Internet jerks have ruined many games for me, and likely all of you. In fact, I rarely play Xbox Live outside my circle of friends and mature groups specifically for this reason. Toxic communities are but one scourge to competitive gaming. The other, and the one that really gets my goat, AFKers and leavers. There’s nothing more soul crushing than seeing a teammate leave during the heat of battle (RRRAGEQUIT!) or AFK because she’s thirsty ten minutes in to a match.
In first-person shooters it is annoying to lose a teammate during a balanced match, but not devastating. In RTS titles like StarCraft II or DotA contests like League of Legends, it’s routinely insurmountable.
Riot Games hopes to change all this by taking a page out of Survivor’s book. In the upcoming months, a Tribunal system will be instituted that allows select gamers to be the judge of infractions. The judges will be handed the bulk of community complaints, which tally “10s of thousands of complaints a day,” according to Steve ‘Pendragon’ Mescon. The player-judges, soon to be known as “pludges” (Copyright LoreHound.com), will receive cases ranging from harassment to ragequitting (leaving out of disgust over one’s team, persona, or opposition’s play). Chat logs and game information, but no game replay (still), will be made available as part of the report.
By following a set of (undisclosed) rules created by Riot Games, the tribunal members can punish or pardon the alleged players. These judges will themselves be ranked via a points system, likely giving more weight to their decisions the higher they themselves are heralded.
Being bad at the game is not a punishable offense (so sign up today!).
Hit the jump to read the specifics of the system, including combat of possible abuses, how it can be applied to other communities and a requested filtering feature.
