I miss the old forum threads where people had meaningful conversations without toxicity..

Crown

Like these..

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/238483/aaand-the-winners-of-pvp-are/

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/145069/you-know-what-the-difference-is-between-ep-and-ad-thornblade

Thos were the good old days..

Sephyr

Back when a specific someone was still on the forum too. I wasn't on the forum back then, but oh god I remember him in Cyrodiil. Definitely seems like they were some better days.

Crown

Last I heard from Sarenvog @darock55 about a year and a half ago he was doing well, was a lot less angry, and it sounded like his life was a lot less stressful.

It's amazing how much NOT playing this game can calm / chill people who you would think are always raging.

Araxleon

@Crown The old days... how times have changed.

Toxicity is become more and more of a norm.

I have had friends who quit playing and are a lot happier, which is sad to say.

People wanna stay because of friends, memories and elder scrolls but slowly people realize why am I playing something I don't enjoy.

I still enjoy ESO but I miss the old community.

tinythinker

Is it even active enough for sustained toxicity now, though?

edited to clarify "it"="this forum"

Greasytengu

I think people are just collectively frustrated with the performance issues and the "zerg meta" that seems to have sprung up because of said issues.

People take their frustrations out on each other when they cant do anything to fix the root of their problems. If the problems disappear, people will hopefully start acting more civil to one other.

Kadoin

That's what happens when everyone thinks they are a PvP god and Youtuber. It's even more toxic in-game by the same forum posters when they die. Trust me.

newtinmpls

So here is the question - as this is an ESO forum, does the content all have to relate directly and strongly to the game? Does the nature of the thread, and it's contributions to the "ESO community" matter?

So take the way-back machine to this thread, which lasted literally YEARS:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/174290/thread-for-pc-users

Which was apparently closed because it was old, and not enough "on" topic.

I actually e-mailed the person who closed it, and he clarified his reasoning:

"We try not to be ogres when it comes to enforcing the rules, and realize there was a core group that really loved that thread. But it's also been mostly off topic since it was started. It flew under the radar for a while, in part because it did have regular game discussion, but recently this has waned and it was time to close it."

(I think that you can actually go to my inbox and find the comment above and my reply to it)

Basically it was thread along the lines of the old "tavern" threads that peeps like me who recall BBS's before there was "an internet". Places where you basically hung out, sometimes "in character" sometimes not. In my opinionated opinion, it contributed very highly to the community aspect of the forums, and there were many times that gaming issues (including in game and forum toxicity) were discussed and help was offered and accepted.

There were also nonsense posts, including picture of "breakfast local to where you are".

It comes down to what ZoS wants. I thought, and still think that it was a positive contribution to the Forums, not only despite but sometimes because of the occasional off-topic posts. But that's just me.

So IF a long term forum conversation strays too far away from ESO specific, THEN ZoS will likely shut it down.

Reverb

It’s all well and good until someone breaks out the Spider-Man memes...

zyk

There's good toxicity and bad toxicity.

Good toxicity is gamesmanship. You talk poop in the arena -- including forums -- but it doesn't go past there. It's understood it's not real. The same should be true in sports. If it makes you really mad, that's on you and you should take a break. In every game I play, I love having rivals. I enjoy having a faux dislike for some opponents.

Bad toxicity is what I see in a lot of screenshots these days. Raging, baseless accusations, spam, harassment overt bigotry, racism, misogyny, etc.. This kind of toxicity can escalate into RL via threats of harm, including but not limited to physical harm, doxing, swatting, etc... Unfortunately, there are a lot of troubled people out there.

tinythinker

zyk wrote: »

There's good toxicity and bad toxicity.

Good toxicity is gamesmanship. You talk poop in the arena -- including forums -- but it doesn't go past there. It's understood it's not real. The same should be true in sports. If it makes you really mad, that's on you and you should take a break. In every game I play, I love having rivals. I enjoy having a faux dislike for some opponents.

Bad toxicity is what I see in a lot of screenshots these days. Raging, baseless accusations, spam, harassment overt bigotry, racism, misogyny, etc.. This kind of toxicity can escalate into RL via threats of harm, including but not limited to physical harm, doxing, swatting, etc... Unfortunately, there are a lot of troubled people out there.

Good-natured rivalry among willing participants isn't toxic. If you repeatedly trash talk and bash (linguistically) people who aren't into it, rage, resort to hate slurs, etc., it's just plain toxicity, which is always bad because by definition it's unhealthy and destructive. I sometimes see people in games assume that everyone in PvP wants to disrespect each other and treat other players like garbage for fun, but you can tell who is really toxic by observing the ones who stop when they see the other person isn't into playing that mini-game and those who just keep going with it to troll and harass people for their own amusement or ego.

And it isn't just the players who spend lots of times researching and testing builds, getting better gear, and practicing over and over to be highly effective gankers and "tank-trolls" who sometimes behave in a toxic way. There're also the people who for whatever reason can't or don't play at that level who become enraged and obsessed when they get killed or when they can't kill someone else. I've never been a great PvPer in Cyrodill though I enjoy the AvAvA part, but once with the old vampire system using generic non-PvP gear I survived a group chasing me around a resource tower for a while because of Mist Form+damage reduction at low health passive+line of sight. I was actually proud when one of them whispered, "Reported", but others I used to chat with said they had people keep whispering them for a long time about being cheating trash and no-life basement-dwellers in similar situations.

It seems like it ends up being a mix of people with anger-management issues/repressed rage and frustration and those who simply see PvP as a place they get get away with being somewhat sadistic/psychopathic that end up spoiling the better aspects of gaming communities. The former can always learn to relax and manage their feelings in healthier ways, but the latter are just reeeeeal creepy and need to be shunned. The latter also either don't do these forums or hide it really well while they are here, but getting one in your Teamspeak or Discord is like...

Turelus

Maybe it's because most the people still dedicated to PvP are just bitter vets now and want to let out steam over the issues?

The old days of trolling/smacking one another were fun though, I miss them.

Crown

Who remembers the extensively long stories that @Publius_Scipio used to write about different players? Those were awesome..

Radiance

I think it often starts with the OP's choice of subject or headline. If you start off trashing someone like all the "Fake Tank/Healer/DPS" etc. or the Nerf Crowd that always has a problem with something or how you for instance are talking about the "good ol' days" it gives a sense of EFF-Yew to new people or those being called out.

People are looking for confrontation.

Trolls are like Beatle Juice, If you call their name, they will answer you.

tinythinker

Crown wrote: »

Who remembers the extensively long stories that @Publius_Scipio used to write about different players? Those were awesome..

Or even just (short) stories about performance issues.

Q_Q

Crown wrote: »

Like these..

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/238483/aaand-the-winners-of-pvp-are/

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/145069/you-know-what-the-difference-is-between-ep-and-ad-thornblade

Thos were the good old days..

Hey crown . What about old eso in general when you weren’t told to “kill yourself” if you offered to buy corn flower a little under mm?

Q_Q

Radiance wrote: »

I think it often starts with the OP's choice of subject or headline. If you start off trashing someone like all the "Fake Tank/Healer/DPS" etc. or the Nerf Crowd that always has a problem with something or how you for instance are talking about the "good ol' days" it gives a sense of EFF-Yew to new people or those being called out.

People are looking for confrontation.

Trolls are like Beatle Juice, If you call their name, they will answer you.

Blaming op for other people toxicity? Come on radiance.

slicksteezin

I don't think there's anything inherently toxic about this post, [snip]

[edited for baiting]

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

[snip]
but also the majority of people who used to be entertaining on the forums are now banned from posting or have actually left ESO and aren't still constantly checking in.

[edited for bashing comment]

ZOS_RogerJ

We understand that everyone has their own opinions they want to express, but we also want the forums to be a constructive platform for ESO and its community. As such, we have closed this thread given its non-constructive nature.