You're being very dramatic, I haven't seen much toxicity. But then again I spend most of my time playing the game, and only visit the forums when there is maintenance.

I mean the forums here has always had a level of toxicity to it since day one. People mostly come here to express criticism about the game so its expected to some extent due to differing personalities and opinions. Over the years its mellowed out at as a lot of the more toxic players moved on or were banned. Id say the reddit sub has been less toxic in general then here. Most people dont go to the subreddit to complain (not that it doesnt happen) because its well known the devs arent engaged over there. Most of the sub is about the appreciation for ESO vs frustration. I dont know too much about Twitter but I wouldnt be surprised its overly more toxic because of the formatting there. It lends itself to people quickly and less elegantly expressing themselves. I am aware there is a core group of twitter personalities that are huge fans of the game though. But I do know Facebook is a cesspool thats mostly people complaining about the most random of things. Even good news is approached with complaints from all corners of the community on Facebook.

With that said. The current state of the game is the reason youre seeing so much wide spread toxicity. People might not be fully understanding whats happening. But everyones acutely aware that things arent good and thus theyre taking that frustration out on each other. It doesnt help that ZOS put out a preview blog that basically scapegoated the endgame community and put a big fat target on their backs. People are just burnt out. Its a never ending wheel of pain with the changes and nerfs.

Almost all of the toxicity comes from players who constantly complain other players are toxic.



And, yes, I do see the irony in this statement.


And the #1 place it comes up is wrt normal random dungeons. There is no reason top dps players should have incentive (transmute crystals) to run a bunch of normal dungeons. Normal dungeons should be for beginners and people who have no desire to do more difficult content for whatever reason. If this were changed, the level of animosity between these two different groups of players would go way down.

I will try to make this simple, and want to give you an example for how to create toxicity in the community as a developer.

Make content thats extremely difficult, ignore any kind of difficulty curvem advanced tutorial, mentoring etc.

Suddenly you have a splintered playerbase where a few people on top are forced to only engage with other people on top if they want to clear hard content, or take a long time teaching lower players.
And you have huge swathes of players who are unhappy that their 40k hp heavy armor vampire stamblade spamming swallow soul doesnt get invited into trifecta runs.

Are there jerks out there? Sure, i always cringe when ppl ask for achiev in zone chat for freaking normal AA, or when people act like they have been the victims of every identity politics related harassement imaginable, just beacuse a raid lead wont take the to HM CR.

The anonimity on the internet allows people to be less the cordial to the fellow players, but thats something zos should absolutely take into account.

Making statements like top players "abuse" they very mechanics the devs put in and left in the game on purpose, and the going forward with massive nerfs to everyone based on that statement is a surefire way to pit people aganist one another.

If a finger is lifted I suspect it will look similar to what a lot of gaming companies do. Identify this issue, only see it as a problem on their own forums, "offload" the forums onto an unofficial third party discord to eliminate any lingering threat of liability, call it a day. I lmao when this does happen.

Sync01 wrote: »

I agree with a lot of what's been said in this thread.

Personally, I don't see a lot of toxicity in the game itself (PC EU). Players are generally helpful to each other.
I do however see more toxic players on discord servers/guilds, and yes most of that is from "mid tier" players or players who complain that others are toxic/gatekeeping/refusing to carry them.

The forum does have it's part as well, because as Nomadic_Atmoran mentioned, people do come here to express criticism. I've played 5k+ hours and only recently joined the forum to express my views on the proposed combat changes. Several people seem to take "someone disagrees with me" as toxic behaviour though, and it just isn't.

Vaoh wrote: »

[snip]

This. So much this.

Agree 100%

A visual aid (not mine, just sharing):



Added note: It says toxic casual, but you could just as easily replace that with toxic elite. They are so much closer together than they think.
.

[edited to remove quote]

jecks33 wrote: »

HappyTheCamper wrote: »

Well regardless of who started it, it’s getting worse. Nefas is almost broken for goodness sake! People are also going after Skinny Cheeks?? These are some pretty chill content creators.

even LuckyGhost as been tagged as toxic... the nicest and helpful streamer on twitch

Toxic is the new "I don't like you" or "i don't agree with you". If anyone would call me that i just ignore it.
I can see how it would be more difficult for content creators sadly.

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

No one is capable of changing anyone else, only themselves. Be as nice and pleasant as you possibly can if you wish to make change. People respect an listen to calm voices more then those who panic. Most of what people worry about never comes to pass anyways.

There is a big difference in how people behave 1 on1 and in large groups.

Despite our best efforts, humanity hasn't quite outgrown its tribalistic nature. That's why regardless of what the issue is, people in large groups often take up an us vs them mentality, even if they cant make a logical argument as to why.

You don't "Grow" a toxic community, but you can make an environment that people who are already Toxic can thrive.

Being Toxic is a choice, and we're currently talking about this on the PTS Forum a bit. People cry about gatekeeping or the elitist community not wanting people in their groups.

Vet Trials, especially HM are DPS and Mechanic Checks, how well you can communicate and play your role. Toxicity arises from two places:

There are definitely toxic elitist players that look at your build and DPS and will look down on you.

Then there are the other side, the Toxic Casual player that sees EVERY person that does Trials or Vet Content as an Elitist, "OH I need to get MY DPS up?" These people refuse to improve and see any suggestion to improve as gatekeeping.

People do not need to drink a glass of vinegar whenever someone else gives you feedback, they aren't calling you trash 90% of the time and if they are, mute em, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

I would like everyone to be able to experience end-game content, this patch the greatest gatekeeper is Zos, they are literally making content harder for people to get into and complete. The Tippy Top players are taking a hit sure, but more importantly so is the guy that has been trying for months to improve his gear and rotation to be able to be on his Guilds Core Raid Team, now he's going to have to try even harder to get back to where he is currently.

JustAGoodPlayer wrote: »

You want it balanced separetely and i do not want.

Why it must than ? If it was not ?

There are a lot of arguments why pvp and pve should be balanced separately. What's yours?

JustAGoodPlayer wrote: »

Class and race balance looks more like : "All to me, nothing to others each topic."

Did you see that just some classes are allowed to join raids and other classes aren't good enough, even as healers or tanks?


Anyway this is not the point of this thread

I have seen very little toxicity in game. Most of it is here.