I would recommend finding a tight group of friends to play with.
That way, instead of it feeling like you’re up against 9 other random players, you’re only up against 5. Then of course the other 4 on your team will know you, know about your mental health issues, and be much more understanding and willing to cut you some slack.
I say this because the world can be cruel (especially in the world of online anonymous video games), and expecting strangers who don’t know anything about you to make concessions for you based off of health issues they couldn’t possibly know exist, well, you’re being extra optimistic if you’re thinking that’ll happen.
So yeah, group with some friends, or at worst, turn off chat and voice and focus just on yourself.
If you have a mental health issue, you should be playing with text and voice chat OFF. It is not needed for solo queue. Use ping and the built in voice lines for communication.
Well therein lies the problem, do what you think you are doing best, don’t worry about if someone is better than you, there will always be somebody better than you, you just keep giving the best you can do, that’s all that people can ask for.
You shouldn’t believe that ranks matter, the system has proven that the rank displayed is not where your actual strengths lie, you can be Silver but the actual system believes you have Gold+ skills, all that ranks are now, is just for rewards, nothing more.
I suffer from Autism/LD, on the lower end of the spectrum, so I can possibly understand what you’re going through.
In the game, it may feel like your actions are insignificant or that you aren’t improving, but, i’ve learned through many hours of TF2, that people talking down on me doesn’t really matter in the end, but rather, if I felt like I was giving my all for my team and if I was having fun, that was more important to me.
It’s just a learning process of how to shut out negativity from people, when people get mad/trolling, they are just looking for the attention from you, and if you stop giving them attention, they often stop talking.
As others have said, you can try communications off for awhile to focus on your own, Blizzard has implemented systems to help circumvent this issue (Pinging system).
Still, this game really brings out worst qualities of people, so I wouldn’t recommend it. Bad matchmaking, combined with completely clueless teammates, that only yesterday installed game, can make nicest people in the world scream their lungs out in rage and desperation.
Any game does, with online games, you won’t find a way around that, short of just cutting communications off.
If it’s serious, i’d probably recommend just staying off Competitive in general, that’s where it gets really dicey, I know i’m a person numb to people calling names/disrespect, so people might not be the same as me.
Arcade/Custom Games tend to be less toxic in general from my experience since nobody takes them as seriously.
There is a way around it, if game is designed properly.
Overwatch just happens to combine high demands to teammates with assembling team from random players. Those things - importance of victory and uncertainty in allies - shouldn’t be mixed together.
It’s possible that a stigma surrounding the game’s design intentionally done by the developers is possible. It’s not a game like TF2 where if you lose a teammate due to them goofing off it’s not a big deal, 5v5 heavily restricts that where if you lose a teammate, it can be detrimental.
I won’t say it’s taken seriously all the time though, I’ve had glimpse’s of goofing off during the game, not as often as TF2, but it does happen. It’s not all doom and gloom for Overwatch, but I think Blizzard wants this game taken seriously more often than not, which can contribute to toxicity in general, for sure.
I hope in the future we have more chances that if you want to play seriously, you can, then if you don’t want to play seriously, it isn’t penalized against you to do so, it might help reduce toxicity in the game in general if it isn’t all about wins and loses. For me, I stopped caring for winning/losing long ago, and been much better off.
Not saying Competitive should be like this, It’s Competitive, but y’know, Arcade/Quickplay can do that easy, Also sorry if i’m using Team Fortress 2 as a example a lot, just the only game I know of to compare Overwatch to.
I was a mentally stable person before I played Overwatch in 2016.
I would strongly recommend you don’t play it. This is the only game that has managed to p*#% me off from others. I played all the Dark Souls and those games didn’t irk me. Overwatch somehow manages to
Or they just refuse to look at consequences of small teams.
Also Overwatch is…empty for me. It lacks more personal,deeper aspects of player interaction - Medic and patient working together, goofy weapons, silly deaths, emotes other players can join. Like something, that developers didn’t put their souls in.
Can’t really put my finger on it, but can sense it missing.
Personally, I also struggle with self esteem at times.
OW was my first fps game, and it was shocking to hear all that toxicity as a new player (when it was even visually very clear I was new in OW1) and all those “please uninstall” or even “kill yourself” etc.
With time, it has become much less of an issue (I also definitely play better), but yes I can have a long day at work, play QP in the evening when I’m tired but willing to chill out for a while and underperform a bit. I sometimes have the feeling that I’m bad, just because I would like to perform great always. Sometimes I feel like I play like a pro (well, in my mind…), other times I feel like I do so little.
When I started watching streamers, I saw this is not something that happens only to me, but even very good players can have TERRIBLE matches where they do very little. In my mind I thought they would perform great in every situation. But it doesn’t happen! I mean, I’ve even seen top 500 players falling off the map for mistake. It just happens.
This is a game, it’s supposed to be fun. Do not listen to what people say, focus on improving your skills if you want, don’t improve if you don’t want, you’re free to play to chill out (maybe not in comp).
I used to play WoW when I was a bit depressed. Nobody bullied me, but I think I pushed them all away because I was being overly negative in a video game lol.
Honestly, if Overwatch doesn’t make you feel good, I would stop playing. But have you tried turning off chat? Maybe that will solve your issues. You can’t change how people behave, the only thing you can change is how you react to them.
If people are nasty to you in OW2, I’d just turn off chat and just enjoy the game as it is. Or just go and play other games where people are nicer to you. Obviously if they are breaking the code of conduct / Terms of Service, or whatever you call it, you should report them.
Overwatch stresses me out. The only reason I play it is because my wife enjoys it. If she didn’t I’d probably just keep playing Elden Ring until my eyes bleed.
I too suffer from mental health issues the main ones being depression and anxiety…Overwatch 1 didn’t help at all and 2 I played for about 3 days. If you mute the lobby and leave voice then it can be fine. If you think you “suck” at the game and you’re not performing they way you think or want to then that’s okay…that’s nothing to be upset about…everyone has different level of skill and if it’s a game you enjoy the just keep playing and practice…but if it’s causing you to over think and over analyze and doubt yourself to the point where you are on unhappy then no game is worth that distress
There are other games that are better for your mental health…I recommend more single player friendly games…Stardew valley is probably on my top 5 all time favorite games highly relaxing and calming…play at your own pace and there’s LOTS to do in that game
I’d disable comms if I were you. It sounds like it’s doing more harm than good in your case.
Btw it’s not you who is a burden, people are just douches, and they love to shift blame when they lose. Every match of OW has five losing people (and even the winners may have gotten tilted during the match)
Oh and lemme recommend Deep Rock Galactic as a game where positivity and teamwork just comes naturally through gameplay.
Please do not. If you want a game that you can play with others without getting flamed all the time, play a PvE game like Left for Dead, Vermintide, Back4Blood or Darktide. You can play with real ppl it is super fun and you can adjust (more or less) the difficulty in those games to your licking. Remember gaming is about fun and excitement