Gold Medals - Do they promote toxicity?

General Discussion
1

Yes. I would argue that they do.

I really dont think that in the middle of a match, knowing who has gold for damage, healing, or elims helps your team in any way. I feel like the medal system really takes away from cooperation and promotes competition within your own team. That is the last thing you need.

I am not saying we should remove our stats on the scoreboard. In fact, I would suggest we get even more stats to look at. Love looking at post match stats. However, I would suggest that we consider removing the medals on the scoreboard.

Whats the first thing you hear when toxic argument breaks out? “Bro, Ive got all golds!” How many times do we have to hear that. Sure, gold medals give you a slight indication to your performance, but you can still lose a match with 5 gold medals. I honestly feel like people place too much weight on the medals and tend to focus less on working together as a team.

We all want less toxicity, but the way the game is set up is almost a breeding ground for that sort of behavior.

So, what do you suggest instead?

Well, I think we should add another section into the scoreboard. Team Stats.
I would be more interested in the work we preform together as a team. The total amount of elims, healing, damage, damage blocked, etc that we have combined as a team.

For example, as a team we might have a total of 8 elims. The enemy team might have a total of 12 elims. On the scoreboard, the number 8 could be displayed in red for us (to let us know the enemy team is ahead of us) and for them, the number 12 could be displayed in blue (to let them know they are leading the game with elims). This could be done for every stat in the Team Stat section.

I feel like this would promote better team behavior.

In the middle, we could still have our Player Stats. This would be exactly as it is right now but without the medals beside the number. This section would just be for personal info.

The next section would be Hero Stats. This would be where you would find more specific stats to the hero you are playing. Maybe things like enemies frozen, damage deflected, etc

By changing this system, I feel like this would also put some more weight into the end of game card system. Regardless of the card that you get, included in the card would be how many medals the player attained, if any.

Players that get cards specifically for having 4 or 5 gold medals would feel much more important and a surprise to the player.

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2

i’m going to stop you right there… any game promotes toxicities. you can deny it all you want though. no matter what Online game you play you will get people screaming about how they’re going better than you because they just are. People can say its an OW thing but its really every online competitive game. that’s how competition work.

Don’t get wrong though Overwatch is pretty toxic.

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3

I am not saying you are wrong. I am also not saying that you can 100% wipe out toxic people. No matter what you do, there is always going to be that one person who can’t play nice.

However, that doesn’t mean that we should not try to do everything we can to minimize toxic behavior. What I am suggesting is just a way to help limit toxic attitudes surrounding the “gold medal” syndrome.

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4

I don’t think they do, at least not in QP (Sorry, don’t play comp).

It’s pretty rare when a person resorts to using that tactic because, I think, the medals are somewhat shared and most people know that. Gold elims isn’t something to brag about because the entire team may have the same elims as well, being shared.

I think the vagueness is good. You know roughly where you are, but also it’s not specific enough to create scoreboard toxicity (“I’m #1 damage, don’t tell me to work with the team.”).

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5

I actually do agree with your point that gold medals promote competition within your team.

but i disagree with a global scoreboard showing how many elims each team has. That information is fairly meaningless due to the nature of how Overwatch is also it undermines how certain game types work. Like a defending team will often have more elims but still lose since they’re defending which will make them feel like they should have won.

I would suggest stats that are focused more on just personal stats for the hero. We already have something like this but I think expanding on it would be a better idea.

For example,

  • Show how many environmental kills you have as Lucio,
  • Show how many people on average you hit with a Fire Strike as Rein
  • Show how much barrier damage you’ve done as Junkrat
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6

this will do nothing and it will just waste time for the devs… it will only create a “Safe pace” in the game that wont be safe. I’d rather see my metals and know i’m in last or seconds.

7

I don’t think that is a way to resolve toxicity but instead promote more toxicity.

If someone is having a bad game their stats are now displayed to a potential 5 toxic teammates to flame them over.

8

The medals should be viewable by all, or they should add a scoreboard. When five dps autolock and three don’t have any medals in elims, obj kills, or damage, then they can see their shame and maybe play something that actually helps the team for once.

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9

I agree, the medals should be removed and replaced with a team scoreboard with everyone stats and their hero specific stats.

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10

Or if someone is playing someone elses main…“I have better averages than you. Get off xyz hero and let ME carry you noobs.”

11

I think he meant that those stats would only be shown to you… at least thats how I understood it

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12

I don’t think that’s how it was meant, but maybe I am wrong.

13

These stats are only shown to the player yeah. it would be something to replace the spot medals leave

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14

Playing anything versus other humans promotes "toxicity"
Gold medals are silly. I prefer Goldeneye style rewards.

2 Likes
15

I actually didnt think about this, but I totally agree with that. Love the addition of hero specific stats though.

1 Like
16

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

17

But how would that work if it’s a team scoreboard…?

18

I think you would just cut it in half, part of it would be team scoreboard and the other part would be personal scoreboard

1 Like
19

I’m cool with any stats that help me measure whether or not I’m doing my job, and I’m very wary of any stats that enable people to police each other’s gameplay, especially in the casual modes.

20

I never mentioned a team scoreboard…

I said i disagreed with the idea the OP had with a global scoreboard that shows everyones’ elims.

The system I’m suggesting would only be shown to the player and remove any sense of competition within a team

I’m sorry if i wasn’t clear