Game Forums more toxic then in game?

SEANMCAD

Are the most toxic people in game or on forums by percentages?
I usually solo but when I have been in groups/guilds I would have to say is almost the same. Sometimes it feels like its more toxic in forums but I think that margin is made up of communication problems because its just text

Lithuanian

My guess would be - forums.
Example: my Lotro. Tons of nice, helpfull people and kinships. Sometimes - competition who would help newbie first (typically several lvl.105). Asking for help to kill that almost immortal lvl.20 Spider? no problem, would have enough tells.
Lotro forums for me is something...elitist, arrogant, fanboyish. Anything post-Moria is too easy, facepalm/faceroll. Have different opinion? Then  you are pathetic noob, not knowing how to play, go and play any FPS or better - Solitaire.
<offtopic? If I was developer, I would have no forums at all. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram should be more than enough. Oh, and developers actually playing their own game as single unprivileged players...</offtopic>

SEANMCAD

Lithuanian said:

My guess would be - forums.
Example: my Lotro. Tons of nice, helpfull people and kinships. Sometimes - competition who would help newbie first (typically several lvl.105). Asking for help to kill that almost immortal lvl.20 Spider? no problem, would have enough tells.
Lotro forums for me is something...elitist, arrogant, fanboyish. Anything post-Moria is too easy, facepalm/faceroll. Have different opinion? Then  you are pathetic noob, not knowing how to play, go and play any FPS or better - Solitaire.
<offtopic? If I was developer, I would have no forums at all. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram should be more than enough. Oh, and developers actually playing their own game as single unprivileged players...</offtopic>

I have fantasized about creating a game just so I can have zero forums, zero communication to community, either buy the game or dont

Lithuanian

Communication is needed, that's feedback developers can earn more players and cash. But...forums are that the worst thing with wrong feedback. Examples:
Lotro official forums: anything not hard enough, faceroll/facepalm content, pre-Moria Lotro shines, future of Lotro is very bright. In short, fanboys.
Lotroplayers: game stinks, developers stink, content is lame, no future for Lotro. In short, haters.

Distopia

Forums for sure. Considering it's where everyone goes to complain and spread vitriol that's pretty much a nobrainer. 

Hatefull

I have started to turn off world or trade chats as most of everything I see there (essentially any tool that will allow you to reach a wide audience) is negative, or ignorant attempts at trolling, 4chan crap. To answer your question, I think it is a toss up.

I know @Lithuanian gives a great example of his experience, mine has been a bit different. I have been playing BDO recently and all I ever see in chat is lame attempts at trolling, complete toxicity and just general immature, disgusting behavior. The forums aren't bad at all though. Most of the posts I read have been quite helpful. 

I think in the end it all balances out while one game may be one way, another game can be the opposite.

As a side note, this forum used to be really toxic (I was part of the problem) and I am glad to see some moderation taking place the last few years to clean it up a bit.

blorpykins

In the RPGs that I've played, the forums were always toxic.  But the in game atmosphere between players was usually decent.  People would do their thing in game and RP the game world... leaving most of the forum politics and metas in the forum.  Typically when a player would bring the forum drama into the game, that player would just end up having to go it solo because no wants to play that way.

Sometimes I think the forums are a necessary check valve for the drama and metas.

postlarval

Who cares? Forums aren't mandatory. Your choice to go to here and allow yourself to feel the way you do. No fault but your own. 

Having said that, it all depends on how you implement forums and there are some good and some bad. Strict rules just encourage people to test the limits and lax rules usually encourage people to take it as far as they can. 


Albion Online did it right: Add a free-for-all area with few rules. You can even turn it off in settings and you'll never see posts in the recent posts section from it. Folks who want to engage in forum PvP go there. All other areas are moderated. Seems to work great, IMO. 

Anthur

You want to have fun with a game ? Just play it and avoid the game forums. You don't need them. Just my 2 copper after 30 years of gaming.

cameltosis

It depends on what you mean by toxic. 

For me, someone is toxic if they negatively affect someone elses experience. In game, this includes people who gank in pvp, ninja loot, spam chat channels, afk in pvp etc. Toxic players directly make the lives of other players worse. On forums, toxic people are primarily the trolls, but also include people who combine ignorance and self-delusion and so end up arguing with everyone, even though they're usually wrong. 

By this definition, I would say the actual games have more toxic people in them, simply because it is much easier in a game to negatively affect someone else. 

Game forums, on the other hand, tend to be fairly well moderated and so trolls don't last that long. Even on these forums, which are extremely negative and argumentative, we don't have many actual trolls (though we do have a few very vocal ignorant posters who manage to derail a lot of threads). One of our most active trolls on this forum even posts in a polite manner and you can easily see the humour in his posts, so even though he only posts in order to bait other people, its not much of an issue. 


Game forums, however, are almost always more negative than the ingame communities. Forums are a natural place to vent frustrations and suggest improvements - our posts are permanent, can be discussed and can be seen by developers / community managers. If we've taken the time to register and post, it probably means we're very passionate about the game and so emotions can run high. I don't view this as a bad thing, I'm a big fan of forums despite the general negativity. I've read 1000s of great ideas for games/mechanics/ips that are really inspiring, come across ideas that I would never have come across otherwise. I've chatted directly with developers on forums and even seen developers implement ideas first suggested on forums. 

Eldurian

It takes an exceptionally toxic game to match the level of the forums for toxicity. It happens, but very rarely. Basically forums are on the same level of toxicity as a PvP game where the griefers have gotten a strong enough foothold that the vast majority of decent people give up on the game or just avoid chat. I think so many forums have reached such a high level of toxicity that a lot of people just tend to avoid them.

Amathe

When someone is playing a game, odds are there is something they like about it. But on a forum, many people are just crabapples who log on to troll and flame. 

SEANMCAD

Amathe said:

When someone is playing a game, odds are there is something they like about it. But on a forum, many people are just crabapples who log on to troll and flame. 

word

postlarval

Amathe said:

When someone is playing a game, odds are there is something they like about it. But on a forum, many people are just crabapples who log on to troll and flame. 

Or blindly try and sell their bullshit to other people. I can think of one annoying person in particular.

SEANMCAD

postlarval said:

Amathe said:

When someone is playing a game, odds are there is something they like about it. But on a forum, many people are just crabapples who log on to troll and flame. 

Or blindly try and sell their bullshit to other people. I can think of one annoying person in particular.

tell us more about how posters make forums toxic

holdenfive

Honestly, people call anything toxic these days. My tolerance level for bullshit is pretty low overall. I might see something stupid and call someone out on it, and then some people would probably consider me toxic because I didn't just ignore it or whatever. We all have choices to make in how we interact with other people or how we respond to things. But don't try to make decisions for other people on how they should be responding, and assume that everyone is going to operate like you. This is usually what people mean when they say 'toxic'. You're not like me, and did something I don't approve of, how dare you.  

Toxic is just the new online gaming buzzword for 'troll'. On these forums and many others I've seen 'troll' thrown around in so many circumstances in response to soft posts or just general disagreement, it lost it's effect. So obviously we've just updated the verbiage, someone disagrees with me, they're being toxic. 

There's lots of people that I don't like online. I'm sure most people around can say the same thing. Whining about them though amd trying to play honourary internet hall monitor just makes you look childish and petty.

Kyleran

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

postlarval

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

SEANMCAD

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

ACommonMugger

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

SEANMCAD

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

holdenfive

SEANMCAD said:

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

Dude, speaking of observations, you have a publicly displayed ignore list as your signature, trying to name and shame people. And that's not supposed to be toxic? lol Nobody gives a shit who you ignore honestly, Im sure you know that, and that is clearly just put there to try to make other people who probably dont care anyways feel bad.

But nope, not toxic at all, everyone else is the problem.  

SEANMCAD

holdenfive said:

SEANMCAD said:

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

Dude, speaking of observations, you have a publicly displayed ignore list as your signature, trying to name and shame people. And that's not supposed to be toxic? lol Nobody gives a shit who you ignore honestly, Im sure you know that, and that is clearly just put there to try to make other people who probably dont care anyways feel bad.

But nope, not toxic at all, everyone else is the problem.  

and thank you as well for your observation and setting me straight just like the last person did.

again, thank you

postlarval

holdenfive said:

SEANMCAD said:

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

Dude, speaking of observations, you have a publicly displayed ignore list as your signature, trying to name and shame people. And that's not supposed to be toxic? lol Nobody gives a shit who you ignore honestly, Im sure you know that, and that is clearly just put there to try to make other people who probably dont care anyways feel bad.

But nope, not toxic at all, everyone else is the problem.  

What makes it worse is he doesn't actually ignore the people on the list. He responds to a lot of my posts, including ones where he isn't part of the initial discussion. He responds to cameltosis as well.

Typical poser.

SEANMCAD

postlarval said:

holdenfive said:

SEANMCAD said:

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

Dude, speaking of observations, you have a publicly displayed ignore list as your signature, trying to name and shame people. And that's not supposed to be toxic? lol Nobody gives a shit who you ignore honestly, Im sure you know that, and that is clearly just put there to try to make other people who probably dont care anyways feel bad.

But nope, not toxic at all, everyone else is the problem.  

What makes it worse is he doesn't actually ignore the people on the list. He responds to a lot of my posts, including ones where he isn't part of the initial discussion. He responds to cameltosis as well.

Typical poser.

yes, do you have advice on how I can improve?

postlarval

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

holdenfive said:

SEANMCAD said:

halfmystic said:

SEANMCAD said:

postlarval said:

Kyleran said:

Toxic is a new word the SJW crowd came up for people who disagree with them.

Absolutely, and the OP is their poster child.

I hope everyone realizes the only reason he created this thread is because he's mad others won't blindly agree with him in several recent posts.

Just read his post history...and behold!

its observations like these that make forums such a wonderful place to share socially

It's true, though. One of the problems with forums is people are REALLY stubborn with their opinions without budging at all.

Your history is.. kind of exactly that. 

I see, well thanks for your observation I will do my best to follow your lead in outstanding character.

Dude, speaking of observations, you have a publicly displayed ignore list as your signature, trying to name and shame people. And that's not supposed to be toxic? lol Nobody gives a shit who you ignore honestly, Im sure you know that, and that is clearly just put there to try to make other people who probably dont care anyways feel bad.

But nope, not toxic at all, everyone else is the problem.  

What makes it worse is he doesn't actually ignore the people on the list. He responds to a lot of my posts, including ones where he isn't part of the initial discussion. He responds to cameltosis as well.

Typical poser.

yes, do you have advice on how I can improve?

Tons. How about I send it to you in a PM. It's much too long for this thread.