Why is the playerbase so divided?

General Discussion
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“You’re a Mercy Main, you don’t know what skill is!”
“You main DPS and can’t get kills, stop being so bad!”
“Tanks, stop feeding!”

You get the gist of what I mean. Every time I log into the forums, I come across thread after thread of players insulting and confronting each other about who they play, how they play, and their feelings about the game. Compared to how many positive threads I scroll by, negativity always seems to win out because players appear to seek out others with differing opinions than theirs just to verbally downvote them and leave.

Shouldn’t players be working together here? I’m aware that opinions are different; yet anytime a debate is intended to occur, players opt out of learning about /WHY/ the other side feels the way they do in favor of putting their fingers into their ears and spewing insults towards one another while putting themselves onto some high ground and claiming that they’re more “logical” than the others even though what they claim is just as emotionally charged as the argument of their opposition. Why must things be this way?

TL;DR (You lazy buckaroo :p) -

Why must this community be so split? We all want to enjoy the game and see what the community has to offer, but toxicity flushes us out. Shouldn’t we fix this?

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It’s the internet. Be glad it’s not like DotA, where I so much as asked what a hero did and got flamed for it.

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It’s mostly because people like me who main Mercy stand up for what we believe in. And because we aren’t just giving up and crumbling to pieces we are “spamming” even when our posts (at least mine and titanium’s in particular) are literally at times 20-50x (++++) the length of a lot of the replies we are called “spam” in.

So because we aren’t crumbling under the peer-pressure … we’re apparently “evil needy greedy Mercy mains” who are also apparently a part of some secret society plotting to take over overwatch or something else.

We either give in and let our mistreatment continue and make them “happy” (they would only like to see Mercy and Mercy mains suffer tbqh.), or we fight for what is right and fair and we are considered “toxic” and “posionous” and all the rest.

Because we want a fun and decent hero too, so we’re apparently evil because of that.

This ultimately stems from the fact that many people follow what streamers like XQC and Sylosa have said in the past (even Stylosa is posting videos wondering IS Mercy even okay now?).

Proof from today:

She went as an uncontested F-tier pick since release up until her rework came along. No one can deny that made her a must pick, no one can deny that wasn’t fun.

But Mercy mains like myself did NOT ask for that rework. We flat out didn’t. Most of us wanted a self-mobility flight into the air for 2 seconds ability on E or an AOE heal on E. We never asked for that full rework that admittedly completely did break Mercy.

But being honest, reading a lot of the replies to my posts and threads: people are NOT even reading them before hurling obscenities and rude remarks at me.

I think ultimately it’s people that want balance (us Mercy mains) against people so blinded by hatred that they literally see a post about Mercy and prepare to attack us.

Heck, they even see my name and no matter what the post I am saying, they call it spam without even reading it. Being honest, it’s so bad anyone can pull up any of my threads and literally scroll through tons of posts literally ripping on me.

I’ve flat out ran out of report flags to issue and am probably going to personally start sending in screenshot report tickets if this continues. That’s how bad it is.

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Because people are brave behind computer screens.

@Sovereign why are you turning this into a Mercy thread.

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It is the current divide, and has been a thing for a long time.

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Still, it sounds like it’s somewhat derailing.

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I always find it kind of odd when people ask why players frequent forums to vent problems. The simple reason is that people who are happy with the game aren’t going to be on here.

Now, that doesn’t excuse the vitriol, but it’s the reason why you aren’t going to see happy, fun, feelgood threads very often.

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I understand that, and where there is freedom… there is bound to be lots of complaining and selfishness.

I just find it disheartening that players who do not play similar characters have such a lack of empathy towards one another. I’ve seen pure DPS mains shouting at Support mains for not healing them. I’ve seen pure Tank mains complain about DPS mains not getting kills. I’ve also seen pure Support mains complain about Tanks not protecting them.

Having played all 3, it takes a balance for a game to go properly. Sure there will be weaker links, but I feel that asking of others their opinions without putting oneself on a pedestal could clear up a ton of issues the forum and OW community have had as a whole.

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I assume you’re mostly referring to the role stereotypes, going by the first part of your post. In which case, the answer is: Because stereotypes are the easiest way to personally invalidate someone’s opinion. But people only use it when it suits them.

Like, I think Brigitte is too easy for the effort she requires. I point that out and basically get the “LOLTracer main” response, even when I give screenshots of personal stats while playing Brig with a 70% win rate. XP

But those same people ignore the fact I’m a DPS main when I stand up for Mercy or Roadhog.

It’s just people being dumb, basically. :stuck_out_tongue: Stereotypes are fun as long as they’re lighthearted and meant in a joking manner, but people take them too far.

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Because a lot of people have differing opinions, and in a game like this, those differing opinions can drastically change the game in a direction people won’t like if they never meet conflict.

Also conflict/disagreement =/= Toxicity. That term has become far too broad to use appropriately anymore.

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My post was not in reference to stereotypes across roles, but of the many varying ways that members of the community have put down the opinions of others because they did not seek to understand why the other side felt that way. I only really used those stereotypes because I’m sure that at some point, someone has been criticized for playing their role by another in a different role who doesn’t quite understand how things are going for them.

There are far more stereotypes than role stereotypes, and people have reasons for why they feel how they do about certain heroes. Instead of shutting them out, would it not be more productive to have a proper discussion about their perceptions? Unless you change that, the ranting will only continue.

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It seems he’s content on turning every thread he possibly can into one. It’s why I’m pretty close to not using the forum anymore. I’m tired of talking about Mercy.

I think this forum should do to Mercy threads what the Dragonball-Anime-subforum on Neoseeker did to Broly threads… ban them for about a year. They seriously had to do that. No one was allowed to start threads about Broly.

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I do not see conflict across users and players as toxic. However, when an “argument” is often made up of insults, I’m usually out off from what’s meant to be said.

EDIT: Please don’t get hostile against others users here. Even if conflict hasn’t started, I really don’t want for anything to get heated in this thread.

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Ah, I got ya. Sorry, it’s late here and I’m a bit loopy from pain meds atm, so my reading comprehension took a giant nerf. XD

But the answer is still kinda the same: Because it’s the internet and people are dumb. :stuck_out_tongue:

I do try to be sympathetic and logical when talking about things, even heroes I don’t care for / play, but I notice most people reeeeally don’t do that. XP

Like the whole Mercy fiasco. I don’t play her much, but I do get why the Mercy mains are upset, so I cut them a lot of slack for complaining all the time. I’d complain too if they screwed up Tracer that badly.

The only thing I hate is the stupid “DPS main vs. Support main” war that’s instigated by both sides of that particular debate. That concept needs to die in a fire.

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What frustrates me is that instead of saying Mercy as an example they went all out.

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How to add fuel to the fire 101. If you though some people felt like they were being ignored now… oh boy.

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You don’t have to apologize! I am most certainly fine with my messages being obscured as long as you ask for clarification before you rant about what I said! :slight_smile:

Moving forward, I’m aware of that. As stated previously, there still needs to be SOME sense of understanding across users. Moving into you having sympathy for players who play heroes you don’t, that’s something that I think ALL players should have.

I’m a Widow main, and if she were to be nerfed over and over and over, I’d be upset. Unless there was a hero that I really hated, like old Roadhog, I would feel for people who main that character because I would never wish the same for whoever I play.

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Please stop turning every thread into a Mercy thread. Thank you.

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They’re out of control and they’re doing it to themselves. They’re making the forum a battleground and baiting nothing but negativity and doing almost nothing but spiting the devs and spewing vitriol.

I hate the fact that I have to push back on it with vitriol, so don’t think for a second I don’t know the folly in what I’m doing either.

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This is why we need more flex players :pensive:

In all honesty the internet in general is a toxic place because of the anonymity. People will use whatever they can get their grubby hands on to insult others or make it seem like they’re the good guy. It’s easy to assume someone’s a Mercy main if their profile picture is anything to do with Mercy, so people will attack those with Mercy icons for being the stereotypical Mercy main, even if they don’t play Mercy, just because they want to try and invalidate their opinion to try to validate theirs. (This is just an example, happens with other heroes too)

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