SatelliteOfLove
Member
By not allowing yourself to play, you allow them.
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Who here has quit gaming because of the rise in toxicity?
- Thread starter DieAntwoord
- Start date
dragonyeuw
Member
The simple solution, stated numerous times already, is to unplug from social gaming communities and play mostly solo stuff. Hook up a few retro consoles and play some SNES or Genesis, Ps1, always brings me back to a much simplier time.
The toxicity you're referring is just the way of things nowadays. Social media gives people the avenue to be assholes behind the comfort and anonymity of their PC screens; its like the digital equal of writing shit in a bathroom stall. 'They' win when you allow them to affect you to a degree that you're willing to quit what you enjoy. No-one should have that level of power over you.
The toxicity you're referring is just the way of things nowadays. Social media gives people the avenue to be assholes behind the comfort and anonymity of their PC screens; its like the digital equal of writing shit in a bathroom stall. 'They' win when you allow them to affect you to a degree that you're willing to quit what you enjoy. No-one should have that level of power over you.
Agree.
entremet
Member
No way. Why let the terrorists win? I enjoy gaming and it gives me a lot of happiness. Why quit due to vocal assholes.
Get off Twitter, avoid YT comments, watch Twitch with chat off. There are many easy ways to avoid this drama.
And if there are social causes you care about, get involved in helping those directly not just social media slacktivism.
Get off Twitter, avoid YT comments, watch Twitch with chat off. There are many easy ways to avoid this drama.
And if there are social causes you care about, get involved in helping those directly not just social media slacktivism.
Kelegacy
XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
It's the equivalent of constantly being afraid of going out because there could be a terrorist attack. When that happens, the terrorists win.
Quitting games because of racist, ignorant or just plain awful people means they won and you lost. Don't let them win.
Quitting games because of racist, ignorant or just plain awful people means they won and you lost. Don't let them win.
Part of the reason I stopped playing Overwatch was all the raging and angst that game seemed to bring out in people. It's taken me months to get it out of my system and I'm just now starting to get the itch to go back and play again.
On the other hand I've been playing Everquest (which is a game that came out originally in 1999) on an official progression server and am in Discord (voice chat service) with my guild several nights a week and that has been a very chill, very mature experience.
Not all communities are bad and not all voice chat is bad. It's just too bad a great game like Overwatch seems to bring out the worst in people.
On the other hand I've been playing Everquest (which is a game that came out originally in 1999) on an official progression server and am in Discord (voice chat service) with my guild several nights a week and that has been a very chill, very mature experience.
Not all communities are bad and not all voice chat is bad. It's just too bad a great game like Overwatch seems to bring out the worst in people.
InfiniteUnrest
Member
Instead of leaving, stay and make a difference. Be an example of how it should be?
Nameless
Member
Can't say I relate OP, but frankly, I don't have to. God speed.
Curious to know, though, if you're American? And if so, how you deal with things being orders of magnitude more toxic, hateful, and depressing outside of video games? At least with gaming you can pretty easily insulate yourself from the horseshit.
Curious to know, though, if you're American? And if so, how you deal with things being orders of magnitude more toxic, hateful, and depressing outside of video games? At least with gaming you can pretty easily insulate yourself from the horseshit.
No I can't say I allow people with their own separate political ideologies that attempted to hijack gaming for their own evil purposes to influence my decisions regarding my hobby.
You are being ridiculous. You know what these people would love? People that disagree with them to run away and give them greater influence. They are a small group of people that are overrepresented on the internet. Gaming is also popular enough that it will reflect changes in society. Right now this country is going through some terrible fucking shit and the people at its center are men. It is only natural that such a large hobby that is so male driven would reflect some of them. I guarantee you if you took any other popular activity like sports or film and applied the layer of anonymity that gaming and the internet can give you would find similar levels of shitheads.
Like go ahead and quit gaming. I guarantee you any largely popular hobby you pick up will still have these people. They will just be less overt.
You are being ridiculous. You know what these people would love? People that disagree with them to run away and give them greater influence. They are a small group of people that are overrepresented on the internet. Gaming is also popular enough that it will reflect changes in society. Right now this country is going through some terrible fucking shit and the people at its center are men. It is only natural that such a large hobby that is so male driven would reflect some of them. I guarantee you if you took any other popular activity like sports or film and applied the layer of anonymity that gaming and the internet can give you would find similar levels of shitheads.
Like go ahead and quit gaming. I guarantee you any largely popular hobby you pick up will still have these people. They will just be less overt.
Gangster Bastard
Member
The internet is your problem, not video games.
thechristoph
Sir!
This is hard to reply to. I don't think you're stupid, OP, but I think this is a stupid thing to do.
A medium is not defined by its fans, its consumers, or even by most of the people involved in its creation. It's defined by what the work brings to you. And I guess if it doesn't bring you any positivity, then perhaps it's not a stupid thing to do... see, I said it was hard.
A medium is not defined by its fans, its consumers, or even by most of the people involved in its creation. It's defined by what the work brings to you. And I guess if it doesn't bring you any positivity, then perhaps it's not a stupid thing to do... see, I said it was hard.
Wouldn't be in a gaming forum if i did.
Shitty people do a lot of the same stuff you do usually. Stopping your hobby because of them is pointless and only increases the ratio of shitty people in the medium.
But i have limited gaming time and almost never play online, so i'm not as exposed to the worst side of gaming as many here, probably. For me its still a fun hobby to take some stress out from a week of working, or a nice way to play with my kids. Gaming is still as beautiful and enjoyable to me as it was 30 years ago.
Shitty people do a lot of the same stuff you do usually. Stopping your hobby because of them is pointless and only increases the ratio of shitty people in the medium.
But i have limited gaming time and almost never play online, so i'm not as exposed to the worst side of gaming as many here, probably. For me its still a fun hobby to take some stress out from a week of working, or a nice way to play with my kids. Gaming is still as beautiful and enjoyable to me as it was 30 years ago.
There it is. Society by and large can jump off a cliff for all I care. Society is full of unfair judgements and I refuse to be moved by it. Other people should not getting the way of you doing you.*
iceblade997
Member
Almost verything has a stigma of some sort attached to it though, and people can always find a way to disparage others - even if it's something that doesn't involve them, or something that isn't going to make any difference to them.
If you like watching TV shows, you can get called a name. If you like exercising you can be called a name. If you're learning a language you can be called a name. All of those names can be derogatory and all those derogatory names can be flung out by someone at a moment's notice, whilst they go on with their lives and the hurt/pain/memory of it still lingers in your mind.
In the end though it's up to you and what you find important and fun, and by gaming you're not causing harm to anyone, or doing anything illegal or even uncommon (considering how games are becoming more and more mainstream as time goes by). If you give up on something you enjoy because of what others say / how they act, it will leave you with few hobbies you can take an interest in.
You could switch to SP games (I do this for almost all of my games) or use private chats like Discord/Skype when you play online with friends/family. You could also mute/disable the chat if the game has one and it's an option, and like some have said in the thread watching where you get your news and info will help some, too.
If you're not enjoying games period then that's one thing to be evaluated, but please don't let others pull you away from a hobby that you do enjoy, or a passion you always wanted to explore but never did.
Complistic
Member
So long as there is a mute/ignore button this is a non issue.
ScaryShark
Banned
I don't blame you OP. Video games have easily the worst 'community' around them of anything I'm interested in. Good luck with your future. If it was getting to you in a meaningful way, you were right to take the action you did.
A lot of the things OP is talking about go well beyond voice chat in games.
Bobo Dakes
Member
Have you heard of Breath of the Wild?
Soul of the Beast
Member
Why would you punish yourself over other's toxic behavior?
Raylan Targaryen
Member
I honestly feel like the CS community isn't even that bad, so no. I have tried to play other games and those communities are absolutely atrocious which has made me drop every other game besides CS and PUBG
CreatureX3
Member
I've been playing & spending more on tabletop board games than videogames lately.
FloweryMarston
Member
Also, i think that there's always been assholes, it's just that the more you grow up, the less you find personal attacks, temper tantrums about games and armchair developers to be interesting.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
I hate to tell you, but this toxicity is not exclusive to games.
For me, I only play multiplayer games with friends/GAF'ers/people I know.
For me, I only play multiplayer games with friends/GAF'ers/people I know.
gaming_noob
Member
I think I might go back to playing exclusively with single player Nintendo games. I've missed so many of their titles since the GameCube days.
Aguero9320
Member
Just ignore it. Confession: I've been gaming my entire life, going back to Intellivision, and I'm not entirely sure what 'Gamergate' is/was - you can just avoid it and play games you enjoy. I have no desire to find out.
Packing it in because of people on the internet seems overly dramatic...
Packing it in because of people on the internet seems overly dramatic...
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
no matter what medium you get into they all have toxic people in them might as well as quit everything at that point if ass hats and hate mongers can drive you away its best to either laugh at them or just ignore them
Telephone Man
Member
The only online multiplayer I'm currently playing are with fighting games, I'm not that interested in Reddit or streams, and I'm careful with what YouTube channels I subscribe to.
So I currently only get my "waaahhh SJWs waaaahhh!" fill on GameFAQs which I still frequent out of habbit.
So yeah, politics in gaming is pretty easy to ignore. I'm proof as I still have a very little idea of what happened and is now happening in this 'Gamergate' circus. I avoid it.
So I currently only get my "waaahhh SJWs waaaahhh!" fill on GameFAQs which I still frequent out of habbit.
So yeah, politics in gaming is pretty easy to ignore. I'm proof as I still have a very little idea of what happened and is now happening in this 'Gamergate' circus. I avoid it.
Spieler Eins
Member
^
His first mistake was to read public comments on anything. Watching the news would be the first thing to drop if that was your breaking point.
If I thought toxic behavior was limited to video games then I would stop.
Sadly it is pretty common these days in many facets of life. I notice it is very common in the young people I hire at my job. The nicest kid can turn into a racist bigot at the drop of a hat when they get mad. It's depressing sometimes.
Sadly it is pretty common these days in many facets of life. I notice it is very common in the young people I hire at my job. The nicest kid can turn into a racist bigot at the drop of a hat when they get mad. It's depressing sometimes.
Yeah as others have stated.
There's no need to read Youtube comments, no need to keep chat visible in Twitch. Or watch those at all. Didn't know about museums and archival projects being shut down because of Gamergate. That does indeed suck. Assholes exist, they won't go away from any field. But if it gets to be too much for you, you can mostly avoid/ignore it. I do wish there was a better solution, but I would say that this is better than abandoning the hobby altogether.
There's no need to read Youtube comments, no need to keep chat visible in Twitch. Or watch those at all. Didn't know about museums and archival projects being shut down because of Gamergate. That does indeed suck. Assholes exist, they won't go away from any field. But if it gets to be too much for you, you can mostly avoid/ignore it. I do wish there was a better solution, but I would say that this is better than abandoning the hobby altogether.
Total Cereal
Member
Over the summer I took a software development class (going for my B.S. in CS) and for the class project one guy made his own blog. Now, this was about 2 weeks after E3, and this guy was apparently a super hardcore PC elitist. All of his blog posts were nothing but trashing the big 3 and endlessly praising PC. I remember thinking "oh my god this guy is nuts" but now I realized that a lot of gamers are like him in different ways: devoted to something and will trash those who oppose them. This doesn't just include console wars, but things like online competitive games. People become obsessed with doing well that they will endlessly trash those who beat them/teammates who aren't as good and drag the team down.
The few times I play online I turn off or mute all players because I just don't want to hear the hate and toxicity (even if it isn't directed at me). I find myself mainly playing single player games now just so I don't have to put up with everything. That's my advice to you, OP. Don't quit gaming just because most online games have horrible player bases. Play the single player games you enjoy and stay away from the games that frustrate you.
The few times I play online I turn off or mute all players because I just don't want to hear the hate and toxicity (even if it isn't directed at me). I find myself mainly playing single player games now just so I don't have to put up with everything. That's my advice to you, OP. Don't quit gaming just because most online games have horrible player bases. Play the single player games you enjoy and stay away from the games that frustrate you.
There is no special toxicity in gaming. People who think so must not gave other hobbies or be as heavily involved in anything else as they are in gaming.
You can find this toxic crap everywhere if you look. And yes you are kinda looking for it if you check comments on anything, read the news or engage in discussion with random people.
Find a community/group to chat with (and play with if only singleplayer isn't your thing) and enjoy games for what they are.
You can find this toxic crap everywhere if you look. And yes you are kinda looking for it if you check comments on anything, read the news or engage in discussion with random people.
Find a community/group to chat with (and play with if only singleplayer isn't your thing) and enjoy games for what they are.
Solo Act
Member
You know, I feel the exact same way about the community at large. I got rid of a lot of my "online" systems because of it and now game exclusively on my PS2 and Switch (is it funny that I consider Switch an offline console haha).
I don't enjoy the gaming community anymore. I'm a 6 or 7 year Junior on GAF because I enjoy jumping into some conversations now and then, but more and more this site is littered with topics like "so and so sexually harassed someone" or "some person on YouTube said something racist" or "Link should be a girl". I wish there was a site just for gaming news and none of the politics, but it seems that's not the world we live in anymore.
So I will enjoy my male Link adventures quietly while only popping to GAF on weekends to see if there are any new announcements worth taking note of. I did feel compelled to log in and tell the Op that they are not alone in the feeling though.
I don't enjoy the gaming community anymore. I'm a 6 or 7 year Junior on GAF because I enjoy jumping into some conversations now and then, but more and more this site is littered with topics like "so and so sexually harassed someone" or "some person on YouTube said something racist" or "Link should be a girl". I wish there was a site just for gaming news and none of the politics, but it seems that's not the world we live in anymore.
So I will enjoy my male Link adventures quietly while only popping to GAF on weekends to see if there are any new announcements worth taking note of. I did feel compelled to log in and tell the Op that they are not alone in the feeling though.
Well, NeoGAF is generally pretty good but even here I try to avoid drama threads like the downgrade discussions, personal condemnations (even justified ones against assholes), and anything that is some kind of crusade for "consumers rights" which usually just devolves into self-victimization, blind hatred and disgust of companies / developers in general. Don't have the energy, frankly.
I just like talking about games, even if sounds apathetic. I'll get wound up about relevant political shit but I can't bring myself to spend all day talking about some dumbass who was creepy on Twitter or some dev who said some feature would be in a game that wouldn't be.
I also just don't play multiplayer games much anymore because they just come and go too fast, it's not worth investing in any single one for long. I can spend 6 hours being terrible at some online game and painfully learning one or two skills, or I can get a full start-to-finish experience from something like Edith Finch or whatever. Just a better value proposition with regards to time, for me.
I just like talking about games, even if sounds apathetic. I'll get wound up about relevant political shit but I can't bring myself to spend all day talking about some dumbass who was creepy on Twitter or some dev who said some feature would be in a game that wouldn't be.
I also just don't play multiplayer games much anymore because they just come and go too fast, it's not worth investing in any single one for long. I can spend 6 hours being terrible at some online game and painfully learning one or two skills, or I can get a full start-to-finish experience from something like Edith Finch or whatever. Just a better value proposition with regards to time, for me.
backflip10019
Member
There are shitty people associated every hobby, industry or interest: music, TV, games, movies, sports. Literally everything.
It's not worth letting them infect your mindset.
It's not worth letting them infect your mindset.
Solo Act
Member
This is almost certainly a spot on point. I guess for me, sites like GAF seem like the best places for news on a hobby, where I get news from ESPN or RealGM for sports and never even glance at the comments. I don't know if that's an indictment on games media or my own bias. It just seems like there's a lot of super hero, television, and movie headlines on most gaming sites now so I stay away from them entirely.
Not sure what the new Avengers movie has to do with gaming - especially when I can barely find news on certain upcoming games.
Telephone Man
Member
Yeah. Even though I find the gaming-politics topics here to be far, far less annoying than in other sites I've visited, I still yearn for a forum that never go into such things.
Yeah this. People are assholes everywhere. You just gotta learn to see past a lot of this bullshit and focus on the things you like. I mean, i've been an Arsenal fan my whole life, i know a thing or two about toxic communities lol.
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