65 replies to this topic

[Asym]

How toxic of a game culture are we?

Having just finished the 4th Stomp in a row, I can assure you, from what I have observed in language, attitude and toxic behavior that we are on a "slippery slope."

Yes, Match Maker created a situation that, in these 4 consecutive game, it was inevitable that they were going to be stomps......by the observation of mech weights and the composition of the teams themselves; by who belonged to organized teams...... That was sad enough. Really, there was nothing that would have changed the results.... Good players trying to rally forces.... Average players taking chances that they normally wouldn't do... Potato's (like me) trying to protect the "good payers" was all there.... And, as the play digressed into hoplessness, anger, vicious name calling and just a sense of "why am i doing this anymore?"

So, I was wondering about an articel I read earlier today, about a very successful game that on the campus I attend, they are "crowd funding" for a professional team it seeems......

The CEO of that corporation identified that their biggest enemy to success isn't funding: it's toxic behavior....

Here's the link: http://www.cinemable...r-toxic-players

"We've been put in this weird position where we're spending a tremendous amount of time and resources punishing people and trying to make people behave better. I wish we could take the time we put into putting reporting on console and have put them towards a match history system or a replay system instead. It was the exact same people who had to work on both who got re-routed to work on the other." Jeff Kaplan, Blizzard Games...

Since PGI doesn't chose to communicate with their customers, I wonder just how much PGI has spent dealing with the toxicitity I've just witnessed............. It's gotten too old for me.... When is enough, enough???

[Jay Leon Hart]

Compared to "average Mr or Mrs human" ? Very toxic

Compared to "average online community" ? Not very toxic.

Compared to "average online FPS community" ? A haven of polite, respectful discussion.

Edited by Jay Leon Hart, 15 September 2017 - 02:52 PM.

[MechaBattler]

It's the internet and what it does to human nature. Anonymity and a no risk environment combined with PVP = Toxicity. It happens in every online game with a pvp component. People just flying off the handle over the slightest perceived agitation. With barely any thought or rationale given to their rage.

We're certainly not the worse though.

[Bombast]

On a scale from 1 to 100, I think we're somewhere around...

[stealthraccoon]

Why be toxic? You get no reward for gaining tiers and it cost anything to lose or repair. Jump back in and play again - simple as that! I guess I got nothing to prove /shrug

[PFC Carsten]

I would like to add, that most toxicity one will experience is due to frustration about PGI reluctance to do anything else than Mechpacks. Matchmaking is in a sad state, new game modes are more or less lackluster, Faction Play is dead in the water and playerbase is dwindling. When you've accompanied MWO for the last years and see what kind of game it has become compared to what was promised, frustration can ensue.

[Davegt27]

thinking back to my own toxic behavior which I apologize for
some guy asked what I was doing
I said joining up on the assaults
he started to ripping into me and I blew up
(I am not asking you what to do I am telling you what I am doing)

seems ever since then my coms go off at various times and all kinds of wired stuff happen to me in game

everyone should watch these videos

[Stone Wall]

MechWarrior 3 and 4 were more toxic in their prime among the best players. That's because we all hung out in the same chat lobby talking crap. Eventually this ending in the "1v1 me bro" fights and more crap talking afterwards.

[Paigan]

Well, the more immature, violence-centric and conceptually simple a game is, the more it attracts immature and violent personalities.
Overwatch, with its toony cheesy teenager-like style, extremely superficial simple gameplay, fighting monkeys, "badass" (I hate that childish term, but it fits here) masked "reaper"-guy and whatnot seems to be designed specifically to attract immature minds. Pretty odd that they complain about it now. I really wonder if the Blizzard CEO wasn't aware of that during development. I was aware of it the second I saw the first trailer.

MWO, well. On the one hand it's rather complex with it almost engineering-like loadout system, so it might seem to repel the dumbest people. On the other hand, it's big stompy robots with autocannons and I have seen more than one weak-minded gun-zealot getting a verbal b0ner in chat about his oh-so-cool rotary ACs (is that toxic of me?).

At the end of the day, I guess and hope Jay Leon Hart is right. Could be worse. Could be Overwatch *cough*.

Edited by Paigan, 15 September 2017 - 03:30 PM.

[Fox With A Shotgun]

"What? You havent played World of Warships yet? Why the hell not?! You can rage at water. Rage at the enemy! Rage at your teammates. Rage at the Yamato. Rage at your teammates! Play a raging minigame. Rage at the iceberg. Rage at the Yamato again. Admire the rage. And finally rage at the Yamato so hard it sinks."

In all seriousness though the salt in this game is mild in comparison to other multiplayer games. We tend to use the word potato as a catch all description for players that are less skilled. Compared to the other terms you see flying around on other games? Potato is pretty darn mild.

[Zergling]

Compared to WoT, MWO is hardly toxic at all.

Compared to MOBA games like League of Legends, MWO is the epitome of politeness and good behaviour.

[Wiley Coyote]

Nothing wrong with a little toxic mechulinity

[Stone Wall]

Zergling, on 15 September 2017 - 03:37 PM, said:

Compared to WoT, MWO is hardly toxic at all.

Compared to MOBA games like League of Legends, MWO is the epitome of politeness and good behaviour.

You should see how polite MechWarriors are in the other online titles currently. Very much.

[Jun Watarase]

To be honest any game with a population of a few thousand or more wont be that toxic unless you are forced to interact with a small group of the same people on a regular basis (like Eve). With the mostly random nature of matches, you dont have to worry about running into the same people all the time.

I have seen games with small populations (100 or less) that were so toxic that a small group of players would simply get together and stalk/harrass anyone they didnt like into quitting. These players were usually some of the oldest and most senior players in the game and thus had a lot of "street cred" and plenty of ingame resources backing them up, especially in the form of in game alliances. Most players would simply turn a blind eye to whatever they did because they didnt want to risk incurring their wrath, and whatever active admins/devs usually did the same because they didnt want to risk a famous figure of the community going ape **** and getting the small population to quit.

These games usually had easy ways to find the same people consistently, such as a RPG with a central town or a FPS with very few active servers. So for example, if you were "Russ" in a RPG, you might have a group of trolls making accounts called "Russ Sucks" or whatever and stalking you everywhere. Some people wil literally spend hours every day stalking you on the internet, trying to get your personal info, where you live, what you looked like, etc, in addition to trying to get everyone ingame to avoid you. Basically, the kind of stuff that is common in Eve, except with a small population the effect is so much greater. In a big game like Eve, if one corp is out to get you, you just join one of their enemies. If theres only big corp in a small game, you are kind of screwed.

[N0ni]

MWO is mild. You usually only get the few people like [nope, redacted] who are just there to find an excuse to vent off to everyone or demoralize the team, the ragers (admittedly one of these sometimes, usually have a really bad headache at the time so i'm already pissed off anyway), other than that the worst insult being used is calling someone a potato.

Big games like Eve / OW / LoL or small games like APB:R are the ones that are most impacted by toxicity, MWO is kinda in the middle and balanced out.

[shoutout to MWO's OG goons, miss you guys]

[CraneArmy]

Jay Leon Hart, on 15 September 2017 - 02:52 PM, said:

Compared to "average Mr or Mrs human" ? Very toxic

Compared to "average online community" ? Not very toxic.

Compared to "average online FPS community" ? A haven of polite, respectful discussion.

I think this is pretty accurate.
But I want to point out, even for average Mr., Mrs. or Xe Human we might not be polite compared to them on their leisure time with their public facade. But if we are talking about those same people when they just failed to get a home loan, or the dog made a mess on the carpet its still pretty polite.

If you care about something, you are also going to care when it doesn't happen the way you wanted it to. This is just being human, and its going to happen in all *competitive* games. Its also human to accept that there probably isnt any real animosity there and forgive them. The forgiveness and rationality part is probably what people do best in this community, and this is what really dissolves the salt.

Alternatively you can get upset at everyone because they are upset at you, which is the best formula for happy good success


tl;dr -
Play the best you can.
Focus on mistakes you can fix. (ie. your own)
Be competitive.
Realize everyone gets salty sometimes. (including me and you)
Apologize when you realize it.
Forgive when its directed at you.
Play on!

Edited by CraneArmy, 15 September 2017 - 04:23 PM.

[Wildstreak]

I am thinking some game companies are like Epic now.

Here's an article interviewing the makers of Epic's Paragon.
Look for the part titled, "'At the end of the day, MOBAs are Toxic.'"

Quote

“At the end of the day, MOBAs are toxic. Counter-Strike is toxic. Competitive gaming is toxic. And team-based competitive gaming is the most toxic you can get. We’re never going to escape it. All we can do is give players the tools to manage it the best they can.”

Edited by Wildstreak, 15 September 2017 - 06:25 PM.

[Bombast]

Going to be honest - I'm being pretty toxic tonight.

But I don't feel bad about it. Actually FIGHT, you giants sacks of...

Edited by Bombast, 15 September 2017 - 06:34 PM.

[sycocys]

How much time does PGI spend on it? Basically none.

They quit the forums, got kicked of reddit, and block anyone with a complaint on twitter.

Their only actual interaction with the community as a whole is through more or less scripted podcasts.

[InvictusLee]

Bombast, on 15 September 2017 - 03:01 PM, said:

On a scale from 1 to 100, I think we're somewhere around...

Hey! IT's my highschool yearbook photo!