Current State of the Wild Rift Community

With Wild Rift having been out for several months in certain regions of the world, there is a topic that needs to be discussed: toxicity. As many players know, League of Legends PC is also a very toxic game. The toxic nature of League of Legends has caused many people to condemn the game. The same is beginning to occur with Wild Rift. What began as a promising start for Wild Rift is starting to devolve as players turn on each other, blaming both teammates and the development team for their grievances.

Wild Rift Background Information

For those who do not know, Wild Rift is the mobile version of League of Legends. In essence, it is a 5v5 moba relying heavily on team play. Released in Asia and Europe, the game is still in open beta phases and does not have nearly as many champions as League of Legends PC. Though modeled after League of Legends, the game utilizes completely new models and skill optimizations.

[Related: Review of Wild Rift]

Moba communities have a tendency to be toxic. Flaming teammates, blaming the game balance, every Moba has players that cannot cope with the idea of losing. The same can be said for Wild Rift, but the number of toxic vocal players are beginning to overwhelm the community.

State of Wild Rift

[Related: Wild Rift Season 1]

Since Wild Rift’s initial open beta release in Asia, Riot has fine-tuned the game to a massive degree. Listening to community feedback, nerfing overpowered champions, adding new champions, and even developing Wild Rift exclusive skins and events. These changes help to create a unique and enjoyable experience for players on Wild Rift.

But along the line, developers have had their slip-ups as everyone does since no one is perfect. When releasing the game to EU, Riot accidentally left out some regions. This caused a major upset directed towards the Riot team. Insults were poured out all over Wild Rift communities, labeling Riot as money-grubbers and scam artists. When kicking off the Yordle event, issues with the reward system made Riot pull the event back for a day. The community quickly lashed out at Riot, criticizing them for creating trailers and hyping up an event only to disappoint.

Players will find anything to complain about, be it the balance of the game, the event system, matchmaking, or even patch updates. Of course, these complaints help Riot discover the issues of their game, pushing them to further perfect the Wild Rift experience.

The issue is that the game is still in open beta, and players are expecting a perfect experience. The full game is not even officially out, and there is so much hate and toxicity in the community. This does not bode well for the future of the game, as typically the longer a game is out, the more toxic the community gets.

Future of Wild Rift

Wild Rift has the makings of the biggest competitive mobile game. Teams and competitive scenes are already forming, with diligent players and leaders pioneering the field. But to help create a bright future for the game, the players and community need to be more aware of their actions.

To prevent the Wild Rift community from further devolving, to prevent a toxic breeding ground from flourishing, the Wild Rift community needs to actively discuss the positives of the game. Players need to learn to be thankful for the changes and updates that developers bring, rather than focusing solely on the problems.

The game is still brand new. Wild Rift has so much hope for its future, so let’s do our best as a community to keep the game healthy.

“Just because verbal abuse and toxicity is normalized in gaming, doesn’t make it okay.” – Terry Oh