Online gaming communities that have gone bad.

[shockywatt]

I was playing Left 4 Dead two today for the first time since December 2010 and I couldn't help but notice that the individual players had really gotten mouthy and arrogant. I joined multiple server and each one was filled with spiteful dicks, before I considered lfd2 to have one of the better online player base most of the people were polite and helpful.

However today no one helped each other as in a spitter would throw acid down you would get incapacitated and when the acid cleared no one would help you not even if you were in the immediate vicinity. I do not think all lfd players are bad but it seems to me the majority of the community soured. My question is do you know a gaming community that has gotten worse over the years?

Note: Please excuse any grammar errors in my statement I didn't get much sleep last night coupled with hard work earlier today.

 

[baddude1337]

Having dipped out of BF3 on Xbox for a few months due to a shit patch, I recently started playing again. It's fun enough, but I HATE the rented servers with insane ticket counts so a game on one map lasts 1-2 hours and with ban-happy admins.

 

[The Wykydtron]

UMVC3's online community dips in and out of dickish taunt happy assholes and perfectly reasonable people.

If you see someone with some Swagneto/Dante shenanigans expect him to taunt at least between combos maybe he even developed a combo where he could taunt mid combo and get away with it if you're lucky...

Or you could run into a Nova/Frank West/Random Unimportant Character team and watch as one shit easy combo gives him a free lvl 5 Frank... I hate that partnership so much

Oh and I have to mention League of Legends... Pretty mandatory in a bad community thread. Though it's less "gone bad" and more "was terrible from the get-go" DX

Even saw a Caitlyn rage at me for having the gall to play Ranked and not hit every single one of my skillshots perfectly (Charm is bullshit) the rest of the team had to explain to her that we were playing Normal Draft... Lulz

She was on 1/8/3 and was raging at her team the whole way. Can't believe how unlucky she was that game, stupid noob team.

I will admit sometimes your team does let you down and there is nothing you can do. Like having to support an AD Carry Teemo (lol) who at 12 minutes had the same CS as you at a grand total of 2. I wish I was kidding.

Just don't rage and you'll be a lot happier... Except when there's a Darius on your team. Rage away sir. I swear he is completely overpowered on both sides at times.

He's both oneshotting the enemy squishes with a full tank build with no damage items and underfeeding the rest of his team by just repeatedly ulting when there is no reason to take the kill from the AD or AP carry.

There's kill securing then there's Darius. Who is still "kill securing" even when he has finished his build and is also stealing all the bloody farm.

I thought Kill Steal: The Champion was a nice little joke name for him when he first came out. Then I had to play with him for a few months and it became horribly clear that perfect that name is...

*sigh* behold.


2:45, bonus clip

 

[Phasmal]

Eh, in my opinion pretty much every gaming community has gotten shittier in the last couple years.
I do tend to see the bad side of it more than the good side, unfortunately.

I also feel like hardly anyone talks on MMOs any more, unless it's to be a dick.
Hardly anyone talks on WoW in guilds any more, and the only people I saw in the Guild Wars 2 beta talking were busy telling everyone who didn't speak english to fuck off.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I'm not sure if I could say it has completely spoiled yet, but ME3's community seems to be going to the dogs.
Back when the demo was out I was playing people who were passionate about Mass Effect. We were all dropping references, discussing the series and really having a good time playing the game. It was nice feeling like you were part of a community.
These days I'm hearing "THAT BASTARD KEEPS STEALING MY KILLS!!" Or seeing people get kicked left right and centre for not having the right N7 rank or daring to try something new with a class. Or I am playing with people who bought the game solely for the multiplayer who haven?t any intention of actually playing the real game nor have they ever played a ME game(I?m sorry it?s just mind boggling to me)

Back in the day it was fans enjoying ME together, these days it just feels like I am playing Gears of War minus the god awful controls and shakey cam, where people seem to forget the co-op and just go in thinking All for one and all for me!

I have yet to hear the word ?fag? used but the moment I do I am putting down the multiplayer.

 

[Anget Colslaw]

Eh, in my opinion pretty much every gaming community has gotten shittier in the last couple years.
I do tend to see the bad side of it more than the good side, unfortunately.

This pretty much what I believe now. I usually hope for the best but sure as hell prepare for the worst.

UMVC3's online community dips in and out of dickish taunt happy assholes and perfectly reasonable people.

Wait. Marvel 3's community was actually decent at one point? Yeah, this never happened as I got the game on day one. Also, the FGC in general is shit, but Marvel's is just putting the dial up to 12 and I've got a few examples as to why if you're curious. Hell, the only person I've heard that's decent is Max.

Anyway, I have to throw in Team Fortress 2. Just... what happened at the F2P update?
Even before that there was the idling incident and... oh god, I've got a headache now.

 

[Sassafrass]

Having dipped out of BF3 on Xbox for a few months due to a shit patch, I recently started playing again. It's fun enough, but I HATE the rented servers with insane ticket counts so a game on one map lasts 1-2 hours and with ban-happy admins.

Try looking for DICE servers that begin with 22. DICE 22607 and 22608 are pretty good servers if you can withstand one Rush map on Operation Metro for each, I normally end up on these after a couple of games on a random server.

But yeah, I'm seconding this, BF3 has gotten worse the longer I've played. Rush on certain maps has now turned from "Attack the objective." to "I will snipe all game and end up helping no-one." and people use the jets as battering rams a lot more now. Still fun though, you just need to find the right server.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Anything made by or from a game made by Blizzard. DotA, WoW, Diablo, Statecraft. It's not that the whole community is bad, its just that the games are big enough that the annoying faction of dicks is large enough to crowd out the nice people.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The online portion of the fighting game community is generally garbage, but I don't mean the people who actually know what they're doing and play the games. I mean the people, and I use the term loosely, who do nothing but sit at home and watch free streams and complain about everything from how terrible the game being played is (though they still sit and watch it) to the skill level of those playing (yeah the guy who just placed third out of hundreds is a fraud) to the hotness level of any unfortunate lady who happens to appear on camera (though their most intimate relations have been with Mr. Lefty). It's these losers who make any stream virtually unwatchable with the chat on and who make the entirety of the FGC look like a bunch of sexist puerile basement dwellers.. despite the fact that most of them can probably barely play the games in question.

 

[The Abhorrent]

Pardon the bitter and cynical perspective, but I often find the phrases "online gaming community" and "jerk-infested cesspool of negativity" to be synomonous in the vast majority of situations.

However, keep mind that that "online gaming" refers to games which feature online multiplayer; the forums and message boards which focus on these games in particular doubly so. There's just something about playing games over the internet which just seems to bring out all the jerks; even if they're not the majority of the community, it certainly feels like it (because the aforementioned jerks have gotten a megaphone). The moment there's a whiff of competition in there air, be it direct (winning a match) or indirect (simply outperforming a teammate, even if you're trying to accomplish a cooperative goal), it seems that all common courtesies and politeness go out the window. The idea of "sportsmanship" would actually get rid of these problems, but there's not a shred of mutual respect on the playing field for it to take root.

As such, these communities haven't really "gone bad". They always were, and on occassion somehow manage to violate the bounds of plausibility by getting even worse... or maybe we just started to notice it a bit more for some reason.

---

There certainly are "online gaming communities" which are nice, so long as "online" refers to the meeting place of the community (forum on the internet) rather than the nature of the game itself (with only a handful of exceptions). These places can be surprisingly nice, so long as competition never enters the picture.

And that's solely because online gaming communities seem to abhor the idea of "friendly competition", possibly because it just might get in the way of winning.

 

[Black Arrow Officer]

The TF2 community has been going down the drain since the F2P update. Now the game is 30% trolls with shitty micspams and who grief their teammates, 25% trade dealers/junkies as I like to call them, 25% clueless players who lack any sense of self-preservation or tactics, 10% "hardcore" players who think they're hot shit after pubstomping a game with a medic up their ass 24/7, and 10% average or above average players who just want a fun game.

The ME3 community used to be good, but recently it's turned into an elitist farm-fest where you get kicked if your N7 rating is "too low," even if you're playing on a level 20 character with great weapons on FUCKING SILVER OR BRONZE.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

How in the world has this thread gone on this long, yet no one's mentioned Call of Duty? There's no way all the squeaky voices were around during CoD1 and 2 (keep in mind that I started playing at CoD4).

 

[Vivi22]

The TF2 community has been going down the drain since the F2P update. Now the game is 30% trolls with shitty micspams and who grief their teammates, 25% trade dealers/junkies as I like to call them, 25% clueless players who lack any sense of self-preservation or tactics, 10% "hardcore" players who think they're hot shit after pubstomping a game with a medic up their ass 24/7, and 10% average or above average players who just want a fun game.

As someone who's been playing TF2 since Beta I have to say I noticed no discernible drop in the quality of the community after the F2P update. You do get guys looking for trades instead of playing, but that's got nothing to do with F2P, plus they're easy to ignore/ban depending on server rules about that sort of thing.

Like any game with communities built around servers it's a matter of finding a server with a community that you enjoy playing with. It's usually not that hard as just about any server which is regularly busy will have a half decent community.

 

[Khayl]

Shogun 2 (Total War in general) is the only online community I am apart of these days. you do get your spammers, drop hackers and trolls...but they are a minority. I'm quite proud to be a part of this particular fandom.

And the Total War modders! THANK GOD FOR NERDS WITH TOO MUCH SPARE TIME!

In particular Darth Vader, Radious and Anton III. These guys have just added SO much replayability, to a near infinite level (I just passed the 800 hour mark

Sorry if this was ment to be a hate thread. Some communities are still worth being a part of.