What are your ideas to reduce toxicity?

I'm not saying this game has any more or less toxicity in PvP than other games. I think the difference between GW2 and other games is we dont really see any big moves from Anet to combat it. They dont really seem to try to encourage good sportsmanship and dont reflect to us any changes they are making (if any) to try to reduce toxic behavior. What are your ideas to deal with? What are some "low hanging fruit" Anet could make changes around?

EDIT:I guess I'll give my own opinion too. I think they could take some notes from Blizzard with Overwatch. It's not that they have "solved" toxic behaviour or they have the "best" system but they have taken steps to lessen it and communicated clearly with the community on how they are dealing with it. I would really like to see this effort from Anet.

Let people know when someone they reported gets a ban.Have a minor rewards system for getting some kind of "up vote" at the end of matches.Have a "down vote" system so that people can see when someone has LOTS of complaints from other players and knows what to expect.I would say the system could try to group those with a lot of thumbs down to play together so those who are toxic get stuck with others who are toxic BUT I know the PvP community is too small to make this work.Mute those who get to a certain "down vote" threshold automatically.These are just some ideas, none perfect.

Ban toxic people?

you can't even say the word cancer on forums without getting a warning, anet ban people

@Jayden Reese.9542 said:Eliminate all chat except team. In team after match starts you can only use basic words like home far near mid. Before match starts where you can discuss builds etc

this absolutely kills interaction between people, I made couple of pals from oposing teams.If you are a dick get banned, preventing EVERYONE from talking becouse 2% is toxic is stupid.

It would be very hard task to reduce toxicity in gw2 pvp modes due to the current state of the game. Due to consistently bad balancing the pvp modes are nothing more than cheese vs cheese and whoever's builds cheesier or gets their cheese thru first wins which creates a environment rife with toxicity between players.

Remove soloQ :)

@witcher.3197 said:Remove soloQ :)

To go further delete pvp modes :)Nvm their already doing that slowly.

If anyone thinks the toxicity is from the PvP game mode and not the design of it, you've never played another good PvP game. I've played games in the past where we'd all just sit around in a circle and take turns dueling each other.

Fighting players is not inherently toxic, its the design of the game that causes it.

Furthermore, this is just what we've come to in the post-LoL era when being a bully is cool and winning at all costs is worth it even if you ruin your reputation, your team's reputation, and cause anxiety and stress for your opponent by playing in ways that are extremely difficult to counter and then go and trash talk them and such on top of their loss and inevitable exit from the game mode.

For example, in a game I played prior to GW2, one side kept overwhelming the other completely until they gave up. They would always make rude comments, mock the poor players attempting to just play the game, talk about their superiority ,etc.

The game died eventually, because there were no more opponents to face, the population of "losers" dropped to nothing.

People don't just want to defeat other players anymore, they want to destroy them, they want them gone. Which seems really strange when the whole point is to find players to fight in competitive, but that's how people are becoming for some reason.

This kind of mentality can be found everywhere online now, and sometimes offline too.

@"Zexanima.7851" said:I'm not saying this game has any more or less toxicity in PvP than other games. I think the difference between GW2 and other games is we dont really see any big moves from Anet to combat it. They dont really seem to try to encourage good sportsmanship and dont reflect to us any changes they are making (if any) to try to reduce toxic behavior. What are your ideas to deal with? What are some "low hanging fruit" Anet could make changes around?

The bulk & majority of toxicity comes from losing ranked matches in buffoonish ways. The bulk & majority of buffoonish losses in ranked come from bad match making due to low population, but mostly so much ALT play and incentive for players to throw matches on each other.

Not joking, not even saying this in the heat of the moment, being 100% serious -> Stop playing ranked mode if you want toxicity to stop. Yes, just ignore it. Play Unranked for fun, or ATs if you want a real competitive environment where you can't be cheated out of a win because someone is blatantly throwing the match. The less people we have playing ranked, the less toxicity we have, the more fun we all start having again. Then subsequently, Arenanet might notice and care to fix it.

Really, ranked just needs to be deactivated at this point for literally every reason in the book that is mentionable. it's become a cesspool of cheating, metagaming the leaderboards for rating, poor match making in general, and as such has become very unfulfilling and no longer fun.

Here is what they should do:

• Remove ranked completely.
• Shuffle all associated rewards into a new seasonal AT system that requires 5 man teams to play in. This also includes badge icon rating indication. Yes, if you want a badge, you'll need to participate in AT tournaments.
• Along with the remaining Unranked 5 man mode queue button, replace the old Ranked button with a new 2v2 Arena Queue button.

Wallah. You've just eliminated 75% of the toxicity in Guild Wars 2 spvp.

In pvp matches remove the ability to whisper or even chat to the enemy team during the match.

Inside you own team there should be some kind of negative karma report system where if you get enough hits you start to build up some kind of punishment or something that only matches you with people who have a similar number of reports.If only truly toxic people could only be matched with other toxic people the problem would be solved fairly quickly.

I usually only report people if the toxicity gets to a level where it starts to sound more like harassment or gets racial etc. There are no needs to say somethings swearing is ok but you know when you go to far the moment you even think to type it.

Ideally people who want to be toxic will continue to be toxic until they are properly punished for it showing such improper behavior. You dont learn not to do something wrong if you dont get punished for doing it.

Outside of matches its just dependent on people to not have have a god complex tbhThe number of people ive seen on Team USA (or at least going by the guild tag) act like butts to other players even in just free for all arena let alone in even unranked matches just because "hey look at me good at the game" is beyond me.The idea that "you dont play the way i do" thus "I can bully, be toxic, and harass" mentality is just one of the many things that ruins pvp imo at least when i see it. I also see it more often than i like.

I know it happens in all competitive games but gw2 has to be one of games where i see it far more often than i would like to see it.

@"ZDragon.3046" said:In pvp matches remove the ability to whisper or even chat to the enemy team during the match.

Inside you own team there should be some kind of negative karma report system where if you get enough hits you start to build up some kind of punishment or something that only matches you with people who have a similar number of reports.If only truly toxic people could only be matched with other toxic people the problem would be solved fairly quickly.

I usually only report people if the toxicity gets to a level where it starts to sound more like harassment or gets racial etc. There are no needs to say somethings swearing is ok but you know when you go to far the moment you even think to type it.

Ideally people who want to be toxic will continue to be toxic until they are properly punished for it showing such improper behavior. You dont learn not to do something wrong if you dont get punished for doing it.

Outside of matches its just dependent on people to not have have a god complex tbhThe number of people ive seen on Team USA (or at least going by the guild tag) act like butts to other players even in just free for all arena let alone in even unranked matches just because "hey look at me good at the game" is beyond me.The idea that "you dont play the way i do" thus "I can bully, be toxic, and harass" mentality is just one of the many things that ruins pvp imo at least when i see it. I also see it more often than i like.

I know it happens in all competitive games but gw2 has to be one of games where i see it far more often than i would like to see it.

Basically all of this.

At this point, the only thing that is going to stop people from being as ugly as they can be to people they dont like or are frustrated with is to limit the way they can express that frustration, allowing players to refuse to play with or against certain players, or by swiftly punishing them with something that detracts from their gameplay experience the more frequently or intensely they vent that toxicity.

There's a reason you don't see a whole lot of toxicity on the forums atm. each of those things is enforced here. The worst you can do here is float a really bad suggestion.

Introduce a "thumbs up" system after matches. No rewards, maybe a fun title after 1000 thumbs up or so. And let the total counter go on for eternity.

the whole system is a fail from top to bottom so toxicity is bound to erupt, especially when the population gets artificially low. first people voted for solo q only in a team based format. then duo q came and a lot of people deem it to be an unfair advantage. with out comms or pre made teams, conquest is a failure. its too complicated for most people to grasp, especially beginners. also a lot of people don't enjoy it. we need a new mode to replace this garbage or a return of team q only in ranked. add to this the horrible class balance that enables one shots and unkillable bunkers and you have yourself a fiesta.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@"ZDragon.3046" said:In pvp matches remove the ability to whisper or even chat to the enemy team during the match.

Inside you own team there should be some kind of negative karma report system where if you get enough hits you start to build up some kind of punishment or something that only matches you with people who have a similar number of reports.If only truly toxic people could only be matched with other toxic people the problem would be solved fairly quickly.

I usually only report people if the toxicity gets to a level where it starts to sound more like harassment or gets racial etc. There are no needs to say somethings swearing is ok but you know when you go to far the moment you even think to type it.

Ideally people who want to be toxic will continue to be toxic until they are properly punished for it showing such improper behavior. You dont learn not to do something wrong if you dont get punished for doing it.

Outside of matches its just dependent on people to not have have a god complex tbhThe number of people ive seen on Team USA (or at least going by the guild tag) act like butts to other players even in just free for all arena let alone in even unranked matches just because "hey look at me good at the game" is beyond me.The idea that "you dont play the way i do" thus "I can bully, be toxic, and harass" mentality is just one of the many things that ruins pvp imo at least when i see it. I also see it more often than i like.

I know it happens in all competitive games but gw2 has to be one of games where i see it far more often than i would like to see it.

I guess I'll give my own opinion too. I think they could take some notes from Blizzard with Overwatch. It's not that they have "solved" toxic behaviour or they have the "best" system but they have taken steps to lessen it and communicated clearly with the community on how they are dealing with it. I would really like to see this effort from Anet.

• Let people know when someone they reported gets a ban.
• Have a minor rewards system for getting some kind of "up vote" at the end of matches.
• Have a "down vote" system so that people can see when someone has LOTS of complaints from other players and knows what to expect.
• I would say the system could try to group those with a lot of thumbs down to play together so those who are toxic get stuck with others who are toxic BUT I know the PvP community is too small to make this work.
• Mute those who get to a certain "down vote" threshold automatically.

These are just some ideas, none perfect.

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@"ZDragon.3046" said:In pvp matches remove the ability to whisper or even chat to the enemy team during the match.

Inside you own team there should be some kind of negative karma report system where if you get enough hits you start to build up some kind of punishment or something that only matches you with people who have a similar number of reports.If only truly toxic people could only be matched with other toxic people the problem would be solved fairly quickly.

I usually only report people if the toxicity gets to a level where it starts to sound more like harassment or gets racial etc. There are no needs to say somethings swearing is ok but you know when you go to far the moment you even think to type it.

Ideally people who want to be toxic will continue to be toxic until they are properly punished for it showing such improper behavior. You dont learn not to do something wrong if you dont get punished for doing it.

Outside of matches its just dependent on people to not have have a god complex tbhThe number of people ive seen on Team USA (or at least going by the guild tag) act like butts to other players even in just free for all arena let alone in even unranked matches just because "hey look at me good at the game" is beyond me.The idea that "you dont play the way i do" thus "I can bully, be toxic, and harass" mentality is just one of the many things that ruins pvp imo at least when i see it. I also see it more often than i like.

I know it happens in all competitive games but gw2 has to be one of games where i see it far more often than i would like to see it.

• Let people know when someone they reported gets a ban.
• Have a minor rewards system for getting some kind of "up vote" at the end of matches.
• Have a "down vote" system so that people can see when someone has LOTS of complaints from other players and knows what to expect.
• I would say the system could try to group those with a lot of thumbs down to play together so those who are toxic get stuck with others who are toxic BUT I know the PvP community is too small to make this work.
• Mute those who get to a certain "down vote" threshold automatically.

Any minor move in the right direction is better than having no system to enforce on encourage better behavior in general which gw2 currently does not have. Some of these ideas would go along way too. That said the pvp system as a whole needs vast improvements and this would hopefully be considered as a part of it if it were to ever happen i hope.

@witcher.3197 said:Remove soloQ :)

You think that the bunch of people (team) you look at in youtube/twitch represent GW2 pvp population ???

Without soloQ, legendary players will Q with bronze......

I can go in the other way, remove everything else but soloq so we'll have less preconfigured teams that dominate the pvp and less frustration with the majority of people who soloq (and secondarily the real level of everyone without his team's help ;) )

Nahhh it's just to counter what's your saying, the better choice it's having a soloQ league (who will reward the individual skill) AND a team 5vs5 League (who will reward the team work) and time to time a 2vs2 tournamant.

Remove PvP all together, thus you remove all PvP toxicity. :trollface:

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:It would be very hard task to reduce toxicity in gw2 pvp modes due to the current state of the game. Due to consistently bad balancing the pvp modes are nothing more than cheese vs cheese and whoever's builds cheesier or gets their cheese thru first wins which creates a environment rife with toxicity between players.

If there was a way , some ppl would not say different things all the time ... hmmm...After Christmas i will think over it :P

Add voice chat in pvp.

Most people playing video games are social degenerates. It is easy to insult or be toxic via chat when you have a veil of anonymity, as well as seeing other players as just nameplates. With voice chat there is a more personal contact between players and you invest more of yourself in an interaction. This inhibits behavior, since there is more of a sense of social responsibility.

It will improve match quality as well, since there will be a higher chance of effective team communication.

@Ysmir.4986 said:Add voice chat in pvp.

Most people playing video games are social degenerates. It is easy to insult or be toxic via chat when you have a veil of anonymity, as well as seeing other players as just nameplates. With voice chat there is a more personal contact between players and you invest more of yourself in an interaction. This inhibits behavior, since there is more of a sense of social responsibility.

It will improve match quality as well, since there will be a higher chance of effective team communication.

+++++

"Toxicity" can't really be reduced.The best one can do is block the "toxic" player.

Make pips a reward only for winning instead of "participating" in Ranked games.

Stop merging Ranked DuoQs and other premades with SoloQs.

Harsher progressive punishments for Leavers and Idle Players.

@Leonidrex.5649 said:Ban toxic people?

^ And this. It's simple, and the most effective way to get rid of them. If someone is sitting in their own spawn trash talking their team while they fight a 4v5; especially in a ranked game, then just ban the toxic player or give them permanent dishonor. Why should 1 or 2 people get away with ruining the day of 8-9 others?

@Ysmir.4986 said:Add voice chat in pvp.

Most people playing video games are social degenerates. It is easy to insult or be toxic via chat when you have a veil of anonymity, as well as seeing other players as just nameplates. With voice chat there is a more personal contact between players and you invest more of yourself in an interaction. This inhibits behavior, since there is more of a sense of social responsibility.

It will improve match quality as well, since there will be a higher chance of effective team communication.

If one could chose not to be part of the voice chat then sure. I have a friend in my guild who is very shy and if she got forced into a voice chat it would be horrible for her.

Toxicity is 100% selfmade by anet. The overall combat mechanic is great, but there are so many design flaws:

• the whole thief spec (a game about fighting each other offers a class that can run away from any encounter)
• the existence of trailblazer but not paladin gear in wvw
• the existence of a strong healing firebrand while the game itself is designed around having no dedicate healers (results in broken synergies with specific classes)
• a rock paper scissors system, where some builds are a mountain and all other builds a scissor or a tiny rotten sheet of paper
• questionable balance splitting between pvp and wvw
• too much interaction between opposing teams (wvw: emotes, jumping, dropping siege blueprints... / pvp: chat sharing...)

(The last point can be abused to tease others to come back (which I do frequently as I play necro and people run away from me all day), but it's still toxic and I would prefer it to not be possible.)

I am no exception to what I can notice when watching others. The game can be so frustrating that you either quit and never come back or you get angry about stuff sooner or later.

Just delete the forum and get rid of 80% of toxicity