Online gaming thrived just fine for over a decade with "toxic communities"

[Coombs]

I do miss the good old days of healthy trash talk.

[Deleted]

Nah, I remember the majority not being assholes out of fear of being shunned within their then smaller communities. Now as online communities have become bigger and bigger, a bigger number of people feel safe to be assholes behind the veil of anonimity.

Exactly. One of the major reason TBC was superior to other expansions for example was that you depended on your realm. Be a dick and you get no invites.

[I Push Buttons]

Toxic communities are what make games great...

For example:

[Acidbaron]

If you weren't backed by a good and big guild back in the day, you were pretty much done for unless you swapped to another realm and server.

There was no such thing as an automated group finder back then, so you would need to depend on those around you. Nowadays it's all lobby based for a big part.

[elaina]

we didn't need moderators, or mutes, reports or bans to create a happy and healthy community of gamers.

1. Mods still existed, but in wow at least the social structure of vanilla servers did tend to curb anonymity and police itself to a certain / helpful degree

2. You know, human civilization cut its teeth and pressed on for centuries without clean water, proper sanitation, vaccines, and modern medicine. But let me tell you I am just fine with not having to live in piss and shit these days.

3. What is your justification for toxicity again? It provides some sort of unique and endearing quality for you?

4. I have no problem reporting shithead behavior in game because antipc is for immature edgelord kids who want to feel oppressed and don't understand what freedom of speech actually is. Turns out I don't need some 12 year old spamming the nword in trade chat or over voice com cluttering the game with their trash. And based on the end your post, I will say: enjoy your ban or mute when I see you in game. It'll give you that time you've been needing to watch some more South Park.

[XDurionX]

You're probably to young to remember that it was never "happy" or "healthy". Anonymity makes jerks out of people.

[GennGreymane]

Runescape was pretty heavily monitored back in the day. I think it was also because the main demographic back in 05-07 was middle school.

[Pony Soldier]

Well I guess you can say ignorance is bliss. When you have a bunch of people with the same opinions and the same kind of mentality and thought process of course you're going to think it's a "happy" and "healthy" community.

[Deleted]

It has nothing to do with not having moderation or mutes, it's to do with how easy it is to get into gaming nowadays.

Back in the day, if you wanted to raid, you needed to be in a guild with 40+ other people, all of whom you had to get along with in some way or another, to complete an objective.

Nowadays you can just queue raid finder, or just use Looking For Group to get into a dungeon with people you've never met and probably never will after you've done that dungeon.

We needed to be actually social to play games, and people who were toxic got weeded out pretty quick, they weren't muted or moderated, they were blacklisted and kicked from servers/guilds. You don't need to be social anymore to play games, you don't need the co operation of the people you are playing with. The multiplayer aspect of multiplayer games has been getting slowly eroded over time to the point where simple co operation is seen as odd.

[Magnagarde]

The behaviour back then wasn't toxic; you could classify it as annoyment, rage or provoking, but not toxicity.

[Amerrol]

Toxic communities are what make games great...

For example:

OMG I died. That shit was gold.

[Beazy]

Well hate to tell you but people were getting banned in online games way back then. Everquest, FF11, Ultima, Runescape, WoW you name it. They indeed did have moderation.

We must have been playing in different dimensions if you really believe moderation and bans were not a big thing back then since they most certainly were.

None of the games you listed are from "back then". There were no moderators in Quake, DOOM mp, CS up to 3.5. . . Language and attitude moderation came about in the late 90s early 00s. First time I was told my mom was to be tracked down and throat fucked was MIRC active chat while playing Quake, when computers had one core and its speed was 75 mhz.

[Eleccybubb]

None of the games you listed are from "back then". There were no moderators in Quake, DOOM mp, CS up to 3.5. . . Language and attitude moderation came about in the late 90s early 00s. First time I was told my mom was to be tracked down and throat fucked was MIRC active chat while playing Quake, when computers had one core and its speed was 75 mhz.

Well they are. You wouldn't say 1999 is back then?

[Beazy]

Well they are. You wouldn't say 1999 is back then?

Not to me, maybe to others. To me, a MUDD like Ancient Anguish or Lost Souls is from "back then".

[Marrilaife]

Well they are. You wouldn't say 1999 is back then?

That moment when 1 generation ago (18 years) stops counting as "back then"... We should start linking some grandpa memes.