What in the world does toxic mean anyways?

I used to think it just meant they type of players that, good or bad, never owned their mistakes, blamed everyone else in chat and would leave content the first time some one suggested they play nicer. Complainers, whiners, primadonna’s, and quitters. People that make group play uncomfortable and tense.

But apparently that’s not what it means.

It seems to be used for anyone that disagrees with someone, anyone who declines someone for a group, or anyone that doesn’t go out of their way help someone.

And it turns out that I’m a toxic player. From what I’ve been told, very toxic. Ran a “+8 Freehold” with 415 minimum on my rogue this morning and ended up turning down about 40-50 melee dps for the group. Got more than one whispers informing me of my elitist toxicity.

And we had a very toxic run. Double pluss’d it with a couple of mistakes where people said “My Bad” as we got back up and back to work. And at the end everyone said “thanks” or “GG” and even had a “anyone need []?”

About as toxic as a run can go.

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Toxic = bad, not good, makes you feel angry/bad.
Things like that.

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It’s the catch-all for ‘behavior I’m too sensitive to deal with like an adult.’

I’m sure at some point it was used legitimately for people that were just terrible in every way, but that’s not how it’s used anymore.

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How dare you decline me for your group! I’m entitled to be in your group and all it’s loot! I shouldn’t be expected to have experience in any of the dungeons, a proper spec, enchanted gear, or decent knowledge of how my class plays! You sir are super toxic with your elitist attitudes!!

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There’s a lot of use to the word toxic and it doesn’t always mean the same thing because it can be applied to different things for different meanings.

A toxic interaction would be someone not having a civil interaction.

A toxic environment would be an environment that prone toxicity/toxic interactions.

What people think is that by declining them you are creating a toxic environment by not being inclusive hence why you are toxic.

I personnaly don’t see the link between that of declining someone and toxicity, is an employer toxic for simply declining an employee? I only see the self-serving in them, trying to blame people making groups for their faillings. Moreover if they whisper to you insults, they are the one having a toxic behavior.

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Whatever people don’t like.

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Just another word people want to use to describe something it wasn’t meant to describe. Kinda like how people use words like cancer to discuss an issue they have with a game.

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tox·ic

/ˈtäksik/

adjective

adjective: toxic

poisonous.

“the dumping of toxic waste”

synonyms: poisonous, venomous, virulent, noxious, dangerous, destructive, harmful, unsafe, malignant, injurious, pestilential, pernicious, environmentally unfriendly; More

fatal, deadly, lethal, mortal, death-dealing;

archaic baneful

“they were killed by smoke and toxic gases”

antonyms: nontoxic, harmless, safe

  • relating to or caused by poison.

“toxic hazards”

  • very bad, unpleasant, or harmful.

“a toxic relationship”

Finance

denoting or relating to debt which has a high risk of default.

  • denoting securities which are based on toxic debt and for which there is not a healthy or functioning market.

“the financial system has become clogged with toxic assets”

noun

plural noun: toxics ; noun: toxic

poisonous substances.

Origin

mid 17th century: from medieval Latin toxicus ‘poisoned’, from Latin toxicum ‘poison’, from Greek toxikon (pharmakon) ‘(poison for) arrows’, from toxon ‘bow’.

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At least in theory, the person who first said an uncivil remark was the toxic one. But allowing yourself to be triggered and forced to respond in kind is toxic, too, especially given that humans are capable of free will, rather than controlled at all times by circumstances out of our control.

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sadly the word toxic is just thrown around willynilly nowadays without people understanding why this is happening. Sometime people get “toxic” because of how other player lack of care.

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everything and nothing. Like every overused word.

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It is used in this way by people who fit your definition, in bitter mockery, because they do not like having the mirror held up.

Toxicity melts snowflakes. I’ve seen it happen firsthand.

Toxic is the liberal word for mean.

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Another “buzzword”.

Salty was another one but I guess they got bored of that… mostly

That one is still used quite a bit on these forums.

Didn’t the Teenage Ninja Mutant turtles fall into toxic waste? Does that make them toxic too? :thinking:

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If you really don’t know what it means and want to find out, just spend an hour on Illidan Horde.

Toxic is a word people use, when they can’t handle reality.

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