Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterZeios Ok, so I told couple of friends LoL is an awesome game. 3 of them joined up, and then in less than a week they all quit. I made a new account (lvl1) to see what the hell they meant "it's horrible." Played a couple of games.... It is horrible.(...) [edit5] Also check out something I did while I got bored waiting for Red http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...1&d=1330058040 http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...3&d=1330058257 http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...6&d=1330058373 http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...8&d=1330058480 [/edit5]

• FOR NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY, by default there is no chat feature.
• At low levels, there really isn't any crucial communication. New players don't know the game well enough to strategize in ways that can't be conveyed by "go here" or "run away" pings.
• Activate chat after 10 games or so, with a pop-up notice explaining the activation.
• This provides a set of games where new players are rage-immune. These games will let the system sort people by ability level. By the time they turn chat on, they've been put in a "true" newbie zone.

• All-chat can be fun, but there's no real need for it, and this would cut out at least some gloating or raging.
• Tell them how to enable all-chat after their first 10 games or something.

• Find more ways to detect smurfs than just Elo or KDA-analysis.
• Investigate using IP addresses. (Even if there are a lot of people from one college, maybe you can use nslookup or something to identify specific network points?)
• Smart people can circumvent IP-based filters. However, this requires an amount of effort and skill. It will work on some percentage of people, perhaps a large percentage.

• Now that we have some "enhanced" bots, require that players play their first 10 games in co-op mode. Filter out the people who are clearly roflstomping.

• Let players observe or review low-level games, e.g. run a random sample of low-level games through a Tribunal-like structure.
• Could also put them in game. It would tell others that these players are high-level Summoners being put in to help them out and watch for trolls. If they abuse their position, they should be reported. Match them against another team with a Smurf Patrol member, to keep it fair.
• These players would have a form to use to flag people as "genuinely new" or "smurfs".
• Reported smurfs get insta-bumped into a higher Elo.
• If reported smurfs claimed to have been super-new on that menu, they should be punished.
• Also give these players a special, "emergency" report option: if they see someone being a ****, they can click a button that not only lodges a Tribunal report but instantly quarantines that player with other "jerks" in MatchMaker.

• Provide thumbs up / thumbs down buttons or something like it.
• Players can rate others.
• Players get 1 downvote per game and unlimited upvotes. (I'm more concerned with rage-downvoting than rage-upvoting.)
• Match players based on their rating.
• Perhaps give small IP or RP prizes to top-rated players.

• Argument: trolls get banned, and make smurf accounts. This has the side-effect of shoving all the trolls into the low levels.
• Instead of banning trolls, just quarantine them to play with other trolls.
• Concern: how do you figure out which of them has gotten better? Are we trusting trolls to not abuse Report?

• Link here: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=1826418
• Let players click to be MatchMade with peers into a temporary team. You can only enter as an individual; no duo signups.
• Perhaps let players indicate what champs they want to play; ensure team has a reasonable mix.
• They meet in a pre-game lobby and can talk. Lobby has "here's how to report" banners and stuff.
• When ready, it puts them into queue, matching against other temporary teams.
• After the match, it takes them back to the lobby.
• You can leave at any time.
• It's a one-way exit. Once you leave, it vanishes as far as you're concerned.
• When a player leaves, another player is brought in from the queue.
• Possibly include a "thumbs up / thumbs down" button for voting on "attitude ratings". Players with a good attitude get put with others of that kind.
• Goal: create a spirit of camaraderie, create incentives to be nice (because you'll have to rely on them next time).

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Blue Jelly Actually, really, a hotfix idea... Make a popup "IMPORTANT! READ THIS!" come up before you can do a Queue with actual people that explains what a Smurf is and warns that they exist and will likely make their first few games miserable until they fall out of "smurf elo"

Quote:

Originally Posted by CupcakeTrap Greetings, Summoner! You are about to begin your first matchmade player-versus-player games. Our Matchmaker system will attempt to place you at an appropriate skill level. However, the system needs data (matches) to do so. Because it is difficult to distinguish new players from experienced players with new accounts, you will likely end up facing experienced players starting new accounts, or "Smurfs". Don't be discouraged! Just have fun and do your best. Unfortunately, we can't tell which of you are new players and which of you are experienced players with new accounts until you start playing. If anyone gives you a hard time, please use our (anonymous) Report function to let us know so we can discipline them. Click the exclamation mark button next to their name in the post-game lobby. And if you are an experienced player creating a "Smurf" account, please be courteous to new players. Offer advice, but don't scorn their lack of experience. You were new once!

Quote:

Originally Posted by NicoliTheCat It wouldn't be editing anything, just something like: On install, generate encrypted key for yourself. On first login, register key with server. On subsequent logins, check both your login and key against the server. If they don't match up, handle appropriately. The key itself is pretty much there to stay. Reinstalls will not change it. If you ever change it, then log in on that account, bad things may happen. If you log in as someone else with that key, it'll treat you like a smurf. To fully avoid problems, you'd have to have one machine per smurf, or never log in as an old account after making new ones AND finding/removing the key. Logging in as the same guy on two machines will update the key with the one on file, though.

• When you first log into an account, the game "tags" your computer with a key file.
• If you try to log into (or create) an account with a computer tagged to another account, it will match you as a smurf during that time.
• Example: I use CupcakeComputer to make an account, CupcakeTrap. It tags CupcakeComputer with CupcakeTrapKey. Later, the account YordleSnapTrap is created on this computer. It does not tag the computer, because it already has a CupcakeTrapKey. I log in. It detects a key belonging to CupcakeTrap, but associated with a different account (YordleSnapTrap). It treats me as a smurf for matchmaking purposes. I later log into a "clean" computer (YordleComputer) with YordleSnapTrap. It finds no key, so it creates a YordleSnapTrap key on that computer. It does not treat me as a smurf there. If I try to log into CupcakeTrap on YordleComputer, it'll treat me as a smurf during that time.

Poll is up.

The "smurf patrol" idea is one that came to me just as I was typing up this thread. My main concern is that it would require putting super-high-level players into games.
Perhaps you could use Spectator Mode, once it's available?
Or just create a high-volume sub-Tribunal that randomly samples low-level games?

No.

Smurfing has probably gotten worse since the Tribunal was introduced.

Bump. I'm surprised by the "not a problem" votes. Really?

TROLOLOLOLOL you forget that trolling and general ******baggery has seen a rise by about OVER 9000% since the release of the tribunal, it does not help it made things worse, want to know why riot doesnt want to fix it?
BECAUSE IT MAKES THEM MONEY, people get mad their account is banned so they make a new account, that has no champions, they want to play a new champ so they in turn decide to buy the champion they want with real money ( except we all know thats NOT the way it works)
an easy fix to the tribunal? people who get banned for verbal abuse? auto mute.... they cant talk during games, problem solved, trolls? match them with other trolls, and leavers? match them with other leavers

Enable voice communications. It does a lot more because you're TALKING TO OTHER PEOPLE PLAYING WITH YOU. This allows you to interact with players instead of seeing the character they're playing.

Human communication is essential. This should lower the amount of flaming, albeit not by much since it's like talking over on the phone. But it does indeed give a sense of relationship with another person.

Edit: I'm not saying just put in a voice chat. I'm saying the voice chat needs to be professionally made so you can customize it in a way to suit your needs when needed and easily accessible as well.

Just having a basic voice chat communication is a very ****ty feature that will do more harm than good.

I'm not certain if any of these things are a correct solution to the smurfing problem, but I do think it is a problem. I recently got a buddy of mine to start playing this game, and through the first 10 or so levels there was extremely large amount of people smurfing. One theory of mine is that it is people leveling up accounts just high enough for the recruit-a-friend bonuses. I know on some websites people offer to do a recruit-a-friend for you so that you can even just get the 4-win IP boost for cheaper than what it would cost to just purchase from the League of Legends store. Maybe stopping this somehow would help with the smurfing problem at the beginning levels. What do you guys think about this?