boards.na.leagueoflegends.com
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This post is a direct translation of an Inven article called <"Are they overlooking LoL hacks & scripts?" Riot Games Korea needs to regain their trust from Korean players.> from Korean to English.
Article's original link. Inven. In Korean language.
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TL:DR;
1. Many Korean players are infuriated that Riot Games Korea have been overlooking unauthorized scripters and cheaters for at least two years.
2. This is not the only incident that triggered this rage. Other major incidents have accumulated Korean players' distrust towards Riot Games and Riot Games Korea.
3. One of the major incidents involves a streamer who is strongly suspected to be cheating in his livestreams. Many players and pro-gamers have found numerous evidences which pointed toward the streamer's guiltiness. However, Riot Games' official response was "We haven't found solid proof, 'for now'."
4. Recent announcements on New Champ Select Update and Dynamic Queue frustrated Koreans even more. Players are waiting for Solo Queue which were promised to come 'some day', but poof. Their hopes faded away when Riot Games gave uncertain answers and comments.
5. Then yesterday(KST) this happened. An Inven community user posted a thread claiming that Riot Games Korea did not take his several detailed reports on 'Helper(Unauthorized cheating program)-selling websites' seriously. Instead, Riot Korea actually met with those Helper-sellers and told them "There won't be any major legal actions and lawsuits. Just don't sell this again and we'll be fine."
6. Korean players' rage which have been adding up until all this time have finally exploded on this post.
7. Gamers who enjoy and love League of Legends urges Riot Games to make strong and certain decisions on the in-game problems they are facing. We need clear opinion of Riot games regarding these Helpers, and strong restrictions on those unauthorized cheaters. It's late, but better late than never.
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Prior Note for readers and moderators: The first post which had talked about Riot Games Korea overlooking script distributors has been removed. According to the /r/leagueoflegends mod /u/Regandyke, this post was removed because:
* Do not discuss hacks or disallowed third party programs.
* Do not name websites that offer any of the above services.
I promise that this translation of the article written by an Inven reporter doesn't include any elements of violating those rules. This post does not contain privacy issues, specific name of the unauthorized programs, nor specific addresses of disallowed-program-distributing-websites.
(For a side note: Inven is the biggest LoL community in South Korea, but unlike reddit, it is also a gaming press. Inven has many reporters dedicated in various games and churns out many articles. This article is one of them, and it is a crucial one.)
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Translation starts.
On Saturday, 26th of March, 2016, about 6 P.M. KST, a massively controversial post was written by a LoL Inven user called '구리구리딸'. According to the post, he is the one of the earliest person to alert Riot Korea about unauthorized 3rd party programs (a.k.a 'Helpers') in LoL.
(Moderators! 'Helper' is not the exact name of the unauthorized script/program. It's just a general noun which indicates all those unauthorized 3rd party programs and hacks and such things.)
In that post, '구리구리딸' claimed that he first reported those Helpers in March 2014, saying that Riot Korea has been ignoring the Helpers since then until now in March 2016, which makes it 2 years of complete overlooking.
Moreover, the post also said that "When Riot Korea and the manager of Helper-selling website met in person, Riot Korea ensured that there won't be serious legal transactions regarding those Helper-selling websites.". Community members' suspicions increased even more when it was discovered that Riot Korea's GM(CM) answered untruthfully to '구리구리딸's questions. Questions asking "Have Riot Korea and Helper-sellling websites' manager actually met?".
After reading the post, 'Riot Runeterra', the chief of Riot Korea Community team, left a direct comment to it. According to Riot Runeterra, it is true that managers of Helper-selling websites visited Riot Korea offices and had conversations with Riot Korea staff, but the following post is not entirely true or genuine. However, even though Runeterra made further comments on this issue, debates on this topic were not subdued. Instead, a majority of players are showing more trust for '구리구리딸', not Riot Games Korea.
Why are they showing these kinds of response? This rage of Korean LoL players were not triggered solely by this single post. They are fiercely showing their anger against Riot Korea's lukewarm actions so far.
The first triggered was fired by a controversy regarding a popular streamer. The streamer in question showed many signs of disallowed script usage in his LoL streams. Many people analyzed recorded videos of his streams and found out many evidences of script usage. Professional players also expressed their opinions on this issue. Pray, the ADC of the extraordiary ROX Tigers, said that "After seeing his plays, I feel so belittled. I will practice even harder from now on.". Cpt Jack said "If he's not using the Helper, I will donate a portion of my salary."
Many evidences and analyses which were found out by players and pro-gamers pointed towards the guiltiness of the streamer. Many players filed reports regarding the streamer to directly to Riot. However Riot Games showed no responses for a while. After the streamer himself had visited Riot Korea, and when players' rage were slowly churning out like hot lava, Riot Games finally made an official statement.
On 10th of March, 2016, 'TechSam', the Rioter responsible for the Korean tech development division of Riot Games, wrote that they have consistently banning Helper users.
Full statement of TechSam, both in Korean and English
Players recognized Riot's 'efforts' to exterminate scripters, but what they really wanted was to know whether or not the streamer will be banned for confirmed script usage. The answer was no. Riot said that the solid proof that the streamer has indeed used Helpers was not discovered "for now."
Players wanted a cool cup of Sierra Mist to wash their growing rage out of their throats. However, after discovering the word "for now", it turned out to be a lukewarm Lemon water without carbon dioxide, not a fresh soft drink.
Still, this is not the only reason of the Korean community's explosion.
On 23rd of March (KST), Riot Games talked about New Champ Select Update and the future of Dynamic Queue via their official website. The main contents of this announcement was detailed explanations on the advancements and benefits Dynamic Queue yielded successfully. As a matter of fact, many players showed deep concerns on the introduction of Dynamic Queue. And Riot Games commented that "We will try to make a separate Solo Queue mode ASAP.".
However in this announcement by Riot Socrates, a Riot employee commented that "We're not ready to introduce Solo Queue yet. Frankly, there may be no Solo Queue at all.".
Negative opinions against Riot Games' community management skills poured out. "They were lukewarm against Helpers, and they changed their own words regarding Solo Queue. We cannot trust their community managing abilities at all." Rumors about Helpers spread through not only Korean but also foreign communities. Even 'ridiculous' rumors claiming that Riot Games Korea's employees were bribed and turned a blind eye towards Helpers were spread.
This overflowing outrage of players concentrated on this one, single post of 구리구리딸 is a countless accumulation of previous discontent and distrust.
League of Legends is a PvP game. One of the most important things in a competitive game is the faith in fairness. But when you are starting to have suspicions that the enemy is using Helpers, the trust and faith in fairness starts to break apart. Suddenly, you become the naive one, if you are not using Helper programs.
It is a very difficult task for a video game to earn fame. The the video game itself have to be good enough, but also the community management after release is essential in a game's success. League of Legends is a fantastically well-made game. Once upon a time, Riot Games were applauded because of their community management abilities as well. However, their current managing is not good.
'Player-centered' policy sounds tempting, but it doesn't mean that community managers are allowed to hide behind players' backs and implement weak solutions on current problems.
Gamers who enjoy and love League of Legends urges Riot Games to make strong and certain decisions on the in-game problems they are facing. We need clear opinion of Riot games regarding these Helpers, and strong restrictions on those unauthorized cheaters. It's late, but better late than never.