Truth Behind the Toxic Environment in WoW.

[lockybalboa]

Classic players aren't saints either I can tell you. I remember the first day of launch I asked for directions in chat and got flooded with abuse from scums telling me to go back to retail.

[Stormwolf64]

Cross realm crap certainly made the game a loss less personal and more toxic as a result.

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Classic players aren't saints either I can tell you. I remember the first day of launch I asked for directions in chat and got flooded with abuse from scums telling me to go back to retail.

Of course not. Classic players like that are retail people.

[Sarkli83]

People are assholes and there are a lot of assholes that play WoW?

[Draylock]

Toxicity in video games (like WoW) mainly occurs between strangers. Toxic environment most commonly involve people who don't care about each other at all.

Most of the threads in here about toxic behavior have one thing in common: They are all based on experiences from PUG'ing.

And PUG'ing is the main problem. A lot of people become very toxic when they play with strangers who they don't care about at all. Especially when it happens on the internet. You almost never see the same level of toxicity in a guild group or friend group that you see in a group of complete strangers. Sure it happens, but it's much less frequent.

A lot of people like to blame the content for the toxicity. "M+ is to blame for toxic behavior" and so on.. But the content is not to blame for people's toxic behavior. When you take 5 people who don't give a sh*t about each other and put them in a group, then the risk of toxic behavior will increase significantly.

The toxic behavior exists because you choose to spend time with people who don't give a damn about you. Instead of making friends and playing with these friends, you choose to play with strangers all the time. And many of these strangers don't care about you or your well-being. They see you as nothing more than a tool to get the loot. They see you as another NPC in the game instead of a human being. And if you make the smallest mistake then hell breaks loose. It's funny how much peoples behavior change once they use discord and actually talk with each other. I never heard anyone on discord say "Oh your f*cking noob, learn to play!". It mostly happens when people are typing behind their keyboards.

Most of the toxic environments in WoW are created by complete strangers playing together. You cant just blame the content for that. Do yourself a favor and remove yourself from these environments. Find a good guild and make some friends to play with and your own experience in the game will most likely improve.

Except it's not even in video games, it's the anonymity of the internet with the dehumanization of the person you're talking to online. Check any controversial post on FB/Twitter/Insta/Wowhead/this forum/<pretty much any online gathering of people>. Unfortunately, that's just human nature. Nothing to fix or contemplate here cause it's like being mad because of the rain.

On the other hand, people who are toxic to pugs are just being stupid. Yes, pugs are pretty much tools/NPCs. So why would you treat them bad if they actually help you to achieve your goal of finishing a dungeon/killing a rare/etc.? Are you toxic to your screwdriver if you can't utilize it properly?

[Alkizon]

Draylock
Are you toxic to your screwdriver if you can't utilize it properly?

Well, why not, if you have thousand of "them" in the pantry and getting new one is easy task, why not scold/blame/break "tool"... but! if change "it" will become very problematic for you, and working without "it" is almost impossible... I think you'll treat "it" much more carefully

Your weapon, Miller! lt's your life! You knew that, and you saved it. You're learning, son.

See the difference?

Toxicity is provoked by lack of direct need for friendship and mutual assistance. People have neither social/situational need for each other <A friend in need is a friend indeed>, nor need to assess consequences of their actions <Social cohesion/interdependence>.

"Even wolves hunt in packs."

[Demithio]

The game always had a toxic environment in some form or another. Having said that, it was far less toxic in the early times than it is now. Players had to be more accountable for their behavior back then. There was no name changing or cross server hopping. Players were far more inclined to help each other.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

It is a video game online. Just how it is. You have people from all walks of life. All ages. People having good and bad days. All hidden behind a mask of anonymity and a lot of random match making that even ads another level of anonymity. So some people will be jerks. Others will take offense to everything. Clashing and toxic behavior will happen.

[Michael Jackson]

Gotta love these "the truth about...." "the true reason...." titled threads, like you all have the fucking answer to life for everyone.