There are plenty of multiplayer games I adore. However, it seems like every community has these “brain dead”, patronizing, or out right toxic elements that are just nasty. I’d rather debate politics than make suggestions in some gaming communities because the responses are just so … annoying.
As an example, I once dared to suggest that a game developer implement a mode to prevent crouched status from rendering on death cams so that players that are bothered by t-bagging could avoid it (after a match where a friend rage quit because someone just kept head shotting him – possibly with cheats – and then t-bagging). This post got tons of hate, and like -50 upvotes on reddit because of course someone should be forced to watch someone t-bag them.
Another example on a official game forum… I made a forum post suggesting Bungie use Mastodon (or really just something else being my intent)… The response I got was some positivity but mostly just “lol nobody uses that sweetie” and other patronizing comments.
Meanwhile studios themselves often seem to be filled with developers that understand this stuff is a problem, and the lack of sportsmanship (or generally civilized attitudes) does push away players. It just doesn’t make sense to me that no studio is saying “get lost” to these elements or implementing anti-toxicity features. I just want to play games with nice normal people, is that really so much to ask?
Competitive games never foster a friendly community, as players, by design, compete against one another, rather than working together. Trying to force a spirit of sportsmanship onto those communities is bound to fail.
I mean, I think you can definitely be competitive without being a dick.
I never played sports in school (but I’ve gone to sporting events and watched my little brother play games as he grew up). They didn’t allow the crap video games allow to go on. Adults had rules, you have to high five after the game, you’ll get benched or penalized if you’re being unsportsmanlike, etc…
Those common sense rules aren’t mirrored in games at all, even when they could be automated (or the “taunt” features could simply be – optionally – disabled).
They do when the games are played face to face, with referees and coaches. I don’t know many people who played real sports growing up that don’t understand good sportsmanship; but it’s such a common thing in video gaming to be a poor sport both winning and losing. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that video games also attract a lot of people who never played sports.
False. There are plenty of gaming communities with very minimal amounts of toxicity.