LoL players argue communication ping changes are “game-breaking” for accessibility
Riot GamesLeague of Legends players have argued that the recent reductions to communication pings have been “game-breaking” for players with disabilities.
League of Legends players haven’t been having the best of time with developers Riot as of late. With the consistent effort to reduce toxicity within the MOBA, the devs have been hard at work experimenting with new ways to curb the ever-growing issue. These have all been introduced to mixed success, however, with players arguing the changes have been more harmful than helpful.
One of the changes that Riot experimented with was reducing the amount of times a player could ping. After a certain amount of pings within a short amount of time, players would be unable to send pings to their teammates.
The player base has argued that this change harms players who are trying to actively communicate with pings, and makes it harder to coordinate with your team. Now a player has come forward to explain why they believe the ping changes are also harmful to players with disabilities, claiming that the update has been “game-breaking” for them.
LoL players argue ping changes have had negative impact on game accessibility
Reddit user kizmaus explained that using pings to communicate is vitally important to them. Since they use a puff/ sip controller and are unable to use their keyboard, pings are essential for them to relay information to their team. Oftentimes times kiz would use rapid pinging to convey a sense of urgency, which they can no longer do thanks to the recent changes.
Other players took a similar stance on the changes, complaining that they’ve made the game far worse without actually reducing toxicity.
“It’s insane how much worse they’ve made the game without improving toxicity in the slightest. This game is rapidly becoming unplayable for a solo queue support player,” one player commented.
Some criticized why the change was made for unique pings instead of spam pings, making it much harder to communicate strategy in a short period of time.
“It’s crazy because the problem is spam pings which are totally unique from individual pings. They should just put in the work to make a system that detects spam pings. Like multiple of the same ping or multiple pings in the same area. Don’t be f*cking lazy riot,” another agreed.
Riot still seems a bit on the fence when it comes to these changes. However, with plenty of time before the preseason, we’ll just have to wait and see what they decide to lock in.