[FLAME BREAK] Toxicity and Gaming: A Personal View

I have played a lot of games since I was young and I can attest that games, instead of breeding anti-social players, actually improve one’s ties with friends and acquaintances by serving as a form of socialization or another place to hang out. I made quite a good amount of friends in the online community back then and it was a lot of fun. I never thought of games as being toxic or unfriendly to beginners; I used to have the belief that anyone can just learn the game as long as one has the passion to do it — along with a certain resilience to dirty jokes and a little bit of trash talk, of course.

That was the case until I met the private servers of Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3. People were blaming one another for little mistakes and cuss/swear words were flying everywhere like birds in migration. As I mentioned above, I am able to tolerate a good amount of trash talking thanks to my former experience in other games (and personally, I was never blamed for misplay, not even once).

However, it appalled me to see people throwing these sorts of words; there were even a few anti-Semitic remarks in some incidents. I couldn’t believe that some people would make a match awful. At the time, I was extremely lucky to have faced just annoying Russian metal music (they say “RIP headphone users” for that one), because as far as my other acquaintances were concerned, they faced words such as “**** your mom” or “stupid ***hole” routinely.

I couldn’t believe that people would be deliberately toxic in regards to games and in all honesty, I only learned the word “toxic gaming” in the world of Dota 2. Inside that realm, there is no forgiveness for every any mistake you make; it is a common occurrence to hear and read “mat Russian” (read: vulgarity) in the European servers to the point that I myself was forced to learn a few Russian words in order to make them shut up.

My experiences aside, there are real effects that a toxic environment can have on players in a single game. For starters, the most basic, tell-tale sign that you may have entered a toxic gaming environment may simply manifest in the form of players typing “gg”[1] when they are defeated in a particular match. At the worst,  people inject racial slurs on the the public chat channels. Even those who can tolerate a lot of badmouthing will be shocked at the increasing amount of toxic gamers and the decreasing amount of fun they’re having.

People, especially beginners, will be turned off by the fact that they are unable to have fun in a match. In addition, they lose their motivation to become a good player and instead just focus on playing with their friends. If they ever do play solo again, newbies will try and play safe and not try anything else to avoid ridicule. Instead of players being able to realize their potential in-game, the fear of being suppressed and scolded by “trash talkers” will affect their every move. How will the game sustain itself then?

However, it seems that game companies and publishers have stepped up to the plate to address community issues. League of Legends, arguably one of the most toxic games on the planet, has made leaps and bounds in reversing this trend. In an article in TieAttack, a creative productions website, a good reason for LoL gaining that epithet is that “competition breeds malice.” Here’s what the author had to say:

“If a player is in the game only to make a name for themselves/become a pro they are most likely going to be a bad influence on their fellow players.  In extreme cases, players are willing to berate and threaten their own teammates, not to mention the other team’s summoners, in every game.”[3]

By turning the “all-chat” function off and putting a feedback-dependent “Honor” system[2], they have reduced certain markers in toxicity by a good amount; while not enough, it certainly helps.

This is a League of Legends-related thing, of course, but to some extent, it can also apply to all other gaming communities as well.

I don’t think that I have any answers to this phenomenon at the moment, but I can certainly say that we must take a break and reconsider our priorities. If we want our sanity back, we can’t allow toxicity to dominate our games.

Let us remember, games are intended to be fun.[4]

*Note: The columnist’s views do not represent eSports Inquirer’s position on the topic or issue being discussed in this article.

—

Notes:

[1] Shorthand for “good game”. Typing or saying this is a sign of sportsmanship in the gaming culture.

[2] https://www.polygon.com/2012/10/17/3515178/the-league-of-legends-team-of-scientists-trying-to-cure-toxic

[3] https://tieattack.net/2013/02/26/why-is-the-league-of-legends-community-toxic/

[4] For more on this, see https://balkan-bears.com/toxicity-within-the-gaming-communities/

Don't miss out on the latest news and information.

For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.