Does Gw2 Feel More Toxic Lately?

[zolcor.2601]

I've been taking some time off lately from the game because I feel like 98 or 99 percent of the community has become so hostile and childish lately in their behavoir towards me and others. My question to you is 

[Vayne.8563]

Lately since when? Lately in the last two years? The last month? Hard to answer a poll without knowing that.  That said, no, I don't find it particularly more toxic. Maybe there was a change a few years  ago, but since then it's been relatively stable.

[CoffeePlease.3082]

It really depends on what you define as toxic, since it seems people use that term pretty freely these days, but no I wouldn't say I experience "98-99%" of the playerbase as toxic lol

 

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

nah, some people just got whinier. Turn on the profanity filter, use the block option and stop crying wolf where there isn't one and remember, if you push, people will push back.

[Mic.1897]

There are too many human players and not enough Charr players

[Obfuscate.6430]

I have mostly just been logging in to do dailies - people still make portals at daily jps with lots of people saying thank you and putting down birthday cakes. 
Hanging out in Divinity's Reach I find people still complimenting each other's fashion and enjoying each other playing instruments.
I've done a few metas - and there's always a few jokesters in map chat; sometimes it's just people being intentionally offensive but imo that is not new at all. I just mute map chat if it gets too much for me.
I have not done any PVP lately  but when I used to, it was always filled with people being absolutely rude but that is also not new. 

What kind of toxicity have you been encountering, and where? I'm genuinely curious

[AliamRationem.5172]

Seems fine to me.  In my experience, people who find entire communities toxic are toxic.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Absolutely more toxic. 

One of the reasons I'm gonna take a break from Gw2 until SotO. 

But not ingame. Ingame is wholesome and nice as always. 

It's everywhere else that just sucks kitten lately. 

Mostly the non ending balance discussions. 

Especially the fun vs meta kitten show that has been going and going. 

Arc Divider is still a huge talking point. 

Add certain people doing rage bait content to add coal to the flames. 

It sucks. 

People want to have fun but the benchmark Bros need their boons and over 40k DPS. So they get want they want regardless how the other 99.9% feel about the changes. 

But it doesn't matter. We are just plebs who don't know kitten. Atleast that what you get to read on the daily. 

 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

yes, i think its become much worse in the last few years.

 

this game used to be famous for players coming to the rescue of other players, as evidenced by its presence in the tvtropes "big kitten heroes" page, it was one of the defining traits of the game at release. however, lately i see players ignoring other players, leaving them being mobbed to death while rushing off on a mount, stealing kills at events with all the damage they can muster and preventing others from getting credit, and so on.

 

i regularly see players get double-downed (fully dead), just so some other players can dps more, when this was very rare before. in the past it was common to only expect a player to waypoint if they're defeated, but now it seems like players are expected to waypoint if they even go down, and that no one should stop to revive them even though its an overall dps increase to do so.

 

there's a long list of things that used to be alot more casual which have now become unspoken competitions in the game. players constantly act like they have to compete for time and resources when they're the ones creating the competition to begin with by trying to rush through, show off, etc.

 

there's something to be said about efficiency but it shouldn't be performed in groups of mixed skill levels.

Edited August 2, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Noah Salazar.5430]

Definitly not

I joined 500li squad that puted as lfg Qheal for w1-w4 

i was suprised that i took agro of boss with my only +216t, lfg not stated that thay need tank

commander was Ham, prob 1k toughness

 

i stayed as tank for whole raid, no one was complaining, not even questioned me why qheal scrapper insted of hfb, or why i using runes of pack, insted of runes of monk

we took some easy cms even, evry boss thay killed first try i even did tower as scrapper

 

the only boss i had not expertice was Xera i mentioned it in chat, ( i improvised)  even tho i moved in wrong direction, no one said a word xD

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Noah Salazar.5430

[trunks.5249]

in pvp yes however its always been that way in pvp. pve is just fine

[Ashen.2907]

I think it highly unlikely that you interact with, or witness others interacting with, 98 - 99% of the community.

[vares.8457]

No, I haven’t witnessed more toxicity in game. It is still a very friendly and helpful community.
On the forum however it got much worse. Latest example is all the toxic crying about the upcoming relic system. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by vares.8457

[Ashen.2907]

About the only significant examples of toxicity Ive seen lately are those attacking paying customers for expressing dissatisfaction with elements of the upcoming expansion. Name calling, spreading blatant falsehoods, and generally attacking paying customers for not liking a game system.

[Gop.8713]

Speaking purely of the pve experience I think things got generally more toxic around the time it went f2p -- not claiming causation, just identifying the timeframe -- but I wouldn't say I've seen any significant uptick since then. The only thing I can think of lately is that I've twice seen ppls in t1 fractals using arc to call out other players for low dps, which is just a comically absurd thing to do in t1s ; p

[Holmindeboks.3490]

Depents where you are. Ingame not (because i dont move out of citys) on forums. Yes 100% toxic. 

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 hours ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

yes, i think its become much worse in the last few years.

 

this game used to be famous for players coming to the rescue of other players, as evidenced by its presence in the tvtropes "big kitten heroes" page, it was one of the defining traits of the game at release. however, lately i see players ignoring other players, leaving them being mobbed to death while rushing off on a mount, stealing kills at events with all the damage they can muster and preventing others from getting credit, and so on.

 

i regularly see players get double-downed (fully dead), just so some other players can dps more, when this was very rare before. in the past it was common to only expect a player to waypoint if they're defeated, but now it seems like players are expected to waypoint if they even go down, and that no one should stop to revive them even though its an overall dps increase to do so.

 

there's a long list of things that used to be alot more casual which have now become unspoken competitions in the game. players constantly act like they have to compete for time and resources when they're the ones creating the competition to begin with by trying to rush through, show off, etc.

 

there's something to be said about efficiency but it shouldn't be performed in groups of mixed skill levels.

One problem I see often (and have been complained at over!) is that downed players will sit there getting angry at others for not giving rubs when there are targets for them to rally off of all around them.  This happens all the time in open world events where they will just sit there instead of attacking all of the trash enemies around them for an easy rally, then blame other players for not helping them.

I'm not saying what you describe doesn't happen, but I literally see this every day where players refuse/forget to help themselves.  Personally, when I see downed players in open world events with plenty of trash targets all around I don't bother to revive.  I just kill the trash enemies under the assumption that they will rally.  So, it's surprising to me when they just sit there and do nothing.

[SouthPaw.9705]

My SoulBeast can apply Poison, does that count as toxic? 

[Gibson.4036]

In the past, the PvP lobby felt distinctively different from the rest of the game. Recently, though, it does feel like I’m seeing more of the hurhur immature innuendo/drug reference/politics in city map chat. I don’t see it in the lounges/hubs, though.

 

[Gibson.4036]

nvm

Edited August 2, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[knives.6345]

In-game? no.

But! huge disclaimer: I don't do PvP and rarely do WvW. PvE - I encounter people who don't care about me or helpful people.

Forums? Yes. Some tend to cry because they cannot/do not want to put effort into getting something (that has been there long ago, and other players got it already).

Some also tend to cry because content is being "forced" into them. IDK how it's being forced, like is there a gun pointed at them or what.

[Jianyu.7065]

I believe the problem with this kind of post is that if the community has an imbalance toward becoming more toxic, the bias will shift and people will answer NO to this question because a toxic person in a mostly toxic community is right at home. 

My wife just started playing this game about 2 months ago and she has become increasingly more frustrated with the extreme agenda based attitudes of players in the meta zones versus the more peaceful and helpful attitudes of players in the beginner zones. 

Personally, as someone who has been gaming as a hobby since 1986 - I have been involved in the gaming community at large in one way or another, and the last 5 years or so have seemed to shift away from the gaming community being a more peaceful niche to being one of more outspoken entitlement. And once entitlement enters the room it starts making friends and becomes divisive. 

If the community here has become noticeably more toxic to some players, it's not an isolated incident. I frequent many game forums and it doesnt really matter where you go. This behavior is common. I also believe that the idea of being a paying customer affording you the right to complain about your subjective experience and tell other paying customers who enjoy the game that they're wrong, and vice-versa is hogwash and BS blended up into a sour cocktail. 

People have the right to complain, but they don't have to right to make their opinions absolute, and people have the right to enjoy the things people complain about, but they also do not have the right to make their opinions absolute. In the end nobody has the right to shift something one way or the other just because their subjective expectations aren't being met. Developers make games for us but they don't make games SPECIFICALLY for us. Developers make games based on a creative and artistic idea to gain the most popularity possible to gain the most money possible. So when person-specific isn't satisfied - it's nothing personal...there are plenty of other games so, go in that direction and don't make it worse for players who do enjoy what you don't enjoy. 

Unfortunately, it's never that simple. And wanting to play something that isn't how you want it to be and complaining about it until you force it to be how you want it to be, versus leaving to go play something else that is already how you want it to be - just seems to come across as complete nonsense these days.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I have noticed that there is some tension among the community. People are easier provoked and tend to be more sensitive when it comes to certain topics. I will not use the word toxic in that context.

The upcoming expansion and the many question-marks throughout the entire content make people nervous. There is not much information to work with. Looking at the way the balancing is currently done makes a lot of people actually fear the upcoming patches. Most of us remember how EoD was launched with that massive game-changing patch, that ruined the launchday for many of us. In addition, they do not seem to react to class-feedback anymore and just punch through their patches without looking left or right. We have a groundbreaking change with the rune/relic-situation, where people fear to lose their most favorited abilities. ... 

All these things cause stress on the player base. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with stress. The tension is definitely noticeable.

Edited August 3, 2023 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870
typo

[Duglaive.5236]

In game, I still believe GW2 to have one of the best communities of any MMO I've played.

On the forums, however ... Yeah, not so much. To my thinking, one of the worst forum communities.

[Invecta.5321]

As someone who plays the game on-off for about 10 years now: No, the game isnt more toxic than it used to be. Generally, GW2 is still one of those games with an overall non-toxic community. 

Toxicity is mostly present in

a) high-end min-maxing type of players, since they have certain expectations of players and their performance. However, due to KP-gating you will rarely encounter those unless you are a toxic min-maxer yourself. These are also the same ones crying about balancing non-stop.

b) whiny players who feel offended by the slightest thing (which is much more annoying to me). A few days ago in a fractal run i had a player who left the group because she (im assuming its a she due to his/her account-name) saw that the name of my iboga-pet was "Parge Lenis". She went on a full tantrum explaining why that is childish. I just answered back in neutral (but slightly provocative) statements and she left the group. Its just entertaining to me seeing these type of players being a victim to their own emotions. 

Demographics i guess. You always have to keep in mind that many people who get stuck on mmorpgs are generally not the emotionally-balanced type and use gaming as a form of escapism.

Trust me, its been a long search to actually find players who do min-maxing stuff while also being cool human beings who i would want to hang around with irl. 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Invecta.5321