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?
I’ve only heard this take from cringe twitch streamers… and suffice to say I don’t think it’s a good one.
I don’t want someone to lose because they’re too mad to aim… it’s a game. We should all just be playing to have fun, not treating it like some psyop.
Edit: Also plenty of what I’m talking about here is outside of an actual match as well/forum behavior.
if someone can’t handle their emotions after getting Ferrari peeked, should they really be playing a competitive game?
the mind games are the fun, playing against your opponent is all about getting in their head and positing is ways that they don’t expect
the forum thing tends to go along the same way, people like the games for the things they like and changes them is always gonna be controversial
It’s not about what someone can “handle” it’s a game. It should be about what someone “enjoys” or “likes.”
A victory based on throwing your opponent off their game by being a jerk is no victory in my book. It just makes the person doing those things a jerk.
I guess we just have a fundamental difference in our understanding and opinions on what a multiplayer PVP game should be
