Has the community of WoW become a lot more toxic than normal?
Now, some context; yes, there’s always been arguments, elitism, the whole ick-kapoodle. But there’s something I have noticed across various sites, that of folks (maybe a loud minority) that seem to infest just about every corner of content on WoW, period.
WoWhead? You dig through, you find comments stating the uselessness of the News, about fixes they want to see instead in a negative manner, and arguments here and there… But that’s WoWhead.
Forums? Well that’s always been a hot spot of stuff. I’ll give this one the grandfather pass.
Youtube? While some spots are relatively clean, I’ve seen a few of these comments pop up out of the seams.
Reddit? I don’t use reddit.
Maybe some folks will see this as bait (It ain’t, but you do you), or see this as a re-occuring post that has already been discussed. This isn’t a ‘WoW is dying’ post, but moreso just a question on if anyone else has noticed you can’t exactly go anywhere without this potential loud minority being there. This is also less a discussion on the state of the game, poor design choices (Delve scaling, Mythic+ Focus, RWF, ETC) and moreso just pointing out the general atmosphere.
Is there things to criticize WoW for? Yes. But man some of the things you see are anything but constructive, and it does get tiring to see.
Your thoughts, Forum?
I think it’s always been like that on some level, but to me lately it’s been worse.
I think I’m mostly just experience fatigue from having to deal with constant negativity. Criticism is one thing, just whining and lamenting about everything is another. It even bleeds into in-game interactions sometimes.
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head. Yeah it’s ALWAYS been ‘toxic’, but it really has felt lately like its been worse; that or it just seems to be far more common and loud than it used to.
I mean,
“Blizzard needs to stop designing the game around these no life losers.”
I think I understand this fairly well.
Maybe it is just getting tired of people. I appreciate though the times I see constructive stuff on this, rather than some of the arguments and screaming I’ve seen - hell I am guilty in the past of some stuff here and there.
The answer is here. It has been always like this. The minority complainers and “doomers” are very loud, vocal. This creates the echo chamber effect. Add on top of that the streamers behavior, “influencers” and the rise of click/rage baiting. WoW generates a lot of drama and buzz - for the good or bad, and that attracts viewership like moths to the flame. Specially negative/controversial headlines.
The satisfied customers (players) who are happy about the game, will not come to social media or forums just as often as the complainers. Just as most who unsub from the game and move on with their lifes without posting “I quit” rants (aka as “vote with your wallet”).
This will never happen, but I wish Blizzard releases the % of accounts(not characters) that actually interact in the forums. I bet that it’s less than 10% of the playerbase.
It’s always been pretty toxic, especially the pug scene.
However…
I think sharding put the kibosh on the social side of this game, where it was once far easier to build relationships, just by recognizing names and such, now it’s swamp water nobody wants to really dip their toes into.
Bad actors had a harder time of it, now it’s a free for all troll fest.
Just have to rise above it, and for sure don’t let strangers on the internet dictate your mood.
Remember, all forums taken together are giving you an idea of how several thousand people feel in a game that has several million players. Add to that, people who have something to complain about are attracted to forums so it’s not an unbiased sample.
WoW is an unpaid job so this makes sense. Why would anyone help you out or invite you to anything when there is profit to be made somewhere for ‘wasting time’.
I’m confused. First you talk about all these sites infested with toxicity, then negate the biggest sites with dismissal of “it’s always been that way” or “I don’t know anything about it.”
I think a big part of it is who you surround yourself with. If you are playing with people who absolutely want to min max everything, it might be more elitist.
You play with folks who are more relaxed in how they want to get things done, keys, raid, the game will feel less up tight.
I do feel getting into higher keys like +9s seem harder now, but I feel like in a few weeks, it will get better. 9s won’t be anything special and more people will have more gear. Hopefully people will know the dungeon mechanics better.
Part of it also might come from how popular tier lists are. Everyone wants to rank everything for all forms of content and even if it’s not necessarily true, sure feels bad to see your class or spec in D or F tier because some creator put it there.
My thought is that its no more toxic than it used to be, but the game is in a really good state and people have nothing else to complain about, so they’re just going on about toxicity.
No… you have no idea what trade chat, and barrens chat used to be if you are asking this question in earnest. Those days of toxicity are behind us, but humans being what they are found different ways to be nasty at others in ways to cover over for IRL issues.
