I’ve played DOTA 2 once in my life, and that was enough for me to not only swear to never step foot into that game ever again, but to avoid the entire genre so long as I lived. It all started out on one hot summer night, as I picked the coolest-looking character, dropped into a game and then proceeded to have people from all walks of life verbally abuse me for a straight hour, chastising me for daring to not be good at a game that I’d only just discovered.
On the other side of the player interaction coin, fighting game communities have been terrific! Sure there’s trash talking to be had, but it’s never personal and it’s usually the kind of banter that helps build an online friendship along the way. There’s something about the purity of one on one combat, that makes the scene so great.
I’m not naive enough to say that any one game has angels loitering around its servers, ready to lend a helping hand whenever you find yourself lost along the way. Every game has sinners and saints, good Samaritans and jerks. It just seems that some games skew heavily towards a certain type of player, embolden by Schrodinger’s Internet Asshole theory: An individual who exists in a quantum superposition state of relentless awful behaviour and “it was just a joke bro” when observed and called out for said toxicity.
So here’s the question: Which games have you experienced the best and worst of gamer culture inside of? It doesn’t just need to be inside the game chat itself. We’re living in an age where we can set up a forum to chat about these games, dedicate entire Facebook pages to them and get a community going.
So sound off below. Tell us of memorable moments when a prepubescent Call of Duty player enquired into the wellbeing of your mom’s reproductive organs, drop a link below for a Discord group filled with awesome Mortal Kombat 11 fans or maybe punt your own Facebook page for a DOTA group that is hellbent on giving me grief should I ever install that game on my PC again.
Gaming is all about community, so let’s spread the love!
Last Updated: June 5, 2020
justlikemo
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
there are lots, but the ones where you cannot comment are the best, like on mobile – just play and leave!
Dresden
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
I recently had a very pleasant experience with a random guy helping me out in Deep Rock Galactic (ROCK AND STONE!) when I started. The guy helped me for a few hours, bought me those fun drinks on the station and eventually left after making sure I knew what I had to do to progress further.
That is what makes multiplayer/online feature in games worth it to me.
justlikemo
June 5, 2020 at 11:07
those people are the best, played journey & Sky: Children of the Light recently, 2 random users showed me things I never knew existed, just ended up helping me for hours on end, love people like that.
Llama In The Rift
June 5, 2020 at 11:07
Yeah i don’t nearly do enough online gaming let alone speak to the people online to participate….gaming is my hobby and escape from this reality for ease of mind and relaxation….having a child yell at me and pulling your mama jokes is not relaxing, hence why i shy away from online gaming, me and my friends have different taste in games so rarely play the same games so no thanks to randos, thumps up if your cool dude and respect other people online.
Ndivhuwo Mogashoa
June 5, 2020 at 11:10
The Last of Us Part 2 subreddit. That is all.
JWT-80
June 5, 2020 at 11:39
I left that thing as soon as the nonsense started. Left the TLOU1 one as well for safe measures.
MechMachine
June 5, 2020 at 12:10
Yeah, Reddit is not a wholesome place. If it has the potential to turn toxic, it will.
JacoZAB
June 5, 2020 at 12:10
Agreed, those people all full of hate.
Lu
June 5, 2020 at 11:29
Rust. Man there are some cranky people there.
Also Dota 2 and League of Legends have had some great, and terrifying moments.
What I seriously don’t understand is how people can get so angry.
And then they get even angrier when you tell em it’s just a game.
But that’s just it. It’s a recreational activity. These home office “Pros” are not playing for money or fame, so why the hell so serious?
SagatatiaRZA
June 5, 2020 at 11:41
Man, I’ve had some interesting moments on Overwatch VC in Korea. A girl was playing with her friends, all clearly drunk as a skunk. When I refused to add them on a local chat app they started hurling insults my way regarding anything from my family, to racial slurs, to my dick size. I just sat back and enjoyed the show. At the end told them their mother’s will enjoy hearing all that, seeing as here all accounts need to be connected to verified phone numbers and that reports would go straight to the account owners. Bitch move? Yes. Satisfied when they apologized and logged off? Yes, very much.
Anyways League community for sure the worst, Warframe the best.
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 5, 2020 at 12:48
Yeah, Warframe community was great. Spent just over 3k hours playing it & can count on one hand the amount of times I saw someone being shitty.
SagatatiaRZA
June 5, 2020 at 12:59
That’s awesome. I haven’t played nearly as long but both times I tried starting it, players were so incredibly helpful. Sadly, just by nature, the micromanagement and waiting for things wasn’t my cup of tea, but I did enjoy 30 odd hours with the incredibly fun combat and really nice players.
I recall at one point during my first 3 hours I completely screwed a bunch of guys inadvertently when I got stuck in something and they couldn’t proceed without me. They were so understanding and tried forever to help me until I decided just logging out so they could move on was my best bet. I wonder why they are so nice…maybe because the Devs are too.
Guz
June 5, 2020 at 11:59
Ive found that DOTA is the most toxic unless I play with my friends.
I have found warframe to be pretty nice, especially when I first started because there is a lot of stuff I had no idea how to do and they didn’t mind carrying me or even donating loot/items , I got my first Prime warframe as a gift from a random dude I was just playing with
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 5, 2020 at 12:04
Pokemon is definitely the worst. Whenever I see someone, and it’s almost always someone who should have already experienced puberty, babbling inanely in their baby-talk I always try to engage with them politely so that I can help them become better people. I mean if you’re old enough to read you can play something like Football Manager, which is essentially the same thing. Yet my help is always met with vile insults. It’s really uncalled for.
You can even catch those people loitering around playing the game outside now, have they no shame?!
The D
June 5, 2020 at 12:10
NO I DON’T BADGE-FACE!
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 12:17
No shame at all!
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 5, 2020 at 12:17
Shame requires a soul!
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 12:22
Really? In 2020 while the world burns, THAT is all you could muster? I’d say I am disappointed in you but that milestone was passed years ago!
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 12:22
The world isn’t burning yet. Just some cinders. Give it time.
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 14:29
I think that is a matter of perspective to be honest.
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 14:34
Things could legitimately be worse. Not that they’re good, but even if everything works out fine in the next couple months – we still have global warming to contend with. And that’s a slow-burning global catastrophe that social distancing and food programmes can’t solve.
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 14:36
Something to look forward to!
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 14:36
I’m just a beacon of positivity this Friday aren’t I? XD
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 5, 2020 at 14:44
I hope Pokemon fans are inspired by your example.
Original Heretic
June 5, 2020 at 12:27
A good community is Elite: Dangerous.
Even on their subreddit, I’ve never encountered a more helpful group. Always supports new players, always giving good advice.
I think the game lends itself to that kind of behaviour.
C’mon, y’all, let’s explore the galaxy together! And coming soon, SPACE LEGS!
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 12:32
This! I recently bought my anaconda and I love the community. I mean come on, how many communities have fuel runners who will jump to full up your tank?!
Original Heretic
June 5, 2020 at 13:06
Fuel Rats!!
Those guys are awesome.
Yeah, I’ve gotten so much help from their subreddit. And I’ve also helped some of the newer players.
Dude, you really gotta hit me up sometime so we can jam this together. My mates never took to it, so I’m alone in the black.
How you liking the ‘conda? I gotta admit, it’s too slow for my liking.
I prefer the Krait MkII. Medium ship that still packs a good punch, plus very nice to outfit for mining.
Dee ham
June 5, 2020 at 13:53
I cannot speak for everyone, but, here’s my take.
the most toxic group that I was in was Forza Horizon 4. literally the same people complaining about the same thing the whole damn time.
No Man’s Sky, for what it’s worth, is a mixed bag. it can be extremely toxic, but also extremely wholesome.
ESO is also mostly wholesome.
Warframe was wholesome, but is now getting very toxic.
Faraaz Sulaiman
June 5, 2020 at 11:01
GTA Online, easily. Folks shoot on sight.
That aside though, the biggest pain is when players come after you when you’re doing any kind of business sell missions. For them, they have a measly monetary reward of G$2000 for destroying your product. For you, it’s typically a loss of G$200k to G$1million (+- 2-8 hours of real time to accrue).
So these attackers are just doing it to grief.
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
Any game that either allows or encourages griefing, I just don’t play. There’s something about the ability to be a total dick that is appealing to a certain crowd, and they flock to those kinds of games.
Mark Treloar
June 5, 2020 at 12:06
Yeah there is a YouTuber who does that. Seems to thing people getting pissed at him is funny. Worst thing if any other player did what he did they would get banned.
justlikemo
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
these are the worst, you grind and all your resources get taken away. I just stop playing the game and move on.
Caveshen Rajman
June 5, 2020 at 11:01
Okay let’s establish one thing: The Dota 2 community can be both extremely toxic, and extremely wholesome, depending on the games you get. If you queue with friends, this makes things easier. But the high skill curve means that you will start out getting a lot of shit, and then as you get better you’ll get a lot more praise. Playing Dota 2 as a relatively decent player is an extremely rewarding loop.
With that said, let’s go back to when I first started trying online gaming away from Dota (so, on my Xbox), circa 2010. I tried out some Call of Duty, some Halo, a couple other games. Holy shit the Xbox MP community was absolutely fucking trash??? It was so fucking bad, like they were bad losers AND bad winners, and every game was a case of diagnosing my accent and telling me to get cancer and die, I can’t even overstate the number of people who knew my mother??? It was ridiculous. Turned me off from gaming online until NAG’s gaming evenings (and really, Tarryn) saved me. Then it got easier, as long as I was playing with friends.
I think that’s the golden rule for going online – either grow a thick as fuck skin while making the most of your game’s report functionality, or find an entire team of friends. 🙁
MechMachine
June 5, 2020 at 12:17
You’re welcome to join us for some BR’s anytime man. Just be warned, We’re old and creaky.
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 11:01
I found a lot of love in the MMO communities tbh. My first real experience of toxicity online was when I left MMOs and got into DOTA2. I had been playing MMOs for over a decade (2004 – 2015), so you can imagine the culture shock when I went from almost entirely supportive, wholesome communities across various games, to DOTA2.
The toxicity is why I just refuse to play that game any more.
The D
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
Tarryn’s Gears of Wars gib-parties were the stuff of LEGEND! Pink shotgun deaths for everyone!
Iskape
June 5, 2020 at 11:29
I used to play BF4 in a clan (RSD), and that was the best moments I ever had playing online. Most of the time I steer clear on online MP. I play the Division 2, Breakpoint and Fallout 76 as solo games, even though they have online functionality. In The Division 2 though, I avoid the Dark Zones. Players love going rogue, and when the majority do it, who cares if the rogue agent can be killed by anyone – everybody is rogue!
HairyEwok
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
Let’s not mention any MOBA since they basically ooze toxic gunk XD. You will always get toxic people and non-toxic people in any genre of game. The only games that will never have it is the one’s that literally have no means to communicate to the enemy party or your own.
justlikemo
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
these are the worst!
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 11:06
So I honestly found the Guild Wars 2 community to be the best one I’ve ever experienced in a game. Didn’t matter if you were in the same guild or even knew each other. Server-wide boss kills, community events, everyone helping each other. The guilds I was in (there were 3 total during my time with GW2) were amazing, with no toxicity anywhere to be found. Just overall, it’s the one community I miss from any I’ve been a part of.
Lu
June 5, 2020 at 11:39
Think most MMOs have great communities in general.
I played TESO for quite some time and between my guild and the randoms running around I haven’t encountered a salty soul yet.
Pariah
June 5, 2020 at 11:41
Yeah I mentioned this to Caveshen as well. MMOs are generally great communities. 😀
MechMachine
June 5, 2020 at 11:29
Well, the guy in the video seems nice.
Lu
June 5, 2020 at 13:33
Man he deserved to get trolled.
Dresden
June 5, 2020 at 11:31
I think Hearthstone is in contention for this title as well. You’d be surprised how much toxicity you can convey with only a chat wheel. Just ask those fucking Priest players who spam “Wow” when they wipe your board or those Hunters spamming “Thanks” when they kill you (I may be one of them xD).
Seriously though, I’ve gotten many invites after games from players just so that they can tell me off or cursing your offspring for being a lucky, top-decking “enter expletive here“. After which they promptly unfriend you.
The inverse can also be applied. I’ve had plenty of games, especially in Tavern Brawl, where we use the emotes to convey how our game is going. It’s usually just a fiesta of threatens and I always have a good laugh.
MechMachine
June 5, 2020 at 11:44
Look, I can say from the array of COD games I play, it’s both. On a positive note, I’ve made a diverse set of friends who I play with every day who live all over the country, Cape Town, Nelspruit, Durban etc. Old and young. When I was just playing normal multiplayer games, I just accepted friend requests on the PS4 network and left it at that. With the BR Boom, it changed. One has to communicate.
On the negative, I see lots of ignorance. Glean what you may from that statement. Also, when I was playing a little Company of Heroes online, I got a lot of negativity because I was a noob.
I am guilty of my own online rages. Admittedly. I get a little overzealous in certain situations.
Dresden
June 5, 2020 at 11:59
COD is different though. It’s feels like verbal abuse is the vernacular and honestly I find it amusing for the most part, barring racism/sexism obviously.
My friend saw a guy in Warzone recently with the tag “JysVrekJouPoes”. I had to chuckle.
MechMachine
June 5, 2020 at 12:04
That’s where I normally lose my cool. When I see really toxic stuff. I had a guy invite me to a party after I killed him and his buddy in a BR game, he didn’t allow me too speak, He accused me of being a camper and he told me to go back and play Black Ops 2 or something because that’s where all the ” Blacks” are. No jokes. Needless to say, I raged at that and pursued the matter and scared the shit out of him.
He made a racist assumption about me just because I killed him in a game where you need to kill other people to win…..Anyway, I don’t want to dampen the conversation.
But that happened.
RinceThis
June 5, 2020 at 12:17
Played a bit of star trek online to see whether the old Trekkie is still in me (not really) and the community in that was fantastic. Really nice people.
Glitch MadDragon
June 5, 2020 at 15:41
Pokemon GO has been the worst of all for me, this one time Im walking around cape town catching Pokemon, and this dude walks up to me, presumably from team instinct, stabs me in the leg and steals my phone. Talk about sore losers am i right. Anyway never played a Pokemon game since.
The D
June 5, 2020 at 16:58
0_o
Tbone187
June 8, 2020 at 12:56
Personally I don’t think gaming is ”all about community.”
Rather a solid single player experience I reckon. I don’t mind a lekker LAN setup with buddies tho or some split screen action with your immediate company.
I actually don’t play any of these online social games.They annoy me for the reasons you pointed out here and more.