Is Zone Chat Becoming More Toxic? And What Can Be Done?

darvaria · August 2024

1. Is your faction zone chat more toxic than 2 years ago?
2. Do you constantly put your own faction on ignore?
3. Do you play offline?
4. Does your dislike of some players impede you from rezzing or helping them?
5. Does the winning faction have a more toxic zone chat?

My answers to 1, 2, 3 & 4 are Yes. As for 5, it does seem that since EP is winning , zone chat is more toxic. So toxic I actually turn it off most of the time.
Could we have 2 zone chats at Cyrodiil? One that is for making keep/resource calls only? AI could easily pick this up. And then another zone chat, that can be turned
on/off for players making extraneous insulting and hateful comments towards other players? Would this be possible? And AI could remove any non strategy calls before they get typed?

Please keep replies civil and oriented towards a solution. (I've had 2 players tell me this week say they were probably not coming back to Cyrodiil because of zone chat banter)

cptfrog · August 2024

Hi,

I wouldnt say its more/less toxic right then then it was 2 years ago.
I think it's always been toxic but its just been more or less over the years and its usually the same people/same guild who is being the toxic ones.

Depends a bit on ur definition of toxic, what is people exacly saying/doing that is toxic?
I'm playing on AD side for a while atm and i wouldnt say AD chat is 'toxic' in general its more that people are coping in the zone chat instead of realizing they are just not good players. Complaining they get killed, complaining about other alliances teaming up (which is just ridiculous), complaining about ballgroups etcetc. I guess you could call that a bit toxic but not really at the same time.

So to answer your questions 1 by 1:
1. No, been the same over many years just more or less at times.
2. No, there's toxic people in every alliance and not just my own. Tend to just not care about it rather then put on ignore.
3. No.
4. Depends, it can.
5. No. Every alliance is coping in zone chat, doesnt matter if they are winning or not. (Playing on all alliances).

Overall i think people are way more toxic in DM then actually in the open zone chat. You kill someone and they write you something like ''you effing idiot, you are so bad at this game'' etcetcetc..

Tigor · August 2024

PvP is also getting more toxic. Cheaters and ballgroups. Lets have shutdown.

xylena_lazarow · August 2024

Offline mode harassment still the most toxic. The stated policy of "ask them to stop" can quickly become toxic itself when you have to ask a friend to relay a message into opposing zone chat to tell an offline harasser to stop.

loosej · August 2024

I'm a big fan of the game's ignore feature, and will put anyone on it who goes out of their way to make others feel miserable. Pretty sure I have a couple of false positives on it, mostly because I was already in a bad mood before I read their comments. But my zone chat is beautiful, good vibes and strategy only.

Orbital78 · August 2024

There are always a few attention seekers, I have zone chat on a different chat tab. I also have the chat window minimized unless I'm interested in calls.

If you're going to take pvp seriously, you should get thicker skin. But I haven't taken pvp too seriously since the early 2000s. Trash talk and goading has always just been part of the culture/community.

valenwood_vegan · August 2024

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too.

Zone chat in and out of pvp always has the potential to be toxic, it's public chat. I don't think it's become "worse" overall, but it always has the potential to be better or worse at a given time based on who's online. Ignore the attention seekers; report ToS violations if it seems necessary; turn off zone chat for a bit if it's too much. Can't control other people.

Soraka · August 2024

I don't tend to block people cuz I'm nosey and I get some level of entertainment out of the bickering. Sometimes it is a bit much, though, and I just take a break. It could be neat to have different channels though I dig the idea.

Dojohoda · August 2024

On your screen, an addon named CyroChat displays callout-type statements which players have typed into chat. These statements show on your screen whether the chat box is open or closed. I don't know how it works, but it has some settings.

CyroChat also works with CyroHUD. If not using CyroHUD be sure to disable "Use with CyroHUD" in settings because it might throw an error if it is enabled.

Rohamad_Ali · August 2024

Tigor wrote: »

PvP is also getting more toxic. Cheaters and ballgroups. Lets have shutdown.

What in the world do you mean by a shut down?

Tigor · August 2024

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Tigor wrote: »

PvP is also getting more toxic. Cheaters and ballgroups. Lets have shutdown.

What in the world do you mean by a shut down?

Good question. Something out of the blue. Felt like a relief. Have had very bad experiences lately in Pvp with toxic behaviour.
Shutdown comes from subconsciousness and is a wish to see this game evolve in a positive way where balance would be more important. The toxic chats are an effect from the game that causes too many questions. Take some good time during the shutdown, go deep in the matter and come up with a plan. Now it is more like closing gaps with gaps after every update. I might be wrong, maybe there is a whole team working hard on these things but as it now looks we get only impulsive solutions that make things worse.

And I don't believe that everyone sending hate whispers is per definition toxic, it is just a way to ventilate their frustrations.
They are just very much involved in the game and should be listened to.

WaywardArgonian · August 2024

Tigor wrote: »

Good question. Something out of the blue. Felt like a relief. Have had very bad experiences lately in Pvp with toxic behaviour.
Shutdown comes from subconsciousness and is a wish to see this game evolve in a positive way where balance would be more important. The toxic chats are an effect from the game that causes too many questions. Take some good time during the shutdown, go deep in the matter and come up with a plan. Now it is more like closing gaps with gaps after every update. I might be wrong, maybe there is a whole team working hard on these things but as it now looks we get only impulsive solutions that make things worse.

And I don't believe that everyone sending hate whispers is per definition toxic, it is just a way to ventilate their frustrations.
They are just very much involved in the game and should be listened to.

You can also just step away from the game voluntarily if it is affecting your emotions, you know.

WaywardArgonian · August 2024

Tigor wrote: »

[snip]

What does that even mean?

[edited to remove quote]

Vaqual · August 2024

Poison damage is mitigated by armor, if the zone chat gets too toxic swap to a shield and make sure you have major resolve running.

Jaimeh · August 2024

I don't think it's necessarily more toxic, but it's probably more apparent nowadays. The PvP community is not that big anymore, over the years there's been a lot of shenanigans, not to mention that some strategies and playstyles (like ball-groups or nightcapping etc.) are annoying by default, so there's certain amounts of antagonism between some players/factions, and this comes out in toxic rants in the chat sometimes. As for your last point, it might not be ideal, but one solution is to play on offline mode, more peace of mind that way.

darvaria · August 2024

These "off line" whispers should be STOPPED. Very simple solution ... if you are off line, you should NOT be able to whisper. How easily could this be fixed.

I'm tired of trolls that have multiple accounts coming to faction zone chat just to troll. The mostly troll the zone chat generals. Well, who else is going to do that job?

If ANYONE even speaks to me in an even slightly disrespectful tone or any form of harassment, particularly any form ofsexual harassment, I put them on ignore. I have so many on ignore I have to remove some of the older trolls that are no longer in game.

It's a lot of trouble makers that have multiple accounts and come to zone just to troll. Today we had a lvl 47 grab the scroll and hold it at BB, instead of capping. Multiple players said he had multiple accounts. So many ppl reported, they eventually moved it to Drake.

We need 2 zone chats at Cyro. One that does not allow players to just make insults. Can only be used for making calls. Would there be a way to do it? WOW allows chat channels, that are not just guild channels. Could we have one that restricts chat unless a player meets certain requirements?

darvaria · August 2024

Whispering in Off Line Mode: I EXPECT an immediate removal of this feature.

ZOS: Take a stand against bullying and harassment. Give players a chance to mute zone trolls. Even if it's for only an hour, DO IT. Make some conditions for Zone chat. Don't let players speak unless they have been in a campaign for 2 terms. Don't let players speak at GH under lvl 50. Don't let players speak that are not in the top 200 AP players in a campaign. You have got to stop this trolling. It's ruining the game. I'm sick of these do nothing trolls coming in and spoiling the game.

And get rid of this harassment like T Bag. REMOVE that animation. REMOVE push ups.

Instigate some forced respect in this game.

If you can't stop t bags, make it where if a player t bags in Off Line Mode and can not be contacted, any such action will result in an automatic 3 day ban. IF you refused to remove T Bagging at lease allow some way to punish those despicable cowards that commit such actions and hate/harassment tells ... 3 day bans. They continue to troll and ruin the games for others, while in Off Line Mode.

Rohamad_Ali · August 2024

Tigor wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Tigor wrote: »

PvP is also getting more toxic. Cheaters and ballgroups. Lets have shutdown.

What in the world do you mean by a shut down?

Good question. Something out of the blue. Felt like a relief. Have had very bad experiences lately in Pvp with toxic behaviour.
Shutdown comes from subconsciousness and is a wish to see this game evolve in a positive way where balance would be more important. The toxic chats are an effect from the game that causes too many questions. Take some good time during the shutdown, go deep in the matter and come up with a plan. Now it is more like closing gaps with gaps after every update. I might be wrong, maybe there is a whole team working hard on these things but as it now looks we get only impulsive solutions that make things worse.

And I don't believe that everyone sending hate whispers is per definition toxic, it is just a way to ventilate their frustrations.
They are just very much involved in the game and should be listened to.

Tigor · August 2024

Yes it is a complex matter. Actually the whole point is that there mostly is no zone chat in Cyrodiil as the campaigns are too empty, and the populations are not shown accurately enough to give it a value more or less toxic. How chat is landing is also a matter of interpretation. Playing a game and chatting is leading often to confusion. Going in offline mode trying to avoid toxic whispers are often not understood by their friends that want to communicate and that might lead to unnecessary hassle. Let's not ignore everything when it does not suit us. There might be a good reason for the message. Sometimes it is just funny information. Above I see a confused cat.....