Questions about Toxicity in LoL

Considering that this is a combination of SMITE-related & SMITE non-related material, I'll just leave this up here instead.

So, before I played SMITE, I saw some of my cousins play LoL, and I was also planning to play so one day. BUUUUTTT this part came into mind:

Once I downloaded the game, I started playing Co-Op to become more familiar with myself on this game. However, I found out that LoL is a pretty serious game, and aparentally they are right. What I mean by that is I recalled a SMITE match in Arena last time I played SMITE, and someone had compared the LoL community to a CoD community, negatively. What confirms my theory that LoL is a pretty toxic community is that I saw a thread on the LoL (whose name I will not bring up, as I respect his/her privacy), about a match that the guy was in, and he was pretty toxic about it too. When a staff member of RIOT games brought up the chatlog, it was a series of curse words, and negativity talk.

Now, this is just one person, but I know for a fact that out of the millions that play on this game, most/some of them are pretty toxic. And I might not want to play the game if that is true, as that I play to have fun, but not to win/lose. Keep in mind that I never had played a PvP LoL match; I've only have played Co-Op.

LoL's community has been known for its toxicity, although it's definitely worse in ranked than in casuals. DOTA's pretty cutthroat too, but they don't seem to attract players that troll and intentionally aggravate others like LoL, they just hate on you if you play badly. Smite is generally decent, although I've heard mixed results from others. Especially in non-conquest gametypes, Smite is pretty forgiving overall.

Not known so much as infamous. DOTA is pretty chill from what I've heard, as long as you stay away from ranked where all the tryhards live.

Smite's casual conquests can get pretty toxic, as can the lower tiers of ranked.

I've played both Smite and League ranked, and reached a good tier with both of them.

Smite is worse. Gameplay and people are toxic. In casuals, it's incredibly awful - people leave lobbies out of not getting the right roles, people downright ignore you if you don't have Curse, and reporting for the dumbest reasons is so, so, so, so, so common in ranked and casuals it makes me sick. Example: "You set off my swear filter." "You're a jew ******." "Reporting for troll pick." The last two happened in ranked.

I honestly don't know if this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a repeating of a stereotype, or whatnot, but I don't understand why people say League is toxic. How many of you guys have actually played League recently? Because what the majority of people are saying is contradicting my experience with the game, and I've been playing since season 3.

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that it used to be toxic, but reputation does not equal reality. League gives tools for players to avoid toxicity, unlike Smite.

Team Builder prevents role fights because you pick your role before you enter the queue, and it matches you up with players.

The Honor System lets you honor players for fair behavior, teamfight, and niceness.

League bans Curse in soloQ.

League has a tribunal system so that players can "peer review," in a sense.

On top of that, Riot is remarkably transparent with their processes, and there are multiple channels to talk to not just Riot Games, but the specific person you are looking for.

Smite, on the other hand, has purely anonymous reports that, in my experience, have done little. Because I see toxic players often, and often they talk about how they've been reported. One guy in particular said, "idc / go ahead and report / I love fan mail" (the / represents another line)

I really don't get it.

I don't know specifically WHY league is toxic, this is simply what I've heard from word of mouth. My school is composed of 2800 kids and is 80% asian. As you can imagine, there are MANY league players there. From those I know (which is quite a lot) they complain about the league community quite often (I've also heard this from people who play multiple mobas).

However, it's very hard to say on an individual basis. I've played Halo, CSGO, Smite and many other online games known for having bad interactions, but overall this is a rarity for me. This obviously shouldn't be the case generally, but that's just my personal experience. Sub, you may not have experienced the bad side of league but did the bad side of smite, which is unfortunate. However, it's very hard to judge whether or not your singular experience is reflective of the whole community.

Well, word of mouth is susceptible at best. Even with a majority; you only have to see movie critic vs box office results to know that. It's moderately common to see a majority of critics slam or love a movie only for the masses to do the opposite - and this is the century with facebook/twitter/whatever.

I try to generally avoid being just another mouth by providing examples and reasons, rather than "I think [blank] is toxic festering bumhole of internet." But like you said, I'm just one person*.

And holy ****, 80% asian? Where do you live, South Korea?

*Actually, I'm not. I'm a mind hive.

I will back up Sub's first point with the success of the Transformers movie franchise.

@Sub, do you think that having 5-man-queues in Casuals will decrease toxicity? Personally, I'm going to try to play 5-mans with SF people as much as possible from now on.

Also, Zilbs lives in NY.

Yes, 5 man queues will decrease toxicity if only for the fact that you actually know who you're playing with. It's easier to yell at someone who doesn't know you than someone who does.

Yea, I find it much easier to yell at prism and fem then to yell at randoms. I liked the old transformers better, not the stupid Michael Bay explosions-everywhere and lens flares transformers.

I'm speaking from solo queue experience 95% of the time btw, and yeah word of mouth isn't reliable. I think it's usually best to look at the overarching complaints of the community to really determine how hospitable a game truly is.

And as for my school, it's the top public school in NYC that's why there's a high Asian populace, you get admitted through what is essentially a middle school SAT.