Things YOU can do to reduce toxicity

General Discussion
1

Hey guys, figured with the coming of the new threads it was a good time to make up a new post addressing what we can do as a community to address an issue we all have in the game. We spend a lot of time here on the forums addressing how others behave-- so let’s address ourselves.

disclaimer: nobody is perfect-- everyone is prone to getting angry. The key is to address it and not let it fester.

  • First, try not to play when you’re already in a sour mood.

This one is a hard one to keep up with, so as such it’s just a recommendation. Playing while tense/upset can lead you to see things that normally don’t bother you in a harsher light, i.e. a teammate overextending or someone refusing to swap. Going in angry is a good way to end up angry and frustrated with the game overall.

  • Next, try to spend more time complimenting your team than criticizing.

If you view your team in a positive light, you’re less likely to be angry with them. That’s a pretty obvious piece of advice, right? By paying attention to what someone is doing right, it enables you to be more sound and encourages the people you’re playing with. Thanking a Zarya for those great bubbles, or Tracer for that strong pick will make you more positive of a person, and enable your team to feel more positive as well. On top of this, if you’re in a good mood, advice such as ‘you’re overextending’ is less likely to come off gripey and earn an attempt at playing better!

  • Apologize.

That’s right. By owning up to your mistakes, you create a better team atmosphere. Someone who is always criticizing others but not themselves will tilt the team faster than ‘triple sniper meta.’ Additionally, it betters you as a player because the thought becomes ‘I shouldn’t have done (x)’ instead of ‘why wasn’t my team doing (x)’. (Thus, keeping your view on your team positive)

  • Give chances.

One tricks. Snipers. Niche heroes. Anything that goes off meta makes people nervous. Whether you picked the hero or a teammate did, reaffirm that it’s ‘worth a shot.’ A good way to be firm in a situation without tilting the player or your team is to say, ‘So long as you switch if it’s not working out, I’ve got your back.’ Don’t assume the worse, don’t look at winrate to bully them. By being open, you may just find that a hero is a lot more viable than you thought!

  • Last, but not least: Report offenders appropriately.

Is someone being toxic in voice chat? A teammate jumping off the map? If it falls within the parameters of the reporting system, it should be reported. Don’t tell the offender that you reported them, don’t encourage the enemy team to report. It’s better in this situation to put the report in and encourage anyone you’re teamed with to do the same, away from where the offender will know. Don’t turn it into a hostage situation with reporting.

As always, good luck with your games. If you have any tips of your own, feel free to share them!

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Sometimes, it’s also nice to stand up for people being bullied as well :slight_smile:

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I love this post. I support all these things. I would add one thing to your final post: Don’t engage/talk to the toxic person. It’s far better to simply mute and report. It’s not worth getting your stress levels up, and it doesn’t serve anyone.

This can be tuff because whens someone insults you, a lot of peoples first response is to fire back at them in defense. Just don’t do it, they feed on that, it enables them to keep being toxic.

For toxic players, Mute, report, keep playing hard!

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yep. I’ve done all that. But I found it easier to just mute the chats.

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Agreed. It keeps me in a good mood, punching toxicity in the face and all😎

6

Compliment the enemy team when they do something really good, I did it this morning and the whole match ended up with both sides just having a great time and a lot of laughs.

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Yeah, plus it stinks to be targeted by toxic people and your team sits by and let’s it happen. It’s nice to know someone has your back

8

I’ve maintained my demeanor most of the time, just blocking and reporting like an outstanding citizen of Overwatch. Reporting isn’t very effective btw probably because there are thousands of complaints in a day.

But sometimes on a bad day, there’s a strong urge to retaliate. It’s human nature and it’s very difficult to suppress. It’s like the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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If your ever in a round with me, toxicity will be at an all time low, Lol😀

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Always a good thing :smiley: I’m not sure if I’ve ever been in a game with you. Do you play pc?

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Sadly no. Only on Xbox😥

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Aw alright ^^ I sadly don’t have an Xbox
(And of course I have ow for ps4 AND pc but no Xbox xD)

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I just joined a game now. Just greeted all with “hi all”. The first response? “kys”.
so mute chat is the way to go. I have no faith in that in game chat will ever be a better place.

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100% agree. I think I put that in a previous iteration of this post-- I’ll be sure to add it once I finish laminating this paper!

@RichC

Absolutely! Once someone has gone full-blown toxic, there’s nothing you can do. You can attempt to change the tides of someone who is showing signs of beginning to tilt, but some people just want to cause trouble. Good advice :heart:

@Tor

I’m sorry to hear that ): It’s awful that people can’t just play the game and have fun. As a small recommendation, Quake Champions has a very small and kind community. If you’re ever interested in checking it out, hit me up :smile:

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Don’t confuse human nature with human behavior. Nature can’t be changed, behavior can. I see your point, but a toxic gamer screaming into a mic is not the same as 2,403 killed and 1,178 were wounded at pearl harbor. But I get your point.

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  1. Role queue would definitely help, people would be more likely to play the roles that they want to and have less reasons to tilt.
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  2. Reworking the Play of the game system, to include multiple players if they worked together for a multi kill. Like Zarya and Pharah using both their ults for a team wipe, or Ana and Reinhardt. That way it would encourage cool teamwork rather than single person frags, as well as giving some appreciation to a few heroes that hardly ever get play of the game.
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  3. A way to reward good players in a team, similar to the current end-game cards that actually provides a small reward to the voted player, such as a slight increase in EXP, or like the arcade games, that after reaching a certain amount of upvotes, you receive a lootbox.

These are the solutions I can think of at the top of my head.

17

not to sound rude or toxic, but these “tips” only worked like in season 2 and 3. I remember in season 2 when everyone was like “just play around that One trick” and we did. But then more and more of those appeared. it was to hard to play around 2-3 OTP in one team and people gave up. The toxicity snow ball effect started and no one knows how to stop it. I just hope that it’s still not to late.

i have said it a few times in the past that this is up to game to solve the toxicity issue. promote team play and award good behavior or something.

unfortunately i don’t have the answers, only more and more questions

18

I only see how this applies to the ‘give chances’ category. Owning up on your mistakes and looking at things in a more positive light will always help the overall mood of the lobby.
I can understand being jaded though-- I’ve hit the wall a couple of times myself. I just had to take a step back before moving forward.

I can agree to an in game reward system for positive players though, that would seriously help.

19

Well said :slight_smile: 20 characters

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i sometimes play as a healer if no one on my team is being a healer or wants to even though i really dont like playing as a healer as im not good when it comes to being a healer but i put up with it hell when earlier today a teammate seen i guess i will be healer they said they would be willing to change i said you can stay as you are i need to try to get better as a healer i feel some shouldnt have to change who they are playing as but i will make a sacrifice for the team