I consider myself a gamer as I spend quite a bit of time in the online gaming world. I would like to share my thoughts on why toxicity sucks! First thing first, I would like to say is that not all the gaming community is toxic. Most of the gaming community are friendly and happy; however, sadly there is also a dark side. It is the toxic side.
Gaming is meant to be a fun and relaxing pastime. some might say, like me, “It’s their happy place.” However, it can be a toxic and harmful environment. If you let it get out of hand!
Toxicity comes in many different forms. For example, abusive language and behaviours, ganging up on players and making others feel uncomfortable This makes players feel unwelcome, sad, depressed and in extreme cases suicidal. Toxicity is one of the biggest things that happen regularly in the gaming community, and we cannot control it, but we can control our own behaviour. Making sure we are not being toxic ourselves.
Since people have been in lockdown, people have been getting more toxic, so, let us examine some examples of toxic acts.
Yelling at your teammates!
You should never yell at your teammates. It is rude and it is a selfish thing to do, so please do not yell at your teammates.
Random Killing (Why do people do it?)
In some games, toxic people take the random killing to the extreme for no reason. In GTA5 online roleplaying servers people go on there just to grief peoples role plays. (I have experienced this myself while playing another game.)
Friendly Players Vs Toxic Haters.
Games are great when everyone is friendly and having an enjoyable time, but when the Toxic Hater attack it ruins a fun time! I say go hate somewhere else!
General Toxicity
Being toxic in general. Some people are just toxic in the way they conduct themselves online, hiding behind the fact that they are faceless. They are outright rude and mean, all the time just enjoying the pain and misery they inflict on others. I believe that these people would not act like this in real life when showing their faces.
Here are my tips, for gaming in a happy non-toxic environment. You should play with friends. Having an online group of people, you enjoy gaming with makes online play a lot more fun. Getting into a game with a group of friends is one of the best ways to minimise the possibility of running into toxic teammates. Even more so if you can fill an entire team with your friends.
Of course, friends can sometimes be toxic too, but hey, it will be much easier to talk to them and calm them down or simply call out the behaviour as unwanted in the group. Which is not so easy with random players or strangers you find on the internet.
Another thing to think about is taking breaks. If toxicity starts in a game you are playing, I find a good thing to do is take a break. Even a quick break will help you immensely. It calms you down, resets your mind to get you right back into the game. We log on and play games to relax, have fun and socialise, playing a game with toxic teammates affects your enjoyment of the total gaming experience. At the end of the day, we play games to have fun and it stops being fun when we come across toxic players. Take a break and reset or change games!
Do not forget the mute button. This is a feature in most of the new games that many of us forget about. As you are playing either as a vs game or in a team environment you now have the capacity to mute a specific player if you do not wish to hear them. This gives you the option to keep playing a group game where there is one person spoiling the game buzz. I also use the mute button to help me focus especially when there are five-year-Olds screaming in their mics.
You can be playing with a group of friends, but when one gets angry no matter how much you try to help them or talk them down, they still get toxic, rather than leaving the game, I given them a time out with my mute button. It is the next best thing to leaving the game. The downfall of the mute button is you cannot hear them if they are in trouble, and they need your help!
Switching off is another great strategy. If you are finding the online world getting you down, why not switch off and give it some time out. Do something else spend some time with your family of friends that make you happy.
In conclusion toxicity in gaming is everywhere! I believe that we all need to take steps in calling it out and making sure, our own online behaviours are better.