League of Legends might be one of the biggest games in the world, but it's not without its share of problems. Chief among them the fact many of its players are hostile, anti-social assholes.
That's something developers Riot Games are trying to address, and according to lead producer Travis George in an interview with Gamasutra, there's a novel way they're going about it.
"We actually have built a team around this, to address [the problem]," he says. "We call it, lovingly, the PB&J Team, which stands for Player Behavior and Justice Team. And there's a lot of really talented folks on that team, including two PhDs. One's a cognitive neuroscientist and one's a behavioral psychologist."
"We've actually developed specific trends, and our own set of metrics that we look at for measuring what percentage of times we think that players will encounter a negative experience in a game, and how severe that negative experience is," George continues. "And then we have to build things or be responsive or message the community in a particular way to address those things."
"This is going to be a major focus for us".
Good to hear. Lord knows the game needs it.
League of Legends: Changing bad player behavior with neuroscience [Gamasutra]