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[SigSig]

They aren't even remotely similar. If my child has a sports game it isn't going to overlap on bedtime or dinner or chores. And neither would an online game if it was started with time in mind. A game started intentionally knowing it would run over becomes an issue, and the consequences of it being turned off would certainly make someone mindful of doing it again.

My point was that you are wasting peoples' time and I just wanted to know whether this is only okay because they are just random people from the internet or whether it would also be ok in reallife.
I know the games themselves are rather incomparable.

 

[Swarna]

If they never changed from ELO I'd agree with you more. The new system makes no sense and punishes players severely for afk's and whatnot.

Yes you'll end up diamond if you deserve to be there, but there are people like me who started bronze because of afks at the end of one season, and the next where I had legit matches I started gold. That's a separation of many hours of playtime even for very skilled players, decided by a few afks.

Playtime is irrelevant if you're having fun. If you're more than a little miffed at being put into Bronze instead of Gold I'd question your motives with playing this game. Too much value is being put into your ranking when the difference in skill between tiers lower than Diamond is trivial. I doubt Diamond-level players are spending large amounts of time in Bronze in any case. Sure Goldie is gonna play in Bronze a little more than he'd like but does it really matter when it's just a few notches below his own skill level? That guy wasn't going to get recruited into a pro team in any case and the worst possible scenario is he is at the butt end of bronzie jokes. Or he realizes the game isn't fun for him when it doesn't give him a gold star.

 

[Acerac]

Playtime is irrelevant if you're having fun. If you're more than a little miffed at being put into Bronze instead of Gold I'd question your motives with playing this game. Too much value is being put into your ranking when the difference in skill between tiers lower than Diamond is trivial. I doubt Diamond-level players are spending large amounts of time in Bronze in any case. Sure Goldie is gonna play in Bronze a little more than he'd like but does it really matter when it's just a few notches below his own skill level? That guy wasn't going to get recruited into a pro team in any case and the worst possible scenario is he is at the butt end of bronzie jokes. Or he realizes the game isn't fun for him when it doesn't him a gold star.

Get everyone else to see it this way and I'll agree with you.

Til that day, people will be petty assholes if they are Silver 2 to your Silver 3, even in unranked.

 

[DrunkDan]

My point was that you are wasting peoples' time and I just wanted to know whether this is only okay because they are just random people from the internet or whether it would also be ok in reallife.
I know the games themselves are rather incomparable.

No I totally understand what you mean, and I am not in favour of wasting anybody's time. What I'm saying is that any game, be it real life or online, can be played at a time that would prevent it happening. Its just that the real world example doesn't quite fit in as much that football matches or other sports tend to be scheduled at more social times. A child playing an online game at a similar time would have sufficient time to finish. its not so much about switching the machine off or ruining the game for others as it is about wanting my child to know when it's time to finish. If I set a time for them and they decide they want to carry on after that then they would have to accept that they may lose out.

If that means other people losing out too then that's a lesson my child will learn. Others will complain that they have caused a problem and hopefully my little one will have realised that it's best to plan properly and not try to circumvent that. Like ive said before, others will have different outlooks and that's fine. I'm just doing it my way and I don't doubt other people will have their own methods.

I'd be interested to see how many people here have children and how many people are arguing it from the child's view (those who are perhaps younger and without children).

 

[Fafalada]

My point was that you are wasting peoples' time and I just wanted to know whether this is only okay because they are just random people from the internet or whether it would also be ok in real life.

Growing up I've seen plenty football/basketball/tennis etc. games interrupted by curfews and/or angry parents(as well as other family members, bf/gfs... The list goes on). Noone (that I'm aware of) wrote open letters of complaints to the interrupters, so yes it's always been ok in real life.

 

[Acerac]

If that means other people losing out too then that's a lesson my child will learn. Others will complain that they have caused a problem and hopefully my little one will have realised that it's best to plan properly and not try to circumvent that. Like ive said before, others will have different outlooks and that's fine. I'm just doing it my way and I don't doubt other people will have their own methods.

Note that this isn't actually true. Your child will be completely shielded from their complaints, and will have little idea how much the decision impacted others. Your method is much easier on the child, it's the 9 random people you'll never meet that get punished far worse using your method.

Once again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to give no considerations to the time and feelings of those who your children are interacting with, just that it is what is being done.

Growing up I've seen plenty football/basketball/tennis etc. games interrupted by curfews and/or angry parents(as well as other family members, bf/gfs... The list goes on). Noone (that I'm aware of) wrote open letters of complaints to the interrupters, so yes it's always been ok in real life.

It's ok in real life for a parent to randomly yank their child out of a sports tournament because they felt it is time RIGHT NOW to take out the garbage and your stupid game can wait?

I wouldn't write a letter to the parent, I'd probably go out of my way to avoid them. I can't imagine any stable person doing such a thing. Granted, it's their right... but yeesh.

 

[Giever]

It is on the kid to only start a game that he or she will be able to finish. The parent's only concern is going to be the proper upbringing of their child.

If there's anything the parents should take from this, maybe it's pointing out to their kid that by trying to start a game that will go past their bedtime they're screwing over some other folks. Teach the kid to only commit themselves to things they will be able to properly finish.

But it's not the parent that is screwing those people over, it is the child who made a commitment that they should have known they couldn't keep.

 

[swazzyswess]

this "issue" makes me want to have like 10 kids and introduce them to LoL just on the off-chance that my parenting pisses off scores of LoL players. what a fucking joke. "but... but.... STATS!" I assume everyone complaining about this is also a kid with a parent-enforced bedtime because there's no way they're functioning adults.

 

[Acerac]

this "issue" makes me want to have like 10 kids and introduce them to LoL just with the hope that my parenting pisses off scores of LoL players. what a fucking joke. "but... but.... STATS!" I assume everyone complaining about this is also a kid with a parent-enforced bedtime because there's no way they're functioning adults.

I'm just a guy who gives value to what others do with their time, and tries to give a base level of respect to everyone out there.

It's frustrating that apparently this thought process makes me immature. =/

 

[Kenai]

As both a longtime MMO player and occasional LoL player, I can completely understand the frustration and annoyance that comes from a team member suddenly needing to afk. WoW and FF14 raids can go into a complete standstill, and LoL games could be lost. In terms of actual time wasted, it is very much akin to pulling a kid from a rl sports game, with less of the stigma/embarrassment involved for the parent.

I'm also not ok with people saying "it's just a game" because that doesn't make it any less rude to the other people just because you personally won't have to deal with the repercussions of wasting everyone else's time. Online etiquette is different from irl etiquette but it still exists (or should).

THAT BEING SAID, the parents have the final say, period. The online people don't know what's going on, and chances are it was the kid who joined that game knowing it would take too long and knew that they weren't supposed to. Kids mess up, they are kids and human beings, it comes with the package. And they don't get a free pass, the parent has to put the foot down when they mess up and are doing what they shouldn't. And even if the parent is the one being an asshole, they are allowed to be til the kid turns 18 and can gtfo.

With the systems of most MMOs and MOBAs they are likely gonna have to learn to be responsible and manage their time better regarding irl vs gametime for the future if repeats happen (MMO static rep, MOBA leavebuster, ect) and that's actually a really good skill to have. Parents aren't totally blameless in everything they do, but that's ok, this is just a "danger" of playing with more than one person, sometimes stuff happens (ironically it's also why my MMO statics are all 18+ members. We don't hate younger people even a little bit, but realize that they aren't always in control of their life as much as us and stuff...would rather not have to deal with adding angry parents to a laundry list of things that could go wrong)

 

[Xpliskin]

Is this reality ?

What the hell .

It's a video-game, they must play in a clan if they value their online statistics so much over real-life

 

[Ambient80]

Note that this isn't actually true. Your child will be completely shielded from their complaints, and will have little idea how much the decision impacted others. Your method is much easier on the child, it's the 9 random people you'll never meet that get punished far worse using your method.

Once again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to give no considerations to the time and feelings of those who your children are interacting with, just that it is what is being done.

It's ok in real life for a parent to randomly yank their child out of a sports tournament because they felt it is time RIGHT NOW to take out the garbage and your stupid game can wait?

I wouldn't write a letter to the parent, I'd probably go out of my way to avoid them. I can't imagine any stable person doing such a thing. Granted, it's their right... but yeesh.

If this was a LoL tournament that analogy might make sense. But if it's a random game, then this is like a parent making the kid come home from a pick up game of football, not a sports tournament.

 

[Acerac]

If this was a LoL tournament that analogy might make sense. But if it's a random game, then this is like a parent making the kid come home from a pick up game of football, not a sports tournament.

If it's a ranked game, for any of the 10 people participating it could be an extremely significant match. There is no way to know, unfortunately.

It's a very inconvenient system. =/

I'd seriously steer my kids away from something like LoL or Dota.. too addictive in nature.. and I've played them.. just not something my kids will be allowed to play until late teens at the earliest.

..but if my kids now (7 and 9) tell me no to something because they are playing a game.. the game is turned off immediately. I wouldn't care if was LoL (it's not) but I could give 2 shits about 9 other players stats.. I've played the games.. people quit.. it happens.. it happens enough that I don't really give a shit to be honest. It's just a game.. people take it far too seriously.

I'm not letting my kids finish a game when they were supposed to be doing something else, then grounding them afterwards so that 9 other people can finish their video game.

I'm a gamer myself, still don't care.

Must... not... TAG QUOTE....

 

[Kenai]

If this was a LoL tournament that analogy might make sense. But if it's a random game, then this is like a parent making the kid come home from a pick up game of football, not a sports tournament.

Not really, older working people can spend weeks gathering enough free gametime to get into a promotion series and that could be the game that loses it, effectively wasting a lot of said person's time (and that would just be one person of the team). Likewise, sometimes MMO players get to raid 1-2 nights a week and losing a tank/healer means that's it if there's no replacement waiting.

I'm not ok with random articles telling parents how to do their jobs (they could easily frame it way better then they did), but the time lost is real, and I feel like completely dismissing it as irrelevant is uncool.

 

[Peagles]

I always used to tell my mom,

"I CAN'T PAUSE THE INTERNET!"

We always used to say "I'm in a battle!" - that came from Pokemon since we couldn't pause and save, lol.

Now whenever I'm busy and say "Hold on I'll be right there" I can usually hear my parents yell back "I'm in a battle!".

Smart arses, lol.

 

[Jotaka]

Not really, older working people can spend weeks gathering enough free gametime to get into a promotion series and that could be the game that loses it, effectively wasting a lot of said person's time (and that would just be one person of the team). Likewise, sometimes MMO players get to raid 1-2 nights a week and losing a tank/healer means that's it if there's no replacement waiting

In a MMO people would create a schedule to do that and they organize themselves for that raid. What you comparing is more a PUG raid.

 

[Kenai]

In a MMO people would create a schedule to do that and they organize themselves for that raid. What you comparing is more a PUG raid.

Yes and no, if we are scheduled to raid Tuesday and Thursday from 7-10 and do fine for two weeks and suddenly we are SoL because someone got in trouble with their parents and can't raid week 3, that IS time wasted even if the parents are totally justified in punishing the kid, and said kid likely wouldn't have a static anymore either. Not saying it's wrong, but also not saying that our time is any less valuable to us. It's why none of my statics have people under 21 in them (that and we like to talk about things that some parents might not like lol). For example, imagine if said kid was banned from playing the computer entirely and couldn't even contact us to let us know he/she was gonna be out so we could replace em. Sucks pretty bad for us, right?

Even so, in general I imagine they are talking about Summoner's Rift ranked draft and those are mostly going to consist of "pugs" since at best you can duo and you kinda get a "penalty" for doing so by being matched against slightly higher ranked players. Ask some of our more competitive LoL players how long it has taken them to climb through the ranks. One loss in promos can definitely set you back a lot of time, and it really sucks.

I'm not really blaming the parents for parenting here, but again, I don't want people looking down on the amount of time they are potentially wasting either. Even if they realize it and respect it but still pull the plug, that'd be fine with me (unless I was in Gold/Platinum promos, then I'd just cry).

 

[NervousXtian]

I'd seriously steer my kids away from something like LoL or Dota.. too addictive in nature.. and I've played them.. just not something my kids will be allowed to play until late teens at the earliest.

..but if my kids now (7 and 9) tell me no to something because they are playing a game.. the game is turned off immediately. I wouldn't care if was LoL (it's not) but I could give 2 shits about 9 other players stats.. I've played the games.. people quit.. it happens.. it happens enough that I don't really give a shit to be honest. It's just a game.. people take it far too seriously.

I'm not letting my kids finish a game when they were supposed to be doing something else, then grounding them afterwards so that 9 other people can finish their video game.

I'm a gamer myself, still don't care.

 

[RedSwirl]

Point 1.) This is why I only play online games on Saturday nights at 3am. The possibility of other people interrupting me has caused me to play online games seldom to begin with.

Point 2.) This just shows some fundamental problems regarding online gaming that haven't been solved yet.

Chief among these problems is the fact that parents generally still don't understand these games at all. Most older parents still have no idea what the fuck Xbox Live is other than their kids' thing charging their credit cards $60 ever year. They barely understand there are people on the other end, much less what those people are saying over voice chat or even who they are. I like to think of online gaming as basically like being on the phone with a dozen other people.

We may be a few years or a decade away from a point where a significant number of these kids have parents who play or played online games. Once an actual "second gamer generation" is in full swing (I'm talking about when the people who grew up with games in the 80's and 90's have kids old enough to play games) we're going to see parents in general who are much more vigilant and knowledgeable about their children's gaming habits. Hopefully things will improve then. Hopefully games will be designed around this.

 

[DrunkDan]

Note that this isn't actually true. Your child will be completely shielded from their complaints, and will have little idea how much the decision impacted others. Your method is much easier on the child, it's the 9 random people you'll never meet that get punished far worse using your method.

My bad on that. I had wrongly assumed that other players could see who had dropped out. But it's the part where you say other players are punished far worse that I can't quite get my head around. I'm led to believe that all that happens is their stats are negatively altered (and not beyond fixing by playing more games right?) so how is this any different to someone losing connection or some sort of Internet problem? Does this not happen all the time anyway?

 

[SneakyStephan]

It's ok in real life for a parent to randomly yank their child out of a sports tournament because they felt it is time RIGHT NOW to take out the garbage and your stupid game can wait?

I wouldn't write a letter to the parent, I'd probably go out of my way to avoid them. I can't imagine any stable person doing such a thing. Granted, it's their right... but yeesh.

kids playing soccer outside 'come inside dear it's time for dinner/bed'

 

[Fafalada]

kids playing soccer outside 'come inside dear it's time for dinner/bed'

Exactly - and like I said in real-world it's quite common to have such interruptions from Many other parties than just parents and family.
As we grew older (20s, 30s) I've been in middle of games only for someone's phone to go off and in worst cases have people just up and leave after a short conversation (even though we had booked time-slots and spaces for said games, and the call was literally never an emergency).

I suspect kids growing up with cellphones are completely accustomed to such disruptions, only making that more common than what I experienced.

It's ok in real life for a parent to randomly yank their child out of a sports tournament because they felt it is time RIGHT NOW to take out the garbage and your stupid game can wait?

That's stretching goal-posts way out of proportion, but even so - answer is yes. Short of parents putting their own pre-approval on kids participation(in which case they wouldn't have motivation to interfere outside of emergencies anyway) they're absolutely within their rights to yank them out any time.

 

[Morinaga]

I'd pull the plug for just haivng to read that whiney garbage.

 

[Kenai]

My bad on that. I had wrongly assumed that other players could see who had dropped out. But it's the part where you say other players are punished far worse that I can't quite get my head around. I'm led to believe that all that happens is their stats are negatively altered (and not beyond fixing by playing more games right?) so how is this any different to someone losing connection or some sort of Internet problem? Does this not happen all the time anyway?

In LoL's case, they can see who leaves (all players in the game) and have the option of reporting them after. There is a little bit of leeway (say maybe once a month? maybe even longer) but beyond that they treat it the same as if that person was toxic (aka bad behavior) since they can't tell the difference between someone leaving on purpose and a real disconnect, and the overall effect on the game is the same. They can ban the account from playing that mode at all, and the rewards for playing and doing well in ranked are pretty prestigious to most players.

Edit: The more i look at that letter the more I think they shouldn't have urged the parents to do anything and instead just show them what it does to the other players. Honestly most people would say that if the person is going to leave a match they would ask that the person not play and wait til they have more time, but I dunno. I guess it's hard to say that to people in a polite way, especially when it's likely a lot of them aren't going to care.

 

[paradise_circus]

I am disconnecting way more often after I attended to the adulthood.
However, I could think of some child protection or even self protection settings for such things.

 

[Dunan]

Just curious: Is this just because League of Legends is virtual?
Would you interrupt a real life soccer match, which has already been running for 40+ minutes (which would be the equivalent of yanking out a LoL-Summoner mid-match as their teammates have already invested a significant amount of time on top of just losing stats) just to make a point, leaving the rest of the players in a shitty situation?

Was just about to post this -- this kind of situation long predates video games. As a kid in the '80s and '90s, long before online gaming was a thing, we would be out every summer evening playing baseball or football or basketball. Typically it would be 3-on-3 or 4-on-4, and we were always fine-tuning the ground rules so that we had balanced, fun games all the time.

And on occasion one kid's parent would be like the parents described in this article. They'd pull their kid away for some arbitrary, unforeseen chore like taking garbage out, and in the process ruin an experience for up to a dozen other people - people who are that kid's friends.

They also sent the message that commitments to others can be broken if something "important", or someone important, decides that their will must be done even if the heavens fall.

And we then wonder why many adults today seem to lack one of the basic things that we associate with adulthood: the ability to make commitments and honor them, and not abandon them when something "more important" comes along. Perhaps next time one of your co-workers bails on an important assignment, or someone you've hired leaves for another job right after accepting yours, or someone is a no-show at an important event, we can consider that they learned this behavior by watching their own parents.

 

[spekkeh]

I don't really see a difference to saying my son has to come inside when he's out playing hide and seek or tag or something. Yes he's 'screwing over the other players', but fucks sake it's a game. I mean ideally you'd negotiate them quickly finishing up the game or setting a deadline beforehand, but not if it takes another >5 min. Too bad. Edit because of the poster above: for something important of course, such as dinner or bed time, not necessarily to boss them around. Unless of course they were told beforehand to do the chores.

 

[Alx]

They also sent the message that commitments to others can be broken if something "important", or someone important, decides that their will must be done even if the heavens fall.

Well, yes that's the whole point. The thing is parents decide what is important and what isn't. Having fun with friends is nice and all, but doing your chores or having dinner is, too.
You won't accept your co-workers to miss an assignment because work is important. Unless they have something more important happening, like a death in the family. But certainly not "my friends are waiting for me to play with them".

It's all a matter of priority, and playing videogames isn't very high on the list of family matters.

 

[th4tguy]

All of this would be solved with a simple, "hey mom/ dad, I'm about to hop on a game that will tie me down for 20min at a time. Is there anything I can do or that you need from me before I hop on? Not getting pulled away mid match from my team is important to me."

Boom, done.
It's called being considerate and it works both ways. I'd be far less likely to pull my son away from a game mid match if he approached it like that. Hell, I'd bring him a drink and a snack and ask him how it's going.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

All of this would be solved with a simple, "hey mom/ dad, I'm about to hop on a game that will tie me down for 20min at a time. Is there anything I can do or that you need from me before I hop on? Not getting pulled away mid match from my team is important to me."

Boom, done.
It's called being considerate and it works both ways. I'd be far less likely to pull my son away from a game mid match if he approached it like that. Hell, I'd bring him a drink and a snack and ask him how it's going.

Exactly. This is a problem with the players (in this case a kid) not properly planning and allocating their time.

Sure, if you've got a rare asshole parent who just randomly springs shit on you that you must do immediately, that sucks. But I wager that there are many more instances of actual adults leaving these games due to similar "Oh shit, I gotta do a thing!"-type instances than there are kids getting pulled off by an annoyed mother or father.

 

[ZeroCoin]

Just curious: Is this just because League of Legends is virtual?
Would you interrupt a real life soccer match, which has already been running for 40+ minutes (which would be the equivalent of yanking out a LoL-Summoner mid-match as their teammates have already invested a significant amount of time on top of just losing stats) just to make a point, leaving the rest of the players in a shitty situation?

Wow, these sports analogies have really gotten out of hand. Here's the fundamental difference between an organized real life sports tournament and a league match. Parental involvement. A parent is typically involved in several aspects of a sports tournament. Between paying for equipment and entry fees, transportation, and usually watching the matches themselves, a parent would not simply 'pull the plug' like many are suggesting. The schedule for both parent and child has been cleared specifically to prevent interruptions. Even then, real life stuff happens where a kid will get pulled from the tournament, like a death in the family or something similiar. The point is, there is a mutual interest in having the child participate in the event. This does not typically exist with video games.

A league match typically has minimum parental involvement. Now before you start ringing the victory bell, remember that a big portion of this still falls back on the child. They know the rules regarding game time limits, and if there is going to be a conflict, the parent needs to be informed before it gets to the point where a plug pulling is needed. Letting a parent know ahead of time that a match is going to be starting soon and an estimate of how long it will take could make all the difference in the world. While playing past a time limit and refusing to log off when told repeatedly is not the best way to get a calm reaction from a frustrated parent.

Overall the point of the article is basically 'consider the time investment of other people'. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. The problem comes when people start using that as the most important part of the equation. To the person writing the letter and the child playing the game, finishing is the most important. It does not rank highly in the parents list however. Nor should it.

Ultimately there needs to be communication between the parent and child about limits.

 

[Sai-kun]

The replies in here are so bad. Pretending we're not on a gaming forum or something, saying you don't know what LoL is and that permanently damaging the stats and ranks of other players isn't a big deal.

I don't understand the argument regarding bed times, because the kid should know when their bed time is and not start a match if they know their parents are strict and they won't finish before then. That's the kid's fault.

But what's really annoying is when parents suddenly pull the kid off for other reasons. My dad is a gamer, so he understands, and doesn't do this. But most of my friends' parents just don't care at all, and stop everything their kid is doing so they can go do some sort of chore that doesn't even need to be immediately done.

Unless my kid is like, literally playing for a championship or something, the bolded isn't a big deal at all. It's a video game. And I say that as a guy who used to take his kill/death ratio in Halo very seriously, and then remembered that nobody cares and it doesn't matter, so I stopped giving a fuck about it.

All of this would be solved with a simple, "hey mom/ dad, I'm about to hop on a game that will tie me down for 20min at a time. Is there anything I can do or that you need from me before I hop on? Not getting pulled away mid match from my team is important to me."

Boom, done.
It's called being considerate and it works both ways. I'd be far less likely to pull my son away from a game mid match if he approached it like that. Hell, I'd bring him a drink and a snack and ask him how it's going.

This is also a good point as well. Communication is important! My parents never pulled the plug or killed the Internet on me when I was finishing a match of Halo, as long as I told them I was finishing up in x amount of minutes. My mom would even watch me play towards the end of the match sometimes.

 

[fijim]

This article is dumb, because if I caught my kid playing League instead of Dota he would already be grounded.

 

[10101]

Eh, while I can definitely see that it is frustrating for the players (it was for me playing MMO's) essentially real life is far more important than any game. My son is about to turn 11 at the weekend and only very recently have I allowed him to play online (since Xmas - under strict supervision). I wouldn't think twice about the people he was playing with though if it was required for me to pull the plug. To be fair he is really good with it, he plays most evenings we don't have anything else going on and I always get him down half hour before bed for a wind down and supper. When he was younger though there were times I had to take action to get him off, but he learnt the lesson and its a lot better now. Obviously he's a child and there are still times (like this very evening) where he is stressing at FIFA and I have to intervene - with a ban threat lol.

With regards to teaching him to respect others people's time as has been suggested by some in this thread I think there are better ways to do that than to give them leeway to just carry on playing - especially if that is going to impact something else they should be doing. Just taking some of their free time away would achieve this (as suggested in the letter) with some time for contemplation on how he has affected others playtime.

Bounderies are extremely important for children in my view as are set rules and times of doing things. I mean I'd love to wake up, stick on a bit of Elite and go racing across the galaxy but hey I can't because I'm a responsible adult with a business to run. If I have to go somewhere or do something and I've misjudged the time it will take to finish the game, well those are the breaks, off it goes. The rules apply to me as well as my children!

Personally though I find the whole thing a bit ridiculous and at the end of the day it is just a game. If someone pulls out early, nobody has died, the world keeps on turning. If the person that wrote the letter is that bothered they should look at playing with friends perhaps? I have to say, it does sound like the letter writer is taking this all a bit too seriously, it just entertainment at the end of the day which should never trump family time or responsibilities.

 

[Nicktals]

If it's a ranked game, for any of the 10 people participating it could be an extremely significant match. There is no way to know, unfortunately.

It's a very inconvenient system. =/

I think I've got 2 decent points from reading this whole thread:

1.) If you don't have kids, at least understand you have no idea what you're talking about. Or if you do, understand that someone else's kid might be completely different from yours. Calling someone a bad parent based on their comment in this thread is laughable.

2.) The blame shouldn't fall on the parent, or the kid. It should fall on the developer. I think the passion a lot of people obviously have for this game is testament to the fact that a better system, even if it's a little wonky, could be implemented. Seriously, make people age verify, and have lobbies, and leagues, based on age.

People keep bringing up the soccer match point, which is fair, except that it ignores the fact that all of those 13 year olds know each other socially, will probably attend the same school the next day (so this will be a shared experience for both the child and the parents), and that this curriculum was decided upon long ago. If my 12 year old was somehow playing soccer with a 30 year old, I'd feel fine (immediately) withdrawing him.

 

[Nicktals]

I have 2 very young children. I started reading this thread on the first page when it was a new post...I posted when I finished reading every reply.

 

[Acerac]

My bad on that. I had wrongly assumed that other players could see who had dropped out. But it's the part where you say other players are punished far worse that I can't quite get my head around. I'm led to believe that all that happens is their stats are negatively altered (and not beyond fixing by playing more games right?) so how is this any different to someone losing connection or some sort of Internet problem? Does this not happen all the time anyway?

They can see who it was, but unless given permission, they can not message the player who dropped. Beyond that, there's no way to tell if somebody legitimately had internet problems or just felt like leaving. It's basically left up to the devs to punish... and yes, if somebody disconnects often they get suspended, then banned.

It really ruins the game when it happens.

All of this would be solved with a simple, "hey mom/ dad, I'm about to hop on a game that will tie me down for 20min at a time. Is there anything I can do or that you need from me before I hop on? Not getting pulled away mid match from my team is important to me."

Boom, done.
It's called being considerate and it works both ways. I'd be far less likely to pull my son away from a game mid match if he approached it like that. Hell, I'd bring him a drink and a snack and ask him how it's going.

Very true. Communication solves so much.

 

[Nicktals]

They can see who it was, but unless given permission, they can not message the player who dropped. Beyond that, there's no way to tell if somebody legitimately had internet problems or just felt like leaving. It's basically left up to the devs to punish... and yes, if somebody disconnects often they get suspended, then banned.

It really ruins the game when it happens.

Very true. Communication solves so much.

So, why don't the devs account for this? Like, shouldn't a 20 minute game exist?

 

[Silraru]

Seriously, people log off/disconnect/afk due to many reasons, including power failure, internet failure, computer failure, keyboard/mouse failure, falling asleep at the keyboard etc. In these cases, can the same be argued, especially if the person in question knew such things can happen in advance?

Perhaps the best way to handle such situations is to allow AI to take over to at least minimize a loss. That probably would be the best way to go about it instead of just letting the person's character sit there and do nothing because they've disconnected. This might not help in case of afk, but I suppose with AI implemented to take over, people can choose to vote kick their teammates and let AI take over. Then again, that vote kick thing may just cause more drama and be abused. But AI taking over disconnects that go over certain time limit certainly could help in such situations. This of course is in the hands of devs. Hm, why hasn't devs tried that yet I wonder.

 

[dickgumshoe]

I think parents won't care, and I don't care for LoL and don't think play statistics are that important.

But from my own experience a lot of parents don't exactly do a good job when it comes to gaming/tv time arrangements. My own as well as a lot of friends' parents were very inconsequential and didn't even set clear rules regarding that. It only lead to my friends and me trying to ignore and stretch and bend those rules at every occasion.