In the MOBA League of Legends (LoL) players who have performed negatively are threatened with exclusion from the new loot system.
For a long time, League of Legends has had the image: Good game, terrible community. LoL players leave matches before they are finished or deliberately help the opponent to make the game particularly stressful for their own teammates.
These so-called “trolls” are now to be punished even more severely by the developers at Riot Games than has been the case so far. Until now, players who frequently stand out negatively received penalties such as temporary bans or limited exclusion from ranked games.
A new step to punish these “trolls” will be exclusion from the new crate crafting system, which we have already introduced here.
In LoL, the good ones go into the pot, the toxic ones into the coop
“If a player is punished for ‘toxic’ behavior or intentional ‘feeding’, they will not receive loot” said lead game designer ‘Jeffrey Lin’ in an interview with Polygon.
(“Toxic behavior” refers to particularly negative players. “Intentional feeding” is when one wants to help the opposing team by allowing oneself to be killed by them on purpose to give the opposing team a larger gold advantage.)
The crate crafting system represents a large part of the upcoming changes in League of Legends. As loot, players can receive crates or keys after a game. With the keys, players can open crates to obtain loot such as skins or champions for free.
The exact details regarding who can receive loot and who cannot are still being refined. However, it is certain that players in LoL who repeatedly stand out negatively will not receive loot and also cannot use the crafting system, where unwanted loot could be exchanged for other items.
Jeffrey Lin states that the system aims to truly “reward” players. It is a new form of reward for playing positively with friends. Since skins have never been given away before, this is Riot’s way of telling players “Hey, if you’re a player with positive behavior in the game, you have the opportunity to earn gifts just by playing the game and being ‘awesome’.”
Previously, one was only “honored” in the game by other players who could rate them with “Helpful”, “Friendly” or “Team Spirit” after a match. Even as opponents, particularly good opposing players could be recognized as “Honorable Opponent”. However, this is all optional. Once enough of these honors have been collected, one receives a ribbon on their portrait in the loading screen.
Riot is curious to see if it works
Currently, there is no exact date for when the crate crafting system will be implemented in the game; however, it is at the top of the developers’ priority list, according to Lin. The testing phase should begin shortly after the implementation of the new champion select begins.
“We have never excluded negative players from an entire system. We are curious to see what the global feedback will be. Of course, changes are still possible.”
In August, Riot had already toyed with a similar idea: League of Legends plans to punish toxic players by taking away rewards, then backtracks after a few hours
