So how many of you see a psychiatrist because of online "toxicity"?

[cFortyfive]

Now that Riot games have completed their PR campaign where they want to stop "toxicity" on the Internet, can we stop with this bullshit buzzword? I can't count the number of times online players have had sex with my mom or that my sexuality has been called into question since 99-2000, and I haven't had to go see a psychiatrist yet. Let's cut the crap, put on our big boy pants and stop pretending that getting called names online makes you suffer from PTSD.

If it was at least that. Looking over posts around here everything that has some remote criticism or negative connotation is excessively toxic and leads to suffering.

[Kymei]

That I am affected by it is precisely what I am saying. But it is not their words themselves that make me feel bad - I learned long ago to ignore all the trash talk from people since it doesn't have any meaning behind it, it is just an expression of anger, nothing more. However, I am playing a game with this person. I don't enjoy playing with him if he isn't socializing properly; if I didn't care about social interactions, I wouldn't play online, I would play single player games.

Imagine meeting a new person, going to a restaurant together. There he will start endlessly insulting you and asking you to kill yourself. Regardless of your thick skin, will you enjoy the evening?

Can I fucking block the person with my mouse while at the restaurant? Why would you go out with a person that might act like that, your example sucks.

[Alefnir]

For some reason, the buzzword 'toxic' touches a nerve with me, even though I'm indifferent about the issue that it's used to talk about. (It seems like a randomly chosen word with a 'bad' meaning unconnected to the nature of the actual problem) On the one hand; of course people should mind their manners when being involved in a public activity. However, is it really the job of the devs to actively root people out because they say a swear word? At what point does harmless adult language become 'toxic' and thus, bannable? Different people are offended by different things and if everything that offends everyone is banned, then nobody can say anything and the environment would be quite unenjoyable. There's also the aspect of how this would be monitored; would all chat features be recorded and monitored by devs, including private whispers? Would public chat be monitored? Is it really possible or practical for devs to actively try to get rid of "toxic" players?

[May90]

Can I fucking block the person with my mouse while at the restaurant? Why would you go out with a person that might act like that, your example sucks.

You are missing the point. This example was to demonstrate that, regardless of how thick your skin is, you ARE affected by a negative person. Thick skin may mean that the insults do not put you off balance, but it doesn't mean you are deaf to those insults.

[Bryntrollian]

..and he couldn't have expressed that in the polite words that you just used?

Why don't you go on twitter and ask him yourself

[Talby]

Here I have a better example. You head over to a friend's to watch a tv show. Normally everyone has a great time, you have a large group of friends who are part of an even larger group of friends so not everyone who comes over is the same from last week. This week someone invited a new friend over who thinks it's really funny to make "joke's" at everyone else's expense. He makes a crass joke about you that hits your nerves due to childhood trauma or w/e and storm out/punch him.

There now you have your /mute button.

[Deleted]

Internet Toxicity is a good tool to give the ego a sound thrashing.
I believe everyone has to benefit from getting thrashed on the net for even the pettiest thing as you learn to divide useful information from utterly meaningless information.

It greatly improved my tanking ability in WoW which is 33% skill, 33% gear and rest how great your patience is.

[Drakhar]

I derive great pleasure from being the recipient of "toxicity."

Don't kill online toxicity, it's far too entertaining.

Or maybe I'm just a troll.

[Deleted]

If I had to see a psychiatrist because of online "toxicity", I think I would be better off just playing single player games. I would value my mental wellness more than that, and I would also try to get myself some IRL working, so I don't hang up my life on anonymous people on the internet.

[Kathandira]

Now that Riot games have completed their PR campaign where they want to stop "toxicity" on the Internet, can we stop with this bullshit buzzword? I can't count the number of times online players have had sex with my mom or that my sexuality has been called into question since 99-2000, and I haven't had to go see a psychiatrist yet. Let's cut the crap, put on our big boy pants and stop pretending that getting called names online makes you suffer from PTSD.

Mute the TV or Speakers, Leaving Party Chat, Turning down the volume on your headset and laying it down next to you, Play a different game for a while.

These are some pretty easy ways to escape the toxicity of online gamers.

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That I am affected by it is precisely what I am saying. But it is not their words themselves that make me feel bad - I learned long ago to ignore all the trash talk from people since it doesn't have any meaning behind it, it is just an expression of anger, nothing more. However, I am playing a game with this person. I don't enjoy playing with him if he isn't socializing properly; if I didn't care about social interactions, I wouldn't play online, I would play single player games.

Imagine meeting a new person, going to a restaurant together. There he will start endlessly insulting you and asking you to kill yourself. Regardless of your thick skin, will you enjoy the evening?

Maybe not, but you have the exact same options in person as you do in an online activity. You can simply get up, and walk away. No one is forcing anyone to be party to this kind of abuse.

- - - Updated - - -

Can I fucking block the person with my mouse while at the restaurant? Why would you go out with a person that might act like that, your example sucks.

No, you cannot mute them, but you can leave if you are in a situation you do not enjoy. No one has a gun to your head telling you to sit down and take it.

[unbound]

Now that Riot games have completed their PR campaign where they want to stop "toxicity" on the Internet, can we stop with this bullshit buzzword? I can't count the number of times online players have had sex with my mom or that my sexuality has been called into question since 99-2000, and I haven't had to go see a psychiatrist yet. Let's cut the crap, put on our big boy pants and stop pretending that getting called names online makes you suffer from PTSD.

Here's a thought. Grow up and stop the toxicity. The race to the bottom isn't something to be proud of...

[Santti]

I do, but most definitely not because of the internet.

[Simulacrum]

You are missing the point. This example was to demonstrate that, regardless of how thick your skin is, you ARE affected by a negative person. Thick skin may mean that the insults do not put you off balance, but it doesn't mean you are deaf to those insults.

Then you should be less dishonest, and use an example that at least tried to be analogous.

For starters, playing a competitive game with someone and eating dinner with them are two very different things. If you were playing a competitive game with someone in person and they perceived your performance to be sub-part and started verbally insulting you for it, would that be such a strange thing for them to do? No, that's pretty fucking normal. Healthy, even, unless it goes to the extreme (which they don't tend to in-person because communication is a lot quicker and more subtle, while online we lack all the nuance of body language, and people are often too distracted to respond to some text, or don't speak english natively, or can't type fast, etc.). I'd much rather someone call me stupid for doing something stupid than them not say anything and leave me imagining all the bad things that they might be thinking about me; better to get it out of the way immediately, so we can all focus on what's more important. In fact, if that wasn't happening, I'd consider that to be kind of surreal; I wouldn't expect to see that unless I was dealing either with an extreme, like professionals who may just have policies against it, or people who aren't actually competitive at all and so they don't care enough to be upset.

Then what makes the example extra bad is how you're comparing an in-person interaction to a virtual one. Everybody knows, the internet is rife with hyperbole. Someone screamnig for you to kill yourself over a game and someone screaming for you to kill yourself to your face are two very different things. Further, online you can simply instantly stop all the abuse in literally a couple of seconds by two clicks of a button, be it to mute them or close the game. That is not even remotely comparable to having to deal with that shit in-person. Especially in-context of your example, which provides us with a scenario where you are being harassed by someone so out of control that them engaging you in a physical confrontation seems a real possibility. This is a very different situation from one that you can immediately, safely resolve by two button clicks.

There's so much fucking pointless outrage and absurd pathologizing of completely normal behaviour that people engage in constantly offline as well, but which for some reason is treated completely differently when done online. This shit isn't special, man. It happens everywhere, all the time, and everybody does it, and the way you deal with it happening is... by learning how to deal with it. Not by trying to police the behaviour of everyone in the entire world. You learn how to deal with it, because you can't stop it. And you shouldn't want to stop it, because one day it will be you doing it, and when you do it you will be doing it for the same reasons that everyobdy else does, and the punishment you might receive as a result will be equally pointless and ineffective as a deterrent for you as it was for them.

If you actually want to stop people being toxic, you need to design lobbying systems that don't encourage it. All MOBAs, and pretty much all competitive online games, have horribly designed systems that practically seem designed to encourage "toxicity". They constantly put you into horrible situations that you're powerless to do anything about and even punish you for trying to extricate yourself from them. It's not strange that people behave like raging assholes when put into situations like that. And you'll never fix it by complaining about people behaving in a way that's both perfectly natural and completely predictable under the circumstances. Franky, this whole debate is a massive red herring that doesn't even try to touch on the cause and effect of the problem, but rather seeks to ignorantly, self-righteously demonize the people who really are its victims: All of us, including the ragers.

But, I guess as long as we're distracted by this irrelevant bullshit, nobody needs to feel any pressure on them to actually try to solve the problem. Let's jsut ban people instead. Yeah, it doesn't change shit, but it makes it seem like we're doing something, so people focus their anger on the victims (which includes even the ragers) rather than the people responsible (the ones desgining the systems that encourage "toxicity").

[Xamwick]

Welcome to the internet, where there is always someone to cry about something.

[May90]

Maybe not, but you have the exact same options in person as you do in an online activity. You can simply get up, and walk away. No one is forcing anyone to be party to this kind of abuse.

I sure can. But I would prefer not to have to. The less jerks in the community, the better. You can't get rid of all jerks, but you can decrease their numbers by introducing some rules and report functions. The less jerks there are, the more enjoyment for everyone else.

Yeah, it doesn't change shit

Yes, it does. A toxic person will get banned a few times, and next time he will be more careful with what he says. I know, after a few bans on these forums I am now much more careful and, when I have an urge to lash at someone, I remember those bans and decide to use a more diplomatic language. I am not a toxic person in general, but, like everyone else, I sometimes have bad moments - and these experiences have taught me to not make other people feel bad too.

And no, I disagree with you principally separating online and real life communication. It doesn't matter what method you use to communicate: in person, in Skype on camera, on the phone, via e-mail or in an online game. Communication is communication, and "fk u mom" is "fk u mom" no matter how and where it's been said. People need to learn to take more responsibility of their actions. I am pretty sure that, if Internet anonymity didn't exist, few people would dare say online what they say these days, since it would come back to them really fast. Well, people need to learn that being anonymous doesn't mean being nobody. A jerk is a jerk, no matter what mask the jerk is wearing.

[Kathandira]

I sure can. But I would prefer not to have to. The less jerks in the community, the better. You can't get rid of all jerks, but you can decrease their numbers by introducing some rules and report functions. The less jerks there are, the more enjoyment for everyone else.

Speaking from strictly console prospective, you can do exactly that. On Xbox One, you can report, block, and mute player's gametags. I don't own a PS4, but I do recall being able to do this on the PS3. The online PC games I have played, also had this ability.

This should be standard on all online games in my opinion.

[Ytlayol]

Its hard to believe anyone sees a psychiatrist because of online toxicity, but its not hard to believe that companies will take steps in order to make their games more enjoyable to play.

Toxic people do not make an enjoyable gaming experience. Just because you have a thick skin and can "deal with it" or you can just "ignore it", doesn't mean toxicity should be allowed or go unpunished. I have a zero tolerance policy regarding others who >choose< to be verbally disrespectful to others online.

[Rukh]

Now that Riot games have completed their PR campaign where they want to stop "toxicity" on the Internet, can we stop with this bullshit buzzword? I can't count the number of times online players have had sex with my mom or that my sexuality has been called into question since 99-2000, and I haven't had to go see a psychiatrist yet. Let's cut the crap, put on our big boy pants and stop pretending that getting called names online makes you suffer from PTSD.

If you think they're incorrect, why do you have to rely on so much hyperbole to argue against them?