As I noted in my last post, I have been inspired to write down some of my own burgeoning ideas about improving the overall experience of playing League after reading a fellow bloggers post here. I will try to make sense as I write, as these ideas are not yet fully formed in my own mind. Have patience and bear with me!
I happen to be a highly competitive person. I always, and I mean always, play to win, whether it is a video game or board game or card game or sports game. Just ask my family and friends. I am a brutal opponent in that regard. But while I am serious about winning, I do not enjoy winning at the expense of overall enjoyment and for me, enjoying a game is equal parts doing well as an individual and (this is the important part) having a shared experience of joy and fun with the people I am playing with. Ergo, when one of my teammates is ranting at me for my gameplay, I assume they are no longer having fun, thus destroying the shared experience that is so important to me. I don’t mind folks calling me out when my play is not up to snuff, such as “geez, Sarah, you are totally off your game today!”, and I really appreciate it when folks try to lend a friendly hand, like “hey, why don’t you try this?”. But when I can see that my play is destroying their fun, well, I can no longer have fun either.
So this is the question that continues to pester me, given my own personality and gaming quirks – how can you keep the overall game competitive but in a way that equally awards good sportsmanship and friendly team behavior? How can you ensure that the fun of the game doesn’t disappear just because one or more players don’t make exactly the right decision in every single moment? Right now, Normal and Ranked matches have you progress solely on winning (at least that is my rudimentary understanding – feel free to correct me!). I would personally like to have a separate competitive ladder that is based on both winning and overall good sportsmanship and team play, perhaps some magical blending of the method for awarding honor ribbons plus the traditional ELO system. Note that I am not suggesting replacing the current system. I say that because for many players, they really do care most about winning. I respect that. There should be a place for that. But for me, knowing that my teammates are enjoying the game as much as I am is as important to me and my game experience as winning and I want to play with others who feel the same. And to do that, I don’t see how that is possible without there being a separate competitive ladder for me and other like-minded players.
So in a nutshell, that is my crazy idea. Curious to know what you think.
iluvleague 
I like it! I just wish I knew how to make it happen. Getting rid of the negative players and keeping the games meaningful will be kind of tough. The only thing I could make think of is if they started ranking our level of honor or positivity and then allowing us to que based on that. This would really require Riot to develop some criteria / levels for positive play because they have said that the reason they aren’t already doing something like this is that, by their definitions, almost all of us summoners are positive or neutral.
My personal plan, to keep me happy until solo que gets well… happier, is to get five people together to do ranked 5’s. Not always easy, but very rewarding when it happens because you’ve got the competitive element and you actually know the people you are playing with. We still yell at each other, but never in the same way as solo que
My hope would be that (a) they use the existing honor system as a key ingredient in your ability to level up this ladder rather than wins only and (b) this ladder would explicity not feed into competitive play or similar, so yes, if they started ranking based on honor like you said. I like the idea of getting a 5-person ranked team together but it does cut into the overall spontaneity that solo queue provides. I play a pretty mean support if you are looking for such. Cheers!!
BTW, just logged on and am patching. Thought this was interesting in the Patch 3.04 notes:
Restricted Chat Mode
In an effort to encourage active reform and shield players from toxicity, we’ve implemented a new account restriction that limits in-game chat for toxic players.
•Certain players (identified by Tribunal and by Player Support) will have a limited number of in-game messages available and limited access to [All] Chat.
•Restricted players that successfully complete matchmade games will earn their chat privileges back.
I don’t hate it, though it will be interesting to see if these players will actually use their limited word count (or what ever they decide to do) to actually help their team, or simply get better at cussing people out in fewer words. I also can’t help but feel like these individuals will simply bottle up their rage and negativity until the restrictions are lifted. After that, they might even try to make up for lost time with the next group of poor saps they encounter.
My LoL related pessimism aside, it’s a creative step and I do really hope it makes a difference.
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Checking blog for first time in a while…totally laughing at your reply. Yup, I’d bet alot of those folks will just get more creative with their tirades!! Hadn’t thought of that….*still laughing*