Honor Among Summoners

I know I probably talk as much about League of Legends now as I do about Steam (okay, maybe not), but it's the big ideas and systems that Riot Games is pulling off that is not only making their game famous worldwide, but its community as well.

Just this past week, Riot introduced the Honor System, which not only mirrors the already well-established Tribunal, but gives players a purpose to be "humble in victory and graceful in defeat", as well as friendly, helpful, and work with their team.

As I've said previously, the Tribunal is a player-enforced system designed to punish those who don't display the previously-described behavior, or rather, those who are complete assholes and deserve what's coming to them. This is the internet, so if you're reading this and you have any kind of awareness of the amount of quality control around here...well, you probably know the kind of people that I'm talking about.

The Honor System is the parallel to the Tribunal. Instead of reporting people for abusive behavior, you report people for friendliness, helpfulness, having good teamwork, or your opponents for being good about their victory or defeat. This is amazing because not only does it encourage treating the random players you're grouped with with respect (like you always should because it's common courtesy), but it raises the subject of gamification on the subject.

Imagine if there could be a system like this for, say, the entire internet. Unrealistic? Yeah. Would it ever happen? Probably not. However, the benefits of gamification always shine, because if you can make anything into a system where you work or play for rewards, then it makes it much more appealing and the results tend to be so much better compared to any boring, regular system.

Riot continues to not only innovate the MOBA game genre, but the way they handle offensive players in their loyal community. Even if you don't know or care for League of Legends, you have to admit that the efforts these guys are making are phenomenal.