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[darklin0]

Block and mute functions have been the saviors of my sanity.

 

[Thatanas]

I hardly notice a rise in toxicity. Gaming for over 20 years, every multiplayer game ever had 'toxicity' or whatever you want to call it. Block, mute, don't play online multiplayer when you don't feel you can handle it all or do any of the other 100 alternatives to not let it bother you.

I could never give up gaming, nor would I ever, especially not due to outside forces.

 

[Korigama]

No, I just continue to like what I like, and make a point of disregarding others' negativity (that includes opinions on NeoGAF as well when applicable).

 

[Azoor]

I enjoy this hobby because I find games to be fun, I couldn't care less about the so called "gaming community" it has no bearing on my enjoyment of games, at least single player ones.

 

[CommandThrower]

Nope, I haven't quit. I just mute most voice chats now~

 

[K.E. Keith]

I don't let shitty people ruin my enjoyment in the things I do.

/thread

 

[panty]

No?

It's my hobby so I dont know why I would give it up because of some toxicity in some games.

 

[Wolfe]

I mean, you don't have to delve into all of the bullshit within the community and industry itself. Can always just play video games.

I understand where you're coming from OP, but I agree with this sentiment, in the end you're the only one pushing yourself away from video games.

 

[-MD-]

No?

It's my hobby so I dont know why I would give it up because of some toxicity in some games.

.

 

[Orbis]

I try to game but it's just the exposure of it all that's turning me away from it all. I want to game, but all I think of when I play anything is how everything I'm interested in has a stigma attached to it

But isn't that true of many things? Cycling has a stigma of drug cheats, football has a stigma of fan violence, food has the stigma of ethics (animal and environmental). I can appreciate it's not easy but you have to consider yourself first and perhaps avoiding things like NeoGAF and comment sections on websites could help.

For a while I was extremely frustrated with the fallout from the Brexit vote here and I realised I'd created a constant exposure for myself. I unfollowed a bunch of political commentators on Twitter, started reading more international news and local news and generally tried to tune out as much as possible. I didn't do this for long, but that break was all I needed.

 

[Sami+]

If I'm being honest I haven't really felt like a part of the "gaming community" in a long time anyway. I like GAF a lot and I like the games I like. I like more informative YouTube content and Easy Allies but always just feel weird whenever my buddy shows me some Smosh or Markiplier shit tbh. I'm fine with that though, at the end of the day you just gotta find what you like and stick with it.

 

[nkarafo]

I like single player games.

 

[A Serious Man]

I tend to stick to single player games so I only have to put up with one toxic person.

 

[bratpack]

come home turn on ps4
PLAY
PLAY
PLAY
PARTY CHAT WITH FRIENDS/FAMILY
PLAY

turn off PS4 go back to real life

simples

stay away from all the bullshit online watch official ps4/xbox/nintendo youtube channels for trailers previews etc

and finally sadly you will have to log out of here

 

[FreeMufasa]

Gaming community has always been toxic. It's just now you see those who were on the receiving end pushing back more. Can still remember all the bs we had to just put up with back in the day.

 

[kiguel182]

You just have to find better communities.

Or ignore communities totally and just play whatever interest you.

Assholes exist in every place, sometimes hidden. But that's true for everything not just video games.

 

[Moose Biscuits]

Nah, I've always enjoyed gaming to some extent. The only times I've cut back are times when I get bored of the games I've got, but that's natural sometimes (you can't be doing it 100% of the time after all) and I came straight back to it eventually.

I don't think I could ever foresee myself quitting games for good, because of outside stuff or much else. Then again, I am also a garbage person, so that might be the difference between us.

 

[Fbh]

Nah.
Most of the toxicity seems to be focused online. In person I've mostly had great experiences with the gaming community. From events to tournaments to my time working in a gaming store I've met tons of great people. I've met some of my best friends through gaming.

But then again I am mostly a single player and coop kinda guy. I only ever play competitive online games with friends and even then we tend to stay away from the super popular stuff like LOL or overwatch. I haven't really had bad experiences with stuff like Titanfall 2 or Uncharted 4 or even Battlefield 1. Everyone seems to stick to their own party chat and I've never encountered any harassment in these games.


You'll find assholes in every community but I don't think that should be enough of a reason to drop a hobby.

 

[Itaremustbedangeres]

I haven't outright quit gaming because of this. I just can't be bothered to take competitive modes serious anymore. It's not all the time, but ever so often people will outright try to ruin the fun by trolling, throwing or being toxic in general. It's gotten to a point (in overwatch) where I will join a match with the mindset that there's going to be at least one dipshit in my team. I will still try to win the match with the others as best as we can, but it's hard as the rest of team obviously reacts annoyed at that one person. I think I wouldn't be so pissed about it if there were actual mechanics in place that punish toxicity but at least in overwatch that's not nearly enough. If someone in my or the other team starts using the n-word, calling me and others a retard and explains in detail how he had sex with all our mothers and I report him or her and a day later am still placed against him in a comp match then clearly reporting does nothing.

 

[Patrick Young]

I have friends that rant about what certain people say on Twitter and I wonder why they even pay attention. It's the internet! You're in control of what you want to see.

I go completely the other way and the only news I follow is wrestling and video game related. Unless it's in that trending box on Facebook I have no idea what's going on, and it's working out!

 

[Holy Order Sol]

I don't need to be a part of something to consume content, nor does consuming content make me a part of something

 

[Laughing Banana]

Heck no, I don't let other people's shitty behaviors dictate things that I personally enjoy.

Besides, there's plenty of decent, awesome people too in video game community.

 

[rochellepaws]

I feel that about many aspects in gaming but it would be silly to say it applies across the entire spectrum of the hobby. Pick your journalists/influencers and your communities wisely and it's still a very satisfying hobby with many wonderful people.

 

[jesu]

Would it not be better to just quit reading about gaming on the internet?

 

[BGBW]

Would it not be better to just quit reading about gaming on the internet?

Or stop treating gaming as one big community.

Just stick with a small subset and you can continue to enjoy the benefits of engaging with the hobby beyond just playing while easily keeping out a lot of the toxic aspects.

 

[Brerlappin]

Maybe. All I want to do is play overwatch but lately someone I played with was so cool till the moment he started talking about how inferior women and minorities are.
.

Don't play online games then? If I quit gaming every time I heard someone say some racist/sexist/whatever language in an online shooter, id probably have quit gaming the very first time I played an online game. 99% of MP games are littered with trash people and opinions. I stick to mostly offline gaming and I would never quit what has been a hobby of mine since the 1980s just because of the opinion of some arsewipe on overwatch, that's just insanity to me.

 

[Pontiaction]

I've been a mostly single-player type of guy for 30 years now. Never had this problem with gaming until recently with the proliferation of social media. It used to get me really riled up, but I had to curate what portions of the community at large I would participate in. Now I might watch one or two YouTube channels, and this is the only gaming-related forum I visit. The majority of the time, if I want to chat about games, I do so with my gamer friends at the office.

Once in a while I've thought about going completely off the grid to take a break, but I've never thought about quitting gaming. Too many memorable and positive experiences in this hobby for me to ignore.

 

[Izuna]

Never noticed it

It's hard enough to play new games anyway

 

[Spookie]

I moved all my competitive gaming in to Tabletop games. Now if someone is being a dickhead I can simply tell them to their face.

 

[Madame M]

Video games are just products, the only thing toxic about them is the industrial processes required to develop and distribute them.

 

[Niosai]

I dunno, if I'm playing soccer with someone and I find out that he's racist/homophobic/hateful in some other way I disagree with, I'm probably not going to denounce soccer. I don't really let things like that get to me. As far as gaming goes, I just enjoy it for what it is. I have fun playing video games, and other people's opinions don't really make me dislike the hobby. On the contrary: I'll just dislike that person, if anything.

 

[usp84]

Play single player games and stop reading stupid comments online and you will be fine.

 

[0ptimusPayne]

I just never cared or invested in the culture, I just play games that I enjoy to relax. You go to far down the rabbit hole you can start to find a lot of the insecure sociopaths who have a lot to say to a tv screen, but wouldn’t dare say any of the nasty shit they say to an actual person . I’ve been called all types of colorful names on open chat as a black dude, but Party chat fixed that for me and I just play with friends. I was kinda sour on gaming for awhile, until I picked up a Switch. I wouldn’t give up on gaming OP, I would just step away from anything that stretches outside of the basics of you know actually playing games.

 

[RPGam3r]

There's no toxicity when you just play a solo game.

Nailed it.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I hate the word "toxicity" but it's the best word I can think of currently.

I think I've reached that point. Tomorrow I'm packing everything up gaming related and taking my cash bounty of 1300 dollars from GameStop and more than likey never touching this hobby again.

Since that nonsense happened a couple of years ago it's been really, really hard to look at gaming in a positive light and wanting to be associated with it.

I read an article, it's politically charged. The comments are a shit show on both sides filled with adults who are way too old to be displaying behavior fit for 3rd graders.

I try to watch streams and people are sexually harassed and being threatened with violence constantly.

I read about museum and video game archival projects that have interested me being shut down because of gamergate.

There's no fun anymore. Everything in gaming has such a large amount of politics and shit people associated with it that I can't by association support it anymore. The dregs of society have won yet again and I guess they got what they wanted by running people like me away from gaming to save "gamers"

I just can't deal with it anymore.

What hobby are you planning to take instead?

 

[astroturfing]

ehh, just dont watch streams (complete waste of time anyway), or play multiplayer games with lots of people/kids shouting.

i play mostly either solo or Souls games online, and only rarely online shooters like Battlefront where no one talks anyway. in all honesty it has been probably a decade since i last experienced anything truly offensive while gaming online. in COD4 or something.

anecdotal of course, but at least for me its been extremely easy to avoid all the bullshit.

 

[brokenbeans]

Key word is hobby.

That's what it should be not all this hardcore bullshit, you just gotta block it out and play games you enjoy.

If you stop enjoying something don't do it, simple. Have some time away and return when ready if you don't return you have probably moved on and that's great because you are probably happier.

 

[Clefargle]

Things seem fine here in Nintendo-owner land. Toxicity is out there online but you don't have to get rid of consoles is you hate the toxic community. Just play moderated online games, single player, or stay offline

 

[Revolutionary]

That seems dramatic

 

[ffejeromdiks]

...Or you can just...not read the comments....or the twitch chat instead of being overly dramatic.

I play games all the time and experience zero toxicity.

 

[SubScorpianZero]

It's all in the head man. you let it get to you only as much as you allow it to get to you.

 

[Captain Europe]

I mean, if you're gonna reason like this, you might as well quit everything since pretty much everything has toxic people. These days, there are more people that play games than people who never play games, the "community" is huge an can never be a monolith.

 

[devonodev]

I don't play online games very often because of toxic people, but why quit gaming as a whole?

Sonic Mania is coming out soon, decided after that.

 

[Rellik]

Never noticed it

Don't understand this. It's everywhere, even on GAF. Also don't understand people who think you avoid it by being Nintendo exclusive (See when that reviewer gave Zelda a low score and GAF Nintendo fans started stalking and harassing the reviewer)

I just try to avoid most toxic communities and 99.9% of my gaming is single player.

 

[Sadist]

Why would I let some bad people on the internet ruin my enjoyment of the hobby?

 

[Itaremustbedangeres]

Block and mute functions have been the saviors of my sanity.

Depending on the game and community this is only a very short and temporary fix to the problem. In games with a large community, you'd have to do it pretty constantly to see any sort of improvement.

 

[Ryzaki009]

Block, Mute and mostly single player games are what I do.

 

[LastGamer84]

I've quit online MP pretty much altogether because I think most communities are a cesspool of humanity.

I will quit gaming, or at least AAA gaming, altogether if microtransactions start to infiltrate more titles. Developer budget bloat and publisher greed will ruin gaming in the long run.

 

[Mr Rivuz]

I just don't care about those assholes and keep enjoying games.
If i should quit everything that has some assholes like those involved in it, i would be doing nothing.
Just enjoy games and talk about them with positive people/communities. Don't let trash like that ruin something you love.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

No but I tend to not leave GAF for gaming anymore. The gaming community is hateful.