Thanks for the thoughts and comments guys!"Utora continued in a different post, noting:
"Both of these new pieces are EPIC AS ALL GET OUT. I've played quite a few matches while the composers were writing them.
For blind pick. I get so many feels starting around the 1:02 mark - that swell and chord change there - man, so good. And then the build up that starts at 2:00 and leads into the quiet section builds so much tension during the early stages of picking - it's my favorite part.
Players who have been playing the games for years will definitely miss the old tunes - hopefully we can work out having the option for you to pick which one you want in the future - something we've been discussing. But for a small percentage of newer players - this will be their first impression, especially those leveling to 30. And then in a year it will feel like it's always been this way."
Meddler on Mordekaiser and Ashe
When asked about Mordekaiser's visuals and aligning him more with the current Shadow Isles aesthetic, Meddler commented briefly:"When we do a visual upgrade for Mordekaiser we'll definitely want to make him look like he matches his origins (the Shadow Isles). Not sure what the timing on that will be, but we'll certainly want to work on him at some point, he does show his age visually."
When asked about Riot Repertoir's earlier comments on a new Ashe passive, Meddler noted:
"Not for a while. Gameplay changes haven't been completely locked down yet. Once they have, she'll then go into the queue for the required visual changes. It'll be a while as a result."
Champ Mastery Beta on BR
To reiterate their roll out plans for the new feature, here's a quote from the original Champion Mastery announcement:
"We’re kicking off the rollout with a PBE stint from 3/11. If all goes well, a couple of weeks later we’ll then launch a beta in a single region, focusing on Summoner’s Rift normal queues to make sure the feature’s stable for expanded use. We’ll read through your feedback and keep you updated with our progress, too, so keep an eye out for future posts after the service goes live!"
More information on Champion Mastery can be found here:
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