A plead to all the player base: how toxicity can ruin a game and it's community for good

[Migui]

Fellow captains all around the globe, i want to bring this up as the game is fairly new and awesome, and the community is still being built up. I've been playing for two weeks and the amount of toxicity i've been experiencing and the levels of smug/entitlement/arrogance are unbelievable for a game as new as this with a player base that is not comprised by kids.

I want to raise awareness about this topic: the blatant and increasing toxicity over chats, global, nation-wide and mistaking in-game rivalry with something else.

First of all, lets not forget this: we are all players ROLEPLAYING a war in a videogame. This means that the fact that you get into my mission and sink my ship doesn't mean that you hate me and we couldn't be friends or share a beer in real life.

I am going to say this again. In this game, i play a spanish captain in pvp1. In other games, i have been a dwarf. I have been a space politician. I have been many things. And just because my choice is different than yours doesn't mean we have to hate each other even if our goals are straight against each other and we are going to be rivals.

Right? Well, doesn't look like.

It doesn't matter which nation you are, we all like to win, we all like to become better, to achieve our objectives, small ones or strategic and bigger ones. And that's just fine, but don't forget that we are here for an ultimate goal: to have fun and have a good time.

As a player, i am going to try to fight anyone else and i am going to contribute to the development of my nation. And i expect the rest of the playerbase to do the same. But i don't like to see this game drowning in toxicity after a couple of months.

We all can have a moment of getting warmed up because losing sucks. Or because we have a bad day, whatever. It's fine. But please, don't make this community to become something to be ashamed of.

We have the opportunity to create an awesome world where wars happen, where PVP happens, yet people is not there creating a toxic atmosphere that alienates casual players or makes people being fed up and burnt out just because of it.

The game is still early access, wipes will happen, nothing is there for granted. So take it easy bros!

Becoming a self-entitled asshat is way too easy. We can still be gentlemen even if we fight each other. Don't be that guy please. Because this game deserves something better.

o7

Edited March 29, 2016 by Migui

[victor]

I'm on your side, but in sandbox MMORPG toxic forums and metagame (unluckily) is a kind of a natural derivate of the structure of the game.

[Migui]

Metagaming is great and can be done without insulting or creating a bad mood for everyone involved.

Furthermore you can push your nation agenda without hate speech. You know who uses hate speech to mobilize? Mediocre leaders.

This is not the real world where you need a casus belli. It's a game and you shoot at everything that you can shoot at. I guess.

[B24LIBERATOR]

Too bad you didn't try the game before the official release.

[Wessel-Tordenskjold]

Lovely atmosphere on the PVE server

[Tief N Tote]

Lovely atmosphere on the PVE server

they only complaint i have with the pve server is the lack of large merchant ships well that and low population

[Migui]

Lovely atmosphere on the PVE server

Bots don't cry! hehe

[Long Beard]

So far, I think the devs / mods do a great job in getting the message across that toxicity isn't tolerated.  More so in any other MMO I've played.

[Wessel-Tordenskjold]

they only complaint i have with the pve server is the lack of large merchant ships well that and low population

 

Large merchant ships as in traders brigs? Plenty of those around

[Migui]

So far, I think the devs / mods do a great job in getting the message across that toxicity isn't tolerated.  More so in any other MMO I've played.

I don't think we should be reporting each other because someone whines or so, it's sad to need Papa Game Labs watching over us, as we are supposedly grown up adults.

It's quite easy to witness it in the national news forum, in global and during battles.

[Quineloe]

You don't need PVP to have a toxic atmosphere in an online game.

 

Some of the most vile stuff I've ever seen happened in EverQuest

[Blood Eagle]

People need to stop being so sensitive, offended by everything,

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dirtydiggler

[Long Beard]

I don't think we should be reporting each other because someone whines or so, it's sad to need Papa Game Labs watching over us, as we are supposedly grown up adults.

It's quite easy to witness it in the national news forum, in global and during battles.

 

On the flip side I've seen highly toxic communities destroy the goodwill of everyone playing. It's positive to have rules about this kind of thing. Sadly, the anonymity of the internet gives keyboard warriors the impression they can say and do whatever the like.  Whining isn't the same as being abusive, discriminative, or downright rude.

[Prater]

Or you can just be respectful towards everyone?

[admin]

we issue 7 day bans for 10-20 for players per week - some of those eventually move to permanent bans

even more 1 day bans are issued

 

There is "no broken windows policy" on toxicity. You can be angry but you must never be extremely rude to others.

Players are given all tools to help control toxicity in game. Report and ignore. Disabling communications with enemy nations makes chat a lot cleaner.

[Quineloe]

Is that chat bans or login bans?

 

by the way, it's pretty hard to report someone in battle due to having to release the mouse with CTRL and then not getting any feedback on the report. Are reports of battle chat toxicity making it through?

Edited March 29, 2016 by Quineloe

[Slamz]

I dunno, I have thought about this a lot over the years.

 

Everquest, frankly, was a terrible PvP game. It was buggy, the mechanics didn't support PvP well, it was too strongly based on levels and gear, etc, etc, but it still remains as one of my most prominent long-term PvP game experiences.

 

Part of that was because, frankly, I really hated a lot of my enemies. There are EQ players I think I might still hate. IRL. I heard about a few of them going to jail. Couldn't have happened to a better group of total jerks. I didn't hate all my enemies -- some of them are in my guild now -- but there is definitely something about having real, hated enemies that got me to log in for a lot longer than I otherwise would have. I think half the reason I played Everquest was to spite some jerks (by hunting them down and trying to get them killed in any way possible).

 

Meanwhile:

GW2. No real enemies. Padded PvP for funsies and lols. Played for about 2-3 months and quit because it got boring.

ESO. See GW2.

SWTOR. See GW2.

WAR. See GW2.

 

It seems like without enemies -- without a real sense of emotional investment beyond just logging in to pewpew for funsies -- I find it hard to stay invested in a game. Pewpew lasts about 2-3 months. Real enemies that I need to log in and crush because they are jerks? Man. I'll play that for years. Apparently.

[HarryButpain]

I'm sorry that you ran into that type of player. While I reported a player for racism a while ago I'm quite happy with the people in chat most of time..

[Cragger]

we issue 7 day bans for 10-20 for players per week - some of those eventually move to permanent bans

even more 1 day bans are issued

 

There is "no broken windows policy" on toxicity. You can be angry but you must never be extremely rude to others.

Players are given all tools to help control toxicity in game. Report and ignore. Disabling communications with enemy nations makes chat a lot cleaner.

 

From my perspective it seems like the moderators (green names) rarely if ever act, only uttering a warning now and then in chat which is often disregarded. It feels that they do not feel empowered to act, that if they act they would themselves get in trouble or perhaps the guidelines are too vague for them.

[Blood Eagle]

If anything said in this game hurts your feelings STAY AWAY FROM MOBAS, you can't handle it... Don't play Smite, nor LOL, because if you can't handle someone typing something mean you can't handle an adult environment.

 

I'm 34 years old and have been gaming since Atari, and I can say in all my years I have never been offended by anything said over the internet, nor have I wanted to see anyone banned or silenced because of something they said.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dirtydiggler

[Prater]

Adult environment?  Do you mean high school or middle school?

[Migui]

If anything said in this game hurts your feelings

 

It doesn't. I'm a veteran in other games with a bigger and much more toxic community. But this one is just starting up so, why not trying to improve it?

 

It is not a matter of thicker skin or not handling being insulted. The point is that there is no need for that, at all. Simply put: you don't become better by being more toxic.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Migui

[Blood Eagle]

Harassment, racism, threats should not be tolerated, but normal trash talk should IMHO...

 

Its one thing to harass something personally, its another to call them a garbage player and call them out of their lack of skillz.

 

Trash talk is fun to me, there is a line, and the devs I'm sure will set it, I just hopes its not to hardcore to limit normal trash talking is all i'm saying.

[Migui]

 

 

Trash talk is fun to me, there is a line, and the devs I'm sure will set it, I just hopes its not to hardcore to limit normal trash talking is all i'm saying.

 

Yes, it can be fun and we shouldn't be pushing our devs to become police and people reporting others because they are mocking them or whatsoever. I'm pretty sure they will address harassment and serious stuff as they should. It is not in suggestions, it is in General because it is to the playerbase: play, have fun, enjoy, but don't become a toxic asshole.

[Cragger]

Yes, it can be fun and we shouldn't be pushing our devs to become police and people reporting others because they are mocking them or whatsoever. I'm pretty sure they will address harassment and serious stuff as they should. It is not in suggestions, it is in General because it is to the playerbase: play, have fun, enjoy, but don't become a toxic asshole.

 

From my days of pen and paper role playing game I learned a phrase.

 

"Just because you are role playing an ass, doesn't mean you can be an ass."