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Toxic Community - Way To Flag As New?


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#1 Gungnir888

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 04:59 PM

Hello,

I am a founder. I love mechwarrior, I stalked and funded various fan rebuilds over the dark ages. Not the novel series, but the period where nobody was able to put on their neurohelmet and fire the ignition. I was disappointed by the early release, and left MWO during beta.

Last week, I decided to come back. I find myself rethinking that decision at this point. Since my return, I have roughly 60 matches to my name. I score between 80 and 300 points depending on how derp I feel that particular match.

Until tonight, I haven't had an issue with the community. I was LRM boating in a STK, and the final kill came down to me and a light mech. I had one medium laser at my disposal. I did not perform well, and we did not win the match.

It's the internet, and a thick skin should come with the territory, but the constant barrage of how terrible I was playing was a new experience for me. I try to keep a low key involvement in something until I understand what I'm doing. I thought LRMs and watching how players engage each other might be a soft entrance into the game.

For the first time in over 20 years of internet gaming, the comments from the community drove me away. World of Warcraft literally exhibits better behavior to new players.

I don't want to suck, and I'm not normally a twitch gamer. Is having half a dozen players shouting at you in a match normal behavior?

Outside of a rant and a breather, my point was to determine if there is an easy way to flag myself as a noob. It doesn't solve a toxic community, but at the very least it might allow experienced players to identify those that would be amenable to constructive criticism.

#2 Chados

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 07:50 PM

It's not normal at all.

I've had Captain Tryhard and his enormously cheery and effervescent sidekick Metagirl carp at me from their home in north Tier 4 before, but not often. Most of the time folks here in Tier 5 aren't jerks. And I'm told that we have cookies.

Seriously, though, that kind of treatment is the exception. I've had it but not often. I had the idiots screaming at me for blindfiring LRMs because they don't understand that you can shoot LRMs without a lock, for example.

#3 bayoucowboy

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 07:58 PM

Hi Gungnir888, welcome back to MWO. Noob or not, there is really no reason for the negative comments during a match. While this does happen a lot in the solo queue, my experience over the past few years has been that the community as a whole is older and more mature (although the 2 are not necessarily connected). Your best bet is to find a group of players that are going to be supportive as you get better (and as you "level up" your mechs - they get significantly better after you unlock double basics and add modules). The group queue has less of this type of behavior going on, but the competition is tougher. Community Warfare is brutal on pugs - so I would stay away from that for a while.

Shameless plug - we have what I have found to be a good group of people at RRB/Robinson Rangers Brigade and there is always people on to play with (a very active Euro group and some Oceanic folks too)

To your question, I don't think there is any way to flag yourself ingame as a "noob", but you can turn off "all chat" and "team chat" which will ignore all posts made

See you around the battlefield!

#4 Cael Rhythyr

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:06 PM

I'll differ with you on that Chados. Whether in VOIP or just text chat, the belligerence has grown a lot. Not to mention the outright trolling lately.......from an Atlas with only 1 small laser on his build, to a Hunchie (tonight) that only carried all TAG lasers. Yes, a HBK-4P(C) of a player on an organized 6 man team. I've watched the intentional team shooting, seen a group of people send posts to PGI on a player for TK'ing (which they claim he did to them - WHEN he was actually they're opponent), watched units shoot through their teammates to get the "kill", run out of bounds to avoid a death, etc., etc., etc. It's actually fascinating watching just how far PGI has lost control of the game.

#5 Torezu

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:08 PM

Change your title to Survivor. :lol:

But seriously, if people are giving you that hard of a time with it, the only ways to keep them from doing so are 1) quit or 2) get better. If they're particularly abusive, though, do the rest of the community a favor and screenshot them for a report to the moderators. They don't take real kindly to people driving players away with verbal abuse.

#6 Tesunie

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:22 PM

I got grief for capping the bases in Conquest...

It does happen. Some people are just inconsiderate to others. It thankfully isn't a very common thing here, but it happens more than I'd like as well.

If you use LRMs, expect to get a bit more grief (for no other reason, which is kinda dumb).


If it really gets to you, turn off all chat functions and voip options in the game. It should be in your game settings menus as options.

#7 p4r4g0n

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:30 PM

When the number of times abuse is hurled at you exceeds the number of times you get good info from in-game communications, it is time to turn it off.

#8 TheCaptainJZ

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:37 PM

Generally, you don't see much hate. It probably happens at the lowest tiers more. Try to ignore it unless it's definitely out of line, then screenshot it (pressing the printscreen button on the keyboard should autosave to C:\Users\%yourusername%\saved games\mwo\screenshots or something like that. Then if you come here and click support at the top, it lists the various email address for support. Send them the screenshots with as much detail as you can about time of day, timezone, match map, and describe the incident and they will look into it. If it's a repeat offender, they'll eventually get banned.

You can also annouce to your team at the beginning that you're new and tips would be appreciated

#9 Tesunie

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:44 PM

View PostTheCaptainJZ, on 02 October 2015 - 08:37 PM, said:

Generally, you don't see much hate. It probably happens at the lowest tiers more.


Actually, I see it coming more from higher tier players. Happened a few matches ago to me. Lets just say, someone I had respect for on the forums just dropped any respect I once had for him... All from his actions in a single match. (And if I wasn't busy playing the game, I would have screened the whole thing and actually reported him.)

It's just not cool to insult anyone in the game. Give advise, sure. No need to be insulting about it though.

#10 p4r4g0n

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:49 PM

View PostTheCaptainJZ, on 02 October 2015 - 08:37 PM, said:

-snip-
You can also annouce to your team at the beginning that you're new and tips would be appreciated


Or people could just stop being arseholes and try to help/guide an obviously new or inexperienced player?

#11 TheCaptainJZ

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 08:50 PM

I haven't been playing as much lately because of rl.

Yes, of course they should.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 02 October 2015 - 08:51 PM.


#12 Tesunie

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 09:01 PM

View Postp4r4g0n, on 02 October 2015 - 08:49 PM, said:


Or people could just stop being arseholes and try to help/guide an obviously new or inexperienced player?


But then you have players trying to provide helpful advice, and other players feeling "picked on" because "I know".

No matter what we do... There seems to be no winning. Is there?

(I personally, even if I know, would rather get free tips. I might need the reminder. ;) )

#13 Elizander

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Posted 02 October 2015 - 10:07 PM

It's due to certain time zones I'm certain because I never really run into it. If you're with those groups of people just turn off all your chat settings or something if you don't really care to hear what they say.

#14 Leone

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 01:27 AM

If you pick the Knight Errant title some mechwarriors might assume that's your most impressive title. I know I assume those folk just finished getting it.

~Leone.

#15 PFC Carsten

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 01:38 AM

Sadly, things like the OP described happen from time to time. Both ways - people on your own team talking badly about you (shamefully, I have to pledge guilty of it too - but not because of lacking skill but out of apparent/perceived unwillingness on their part to contribute to the battle). I do respect however, when a fellow mechwarrior choses to contribute to the fight in a way I would not on a regular basis, for example LRM boating. This can be helpful if done well and one can never know if that person is not either very skillful at doing what he or she does or whether or not it's just a test run to see if a certain fighting stile fits to his or her liking. Hell, I've tried LRM-boating as well, but came to the conclusion that it's not what gives me most fun in the game.

tl;dr
Apart from turning off in-game chat, which for tactical reasons might not be advisable, it only helps to really disregard people's hate. Maybe they had a bad day at work too, maybe their wife gives them grieve and they can only play secretly on their slow-ass laptops while hiding in the bathroom or whatever. Maybe they're tryhards who cannot stand a loss - and maybe, very rarely, they can try to actually advise you how to improve (for example chain-fire your med lasers and sweep the lights' legs).

And FWIW, I'm a founder too.

Edited by PFC Carsten, 03 October 2015 - 01:41 AM.


#16 Ano

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 05:18 AM

Sorry to hear you encountered some of Chados' Captain and Metagirl players (I do love those names/concepts, Chados -- they align neatly with some stereotypes in my head...).

For whatever it's worth, I'd say this:

1) It's not a hugely frequent occurrence, in my experience.
2) Don't turn off allchat/team chat -- I honestly think it's useful, both for the game and for the sometimes fun things people say
3) Don't let one incident put you off just yet; you might find that you don't like the game, and that's fair enough, but don't let a couple of idiots in one match stop you from trying something you might potentially get a lot of fun from.

Good luck -- hope to see you out there.

#17 oldradagast

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 05:43 AM

I'm sorry you had to experience this.

Generally, the MWO community in game is pretty good... in some of the forums, not so much... but those ones aren't worth visiting anymore.

I've seen worse: I played one game of DotA a few years back and was cursed out royally and received death threats over coms because a "noob" dared enter their scared video game... and we still won that game and I wasn't the worst performer... So, yeah... usually the ones that spew the most hatred are poor players and sad, terrible excuses for human beings.

That being said, behavior like that will drive people away. It may only be a game, but who wants to play a game with trolls?

View PostTesunie, on 02 October 2015 - 08:44 PM, said:


Actually, I see it coming more from higher tier players. Happened a few matches ago to me. Lets just say, someone I had respect for on the forums just dropped any respect I once had for him... All from his actions in a single match. (And if I wasn't busy playing the game, I would have screened the whole thing and actually reported him.)

It's just not cool to insult anyone in the game. Give advise, sure. No need to be insulting about it though.


I've seen this, too, in World of Warships. Nearly all truly bad behavior has been from more experienced toolbags in higher tier games who take their little pixel boats pathetically seriously. They'll be the ones most likely to rant and rage, threaten to teamkill, and so on like spoiled brats. Meanwhile, in the lower tiers, people just do whatever and unless they are being actively horrible, nobody really complains or cares.

#18 Spleenslitta

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 06:02 AM

View PostTesunie, on 02 October 2015 - 08:44 PM, said:


Actually, I see it coming more from higher tier players. Happened a few matches ago to me. Lets just say, someone I had respect for on the forums just dropped any respect I once had for him... All from his actions in a single match. (And if I wasn't busy playing the game, I would have screened the whole thing and actually reported him.)

It's just not cool to insult anyone in the game. Give advise, sure. No need to be insulting about it though.

There is definitivly a thrend there. High tier players let their tier go to their heads.
But i've also seen players who die after doing a very low amount of damage throw abuse at their entire team.
They die very early on, throw their abuse and disconnect before anyone can say anything.

But the worst i've ever heard was back when VOIP was just introduced to MWO. There was a kid playing and he was using VOIP.
He couldn't have been older than 12. Suddenly a bunch of players started throwing abuse at him for being so young...then it happend.
They actually started to sexually harrass him. Saying stuff a kid that age should never hear.
To top it off there was a woman amongst the players that harrassed that poor kid. They say women have an instinct to protect children.
That woman was just....disgusting. I had no idea how to do a report back then and there was no way to screenshot what was being said over VOIP.
All i could do was to tell the kid to turn the sound off or just leave the match. I told him nobody would blame him for leaving the match when things got so bad.

Once saw a guy in a DW half a year back. I was in my Vindicator AA with a single ER PPC and a bunch of other weapons.
I peeked around a hill on the Caustic map while the DW was just leaving his spawnarea.
I shot him once in the side...he ignored it. Shot him once more and he looked in the opposite direction from where i fired from.
I shot him a 3rd time and he finally spotted me so i retreated before he could aim.

About 5 seconds later he threw abuse into the match chat about how all IS mechs are overpowered and lot's of other insults.
He disconnected before anyone could respond. That wasn't about IS mechs being overpowered...heck my Vindicator didn't even have any quirks for that single ER PPC.

#19 luigi256

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 06:37 AM

I've found that Pug/LFG dropping gets you people that really like to talk a lot of crap and don't care too much about new players. That is just my experience and I'm sure others have had better ones but either way it is not right for people to do it.

Everyone started as a new player once so everyone should know that they shouldn't pick on them. This is a video game for crying out loud.

Anyways for a solution you might want to try joining a group, a new player friendly group in particular. Your experience changes a lot when you go from solo dropping to group dropping with friends.

#20 MechWarrior3671771

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Posted 03 October 2015 - 06:59 AM

I prefer a less passive solution [of course you do Fen]

Yesterday something similar happened in match. Was down to a 10-10 and we lost, then some jerk called out the last guy to die with "worst aiming ever, learn to shoot"

Player responded back "back off its my 4th day here"

Rest of team responded "yah back off jerk"

Key here is that the rest of the team pushed back and defended the new player. Not only does that shut the bully up, it shows the newbie that the community is not toxic, just the lone jerk.

Silence is taken as approval. If you see a newbie getting bullied by a jerk, step up and say something. You don't even have to interact with the bully, simply tell the newbie "ignore him, he has a tiny penis" or somesuch.

Stick up for each other.





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