[mway]

As a lifelong and avid gamer, multiplayer games - in my experience, at least - typically trend toward highly toxic, abusive, sometimes degenerate behavior. Communities in which this does not happen seem to be quite rare (I can't recall one offhand). Trolling is rampant, cheating/exploitation is normal, and elitism is pervasive. It really takes the fun out of games.

These days, I generally avoid games that are multiplayer-only, and for games with multiplayer elements, I try to avoid those and focus on single-player elements instead.

It could be selection bias based on my gaming preferences, of course, but based on feedback I've heard from others who play games that I do not, it seems to be largely the same everywhere multiplayer is involved.

[maltyr]

In my experience, ONE thing will cause a game to trend towards toxicity - higher stakes. The more "important" the win or loss feels to the player, the more toxicity shows up.

It's pretty easy to filter out "toxic" games if you filter out anything which has a ranked mode and is not designed to be played infinitely.

Unfortunately, games in the online era have trended in that direction, because they are the most profitable.

For example, some variables that affect toxicity: - competitiveness, often implemented by sort of ranked system, but also just any sort of head-to-head competition. Tournaments and betting will do this as well. - longer investment (via playtimes, either of a single "run" or in total) - people won't get mad at a 5-10 minute game as much as a 1 hour game. Games as a service like MMOs where people have 1000s of hours of playtime are the extreme end of this. - punishing gameplay, where a mistake can cause you to lose a lot of progress (Hardcore modes where dying means you have to restart your character, for example) - tone (casual vs serious tone, e.g. Fall Guys vs Call of Duty) - More serious generally results in more toxicity.

Adjusting these variables can even turn a single player game into a toxic one (e.g. self-imposed challenges/achievements, Dark Souls, Jump King or Getting Over It).

Similarly, you can lower the stakes so that the gameplay doesn't devolve into toxicity, even with multiplayer (e.g. Animal Crossing)

[3np]

> It could be selection bias based on my gaming preferences

Major factor IME. If you're playing any AAA or one of the top-10-or so FPSes or MOBAs, sure. Hanging out with friends when they're playing online multiplayer less in-fashion older and indie games: Very little of that if any, there.

I'm with you, but to make a (competely arbitrary) parallel: It's possible to love R&B music but still have a miserable time when you go to a concert with The Weeknd because you don't vibe with the crowd and you think the party sucks. That doesn't mean you can't have a good time going out to live shows in general and find parties you enjoy with people you vibe with.

Similarly, I love clubbing but have absolutely 0 interest going to any of the major couple of venues that catch the bigger crowds in town.

Doesn't mean the party scene is dead.

[bikenaga]

From "Uncovering the Viral Nature of Toxicity in Competitive Online Video Games" - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.00978

"Abstract: Toxicity is a widespread phenomenon in competitive online video games. In addition to its direct undesirable effects, there is a concern that toxicity can spread to others, amplifying the harm caused by a single player’s misbehavior. In this study, we estimate whether and to what extent a player’s toxic speech spreads, causing their teammates to behave similarly. To this end, we analyze proprietary data from the free-to-play first- person action game Call of Duty®: Warzone™. We formulate and implement an instrumental variable identification strategy that leverages the network of interactions among players across matches. Our analysis reveals that all else equal, all of a player’s teammates engaging in toxic speech increases their probability of engaging in similar behavior by 26.1 to 30.3 times the average player’s likelihood of engaging in toxic speech. These findings confirm the viral nature of toxicity, especially toxic speech, in competitive online video games."

[Borg3]

You can also add DDoS to the list too. Ive been long DooM player but I stepped back due to above crap and DDoSes on my servers. Now I play mostly offline, ocassioanlly spawning server for friends only.

[MisterKent]

Deep Rock Galactic is supposed to have one of the most wholesome and helpful communities out there.

[Sohcahtoa82]

I wish I enjoyed that game, but it just felt like a grind to me. :-(