“Toxicity” in gaming: Is the recent spotlight on this subject making it better or worse?

[WARNING IMAGES/VIDEOS CONTAIN COURSE LANGUAGE]

Hello, this is going to be my very first post here so bear with me and critique my writing style where applicable. So after reading some of the other gaming related threads I thought I’d chime in on a subject that has been gaining more and more traction over the years, that being gaming (especially online gaming) communities are very hostile and “toxic”. Being a gamer for decades and an online gamer over around the same, I believe can state, with confidence, that the vitriol and general unpleasantness in gaming communities is not something new nor is it better, in fact I’d argue that it is worse than it has ever been despite there being more policing.

For the past year I’ve been playing a lot of Overwatch and one thing that keeps standing out to me is the use of the word toxic both in-game, on the official forums and on other gaming related websites. I hadn’t noticed it for a while, but its usage has been much more frequent over the last few months (if it has been more, I just really haven’t noticed it). Growing up, whenever someone started raging or getting insulting, most of us would just laugh it off or ignore it, but it seems nowadays people get really hurt by these comments to the point that they demand action be taken against the offending player. I know I’m not in a majority here, but to me the trolls and flamers were always a part of online gaming and I see the humour in them. I’ll give an example in the clip below (note I am not the one laughing, it’s a friend, my mic wasn’t recording but I was laughing as well).

This is quite hilarious to both of us, even though we are being insulted. But when I shared this clip with some friends they seemed to be quite stunned we brushed these comments off so easily. I then wondered why they’d get mad about something like this. I’ve heard worse in dota, WC3, counter strike, you name it.

The one thing that seemed to be a similarity between each of them was that they had started playing online games at a much later age than I did and mostly on consoles. For those that don’t know, console online gaming is fairly new when you consider the history of gaming and communication channels were limited to voice (and still are for most games), which most people did not use. So to me, it seems like this kind of behavior in gaming was an anomaly for them. I also know that a lot of modern pc gamers are switched over from consoles and now deal with more communication options.

So this leads in to my main point, is the recent scrutiny on online gamer behavior causing online games to become even more hostile environments? From my experience I’m inclined to say yes, because trolls feed off of negative attention and reactions and many people lately tend to give them both and I have seen a rise in the incidence rate of hostile behavior in my online games over the years. At the same time I can definitely understand a person not wanting to come home after a stressful day and deal with this kind of stuff. However, while I don’t promote this type of behavior, I do understand it comes with the territory and will be difficult to change due to human nature.

I know Overwatch in particular has reached a broad spectrum of gamers, from new to casual to hardcore because of its different gameplay styles and appealing characters. I also know many of them genuinely do feel hurt by these online trolls but I feel like giving them the attention they crave only encourages them to become more “toxic”. Blizzard (and other companies in general) can only police the game so much and even they have a threshold of incivility that a player has to cross before they take action. Still I do think when it comes to deal with online gaming, people need to get accustom to some level of trolling and learn to ignore it. Blizzard actually made an update that turned the phrase “gg ez” into random sentences, some of which were self-insulting and others which were more positive messages. I do not see why they should need to go to such lengths for something that’s so trivial but I do understand that not everyone’s perspective is the same as mine. What was funnier was that changing GG EZ to the random sentences made people use it even more! I don’t have any ideas on how to fix this problem, nor am I against it being brought into the spotlight, but I do feel, at least right now, that it’s making the situation worse. Of course this could just be for now and later on companies and gamers find a better way to help create more welcoming communities. I don’t think we can get rid of it altogether bar removing anonymity from gaming and I don’t think that would stop everyone either.

So what do you guys think? Are online gaming communities better or worse now from your experiences? Are people being more malicious more or less in your opinions? Do you think that having such a large spotlight on the problem is encouraging or helping the situation? Do you have any ideas on how to curb his behavior? As I mentioned before I do not condone this behavior but I have accepted it as being a part of any online game, especially a competitive one.