Should WoW adopt a tougher stance on Toxicity in-game?

[Sinured]

Funny that grown ups nowadays have thinner skin than kids back then in CoD 2.
If mere words hurt you: git gud.
I will never understand weak willed people and their obsession with trying to make everyone around them softer.
people which get triggered ingame, and that because they suck hard, shoud play singleplayer games instead of crying for censorship.

[Relapses]

Contrary to you i argument why competition is detrimental to the Role playing game setting. As long you do not bring valid counter arguments i consider your rant as useless.

There's nothing to counter argue. You're stating an opinion. Your negative opinions about certain aspects of the game does not make those aspects toxic.

[LTN]

So basically you're saying nobody should ever be punished no matter how shitty of a person they are to other people in game? Yeah it doesn't work like that. Saying "just ignore them" solves NOTHING because they'll just aggravate someone else. Harassment is against the ToS. Blizzard just doesn't give a shit most of the time and it's why WoW's community has become a toxic cesspool.

I don't know if you are young or not but that isnt how the internet works.

[TheRevenantHero]

I don't know if you are young or not but that isnt how the internet works.

I've been using the internet longer than you've been alive likely. Again, harassment is against Blizzard ToS. You can even read it yourself. Saying "just ignore them" fixes absolutely nothing outside of you personally not seeing it anymore. That person will just move on and make someone else's day miserable. Blizzard needs to start banning people already.

[LTN]

I've been using the internet longer than you've been alive likely. Again, harassment is against Blizzard ToS. You can even read it yourself. Saying "just ignore them" fixes absolutely nothing outside of you personally not seeing it anymore. That person will just move on and make someone else's day miserable. Blizzard needs to start banning people already.

Or people can just ignore people who ignore them and everyone gets what they want.

[T-34]

You are such a blatant liar when saying this. What you are describing doesn't happen. You're just so desperate to try and justify the rampant toxicity in WoW that now you're even bold faced lying to push that narrative. Face it. WoW has an extreme toxicity problem and the devs just don't fucking care.

I must admit I found your post quite interesting and telling if you take in mind that your reply was to my post where I said that the difference in language is quite telling between between WoW and FFXIV-players when FFXIV-players get outside their game...

Added:
All this discussion just shows that our values, both regarding ourselves and how we should interact with other people, decide what we find "toxic" or not.

[Echo of Soul]

How does it not immediately stop the problem?

If you see a beating on the street and choose to ignore it and look the other way does that mean that the beating stops?

[Linkedblade]

<snip>

This game is rated for teenagers and adults, depending on the region, but online content is unrated.

And that's the whole problem. This is an adult game, with adult content. If you can't handle controversial things then you can utilize the language filter and blocking.

I can understand targeted harassment, or mass reporting are problems. But that kind of abuse is against the ToU.

I guess you change to a whitelist system. Or opt in rather than opt out. But that's not going to change that people are assholes.

Remember Blizzard did try to implement real ID, and that would have been solved the issue mostly because people act different when they aren't anonymous.

[Echo of Soul]

I must admit I found your post quite interesting and telling if you take in mind that your reply was to my post where I said that the difference in language is quite telling between between WoW and FFXIV-players when FFXIV-players get outside their game...

Added:
All this discussion just shows that our values, both regarding ourselves and how we should interact with other people, decide what we find "toxic" or not.

The difference is that insulting people is toxic, not being as good at the game as you are is not.

And I don't really care why people control their language and their emotions as long as they do it. If it's because you're a decent human being or if it's because you're following the rules is irrelevant because the end result is the same, a more pleasant experience for the normal level headed and calm players.

[AcidicSyn]

There sure are a lot of people in this thread defending shitty people with shitty behavior.

In fact, probably more than I have ever encountered in WoW since beta. I must have gotten lucky with server selection.

I don't think more automated systems would help here though, going to have to agree with Stormbringer; hire actual people and train them to enforce the kind of environment you want for your game.

[LTN]

If you see a beating on the street and choose to ignore it and look the other way does that mean that the beating stops?

In this scenario if the victim simply wanted it to stop the attacker would vanish... so yes?

What a weird comparison putting people on ignore irl isn't the same as a game...

[Relapses]

I don't think more automated systems would help here though, going to have to agree with Stormbringer; hire actual people and train them to enforce the kind of environment you want for your game.

Because hiring people whose job is to actively scrutinize the minutiae of human behavior in groups has had such profoundly positive results in the past, right?

[AcidicSyn]

Because hiring people whose job is to actively scrutinize the minutiae of human behavior in groups has had such profoundly positive results in the past, right?

Worked fine in UO, there was even a jail GMs would port dickwhistles to and leave them there for a bit.

Don't confuse doing "something" with over-policing.

[Echo of Soul]

In this scenario if the victim simply wanted it to stop the attacker would vanish... so yes?

What a weird comparison putting people on ignore irl isn't the same as a game...

Okay then, if you have an ugly painting and you hang a blanket over it, does the painting stop being ugly?

Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away, dealing with it does.

[Relapses]

Worked fine in UO, there was even a jail GMs would port dickwhistles to and leave them there for a bit.

Don't confuse doing "something" with over-policing.

UO never experienced even a fraction of the success of WoW. The workforce necessary to handle WoW's playerbase would be insane by comparison. Why bother hiring an entire division of people to police language in the game when Blizzard could be using the same expenditures on developers to, y'know, just make the game better in general?

[Dysthmic]

The only real way is complete freedom.

In game reporting/right click reporting is used as a form of revenge/griefing 100x more than it is for an actual victim of something. Its usually out of anger and wanting to punish the other person, not actually desiring a better game.

You can play the game with no mic or mute people if you can't handle bad words/name calling/banter etc etc. Mature language filter and ignoring exist in most of todays games.

Controlling social aspects of a game guts them, and leaves the games feeling soulless with muted social interactions between people. Ultimately making the game less fun. If you believe that "just taking out the possibility of bad interactions won't affect anything else" you are delusional and most likely possessed mentally by politics.

People have to realize that you aren't special, everyone gets bullied or shit talked for the lowest common denominator detected by the other individual. You aren't a special victim. Instead of recoiling, making it gratifying to the other person, try bantering back. It will relieve yourself and free you from having to worry in general. Most people have this figured out. If you really can't take it, then don't mic and chat on online games. You really shouldn't. No system will ever fully protect you, so if you are that worried about it, dont participate. You should also admit your own bias. Are you offended about someone being toxic, or is it because they are being toxic about something YOU are insecure of? Have you never said anything toxic?

[AcidicSyn]

UO never experienced even a fraction of the success of WoW. The workforce necessary to handle WoW's playerbase would be insane by comparison. Why bother hiring an entire division of people to police language in the game when Blizzard could be using the same expenditures on developers to, y'know, just make the game better in general?

you're right they should do absolutely nothing.

[Triceron]

Worked fine in UO, there was even a jail GMs would port dickwhistles to and leave them there for a bit.

Don't confuse doing "something" with over-policing.

Yeah, but that never really worked for the long run. UO still had a reputation for being community-driven trollfests. It wasn't a nice community, it was practically a 'wild west' where the enforcement didn't really do much to stem the exploits.

UO was very well known for promoting freedom of gameplay, including roleplaying as villainous assholes. And that leads to having a toxic community, before the term 'toxic community' even became popularized. It was both a part of the charm and part of the problem with the game; a blessing and a curse for being a product of the 90's/early 2000's.

[AcidicSyn]

Yeah, but that never really worked for the long run. UO still had a reputation for being community-driven trollfests. It wasn't a nice community, it was practically a 'wild west' where the enforcement didn't really do much to stem the exploits.

UO was very well known for promoting freedom of gameplay, and that leads to having a toxic community, before the term 'toxic community' even became popularized. It was both a part of the charm and part of the problem with the game; a blessing and a curse for being a product of the 90's/early 2000's.

I honestly just wanted to use a non-FF14 example of "literally anything not automation driven" existing in another game.

[Triceron]

I honestly just wanted to use a non-FF14 example of "literally anything not automation driven" existing in another game.

Then it was a bad example since we're talking about systems that absolutely didn't work for what they were intended to be there for.

The only things that are comparable are bans for exploits, which still happens in WoW. Other than that, anyone can be an asshole without being banned, same as it is in WoW. The enforcement of various actions remains inconsistent in both games, and are based on the 'whims of the GM' most of the time.

That you think it worked fine in UO pretty much would mean you think WOW's current system of banning exploits and GM's occasionally enforcing things on a case-by-case basis is fine too. In both cases, it rarely happens often enough to actually make any meaningful change to the community overall.