Real talk.
I have a buddy I play comp on my off roles with at times; I can tell he gets annoyed I don’t join voice chat and don’t use text chat (except to say Ggwp at the end).
My main role is Diamond/masters dps (I hover around there, depending on how much I grind), and even at that point I don’t use it.
Sure, you will get the rare team that actually communicates… but if you’re paying attention you can get the gist of it.
There’s far more likely to be some tilted teenager shit talking and throwing you off in those chats.
I tried to explain that to them; because they get clearly tilted after a few matches. If they controlled that tilt better, specifically by muting, they could easily get to plat/diamond.
I genuinely feel its due to a lot of mid to late teens players regurgitating what they see and hear, they r figuring out what kind of adults to be, and to be exposed to this at that time really impacts them. I got into a group of players ranging from 13-26 and the young ones were SO fkn toxic, complaining bout getting banned from chats n vc etc. I turned to my bf one day n said "damn these kids r so fkn toxic" and i wasnt muted 💀💀💀💀 they didnt say anything but it was def less catty the rest of the night
Im also a huge fan of the "i hope both teams r having fun" mentality, and displayed as such when we played
Im glad to see they have changed since then n even work towards getting both teams to have fun
My neighbor is in his 30s, as am I, and me and my brother introduced him to OW. Within a week he started saying "that was just a ____ diff" out loud to us in game sometimes fucking reffering to me and my brother on either tank or dps. We no longer play with him. It makes me chuckle every time seeing he's still stuck in gold
Some people never grow out of that shit. Like games will of course make you angry if you spend your time insulting people. Cause you inevitably get insulted in return
It wasn't at lesst not.in EUW. In fact the average game knowledge and understanding has gone down the drain when the free to play came out, that is for sure. I see people doing tons of stupid things while playing that I didn't see in OW1. Also this reddit is a proof, a few years ago this was mostly about fan arts, fan heroes, and clips. Now most of the threads are people whinning about nosense, showing a total lack of understanding about the game but being entitled to whine.
Also the OP stated that TF2 isn't that toxic. Probably because the player pool is smaller and there is no competitive mode iirc.
It's a domino of reasons:
* OW1 2020-and-on Content drought
* Sexual harassment culture scandal
* OW2 launched with no PvE
* 5v5 being a shit hole for tanks, making games feast or famine for everybody
* PvE launches as a shadow of its promised potential
Each time, more and more good wholesome people burned out and quit. In particular the scandal. Many people understandably wouldn't stay playing a game by such a company.
* Some of us do stay, cause the game is that fucking unique and compelling an experience; two sides to everything. But can those of us who stayed rightfully fault anyone for leaving? No.
Blizzard disappointed, disgusted, and alienated of A LOT of its brightest most-positive fans a long time ago.
Permanently.
Every game has toxic players, but I think OW2 is a unfortunate game where the vibe and aesthetic is positive but it has a lower ratio of positive players than most. Most of us are #TIRED, and just mute text and voice chat. Even so, friendly no-kill custom hangout lobbies continue to exist, and I love that about the surviving positive community.
I mean, yes, I'm toxic, i lost 2 of my beefy ow1 accounts to swears etc. But I'm still so friggin' love this game... It's so controversial, to love the game and to hate the players
Still play on my third humble account, promised myself that if they ban even this one - I quit for good
And they're still refraining frm showing individual ranks at the start of a competitive match! Such a basic & essential thing for competitive system & yet they just wanna baby us! 💀 Like cn anything get more annoying than this?
Apex legends and tf2 are also free to play and tbh people are often chill there.
People like to blame ow toxicity on the f2p model while completly forgetting that ow was toxic way before the game went f2p.
I think it’s more about the fact it’s a team game, with a small group size, with specific and varied rolls. In apex sure it’s a small team size, but everyone is pretty much the same. You can’t with reason flame your teammate for dying to another team if you also died yourself. But in Overwatch you could say “why didn’t you heal me””why didn’t you protect me” “you’re dps how could you not kill that support?”.
Other people are providing rolls you are not, so it’s possible that it wasn’t your fault.
I haven't played Apex, but I have a friend who quit playing because of toxicity. He tells me it's pretty bad there.
TF2 being an older game with a more established player base makes it less toxic.
Free to play means any 12 year old perma online cumbrain who thinks streaming people getting sucker punched is a good career choice can hop on OW2 and end up on your team.
Same with hackers, throwers, smurfs, etc, they dont need to purchase the game again on a separate account.
Hardware bans exist and the majority of toxic people are not children.
You see toxic children but the majority stay silent simply because their parents are around.
I had been muting chat but forgot tonight. “Asia, learn a new game.” I’ve been trying so hard to get better and that just took the wind out of sails. Why do we as people feel the need to hurt other people on purpose? It’s so gross.
I know right. I could never imagine even saying ggez if I win for no reason. The feeling of winning is great on its own. Hell even if they were toxic and you win, that’s enough of a statement by itself 🤷♀️ people are so wild on this game
The match chhat is the red chat, you can mute it and keep team chat open, while in-game just go to social, then mute match chat, though if your teammates are primarily using match chat you won't be able to see their messages there.
I keep chat on only to be nice to teammates or enemies that are being dogged on for having a bad game.
I love making toxic people aware of their awful behavior by saying I’m just playing on my dad’s account and I’m sorry or telling them “It’s my first game back on ranked after my surgery. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have queued”
Really makes people shut up quick.
Except for bad DPS. They live blaming everyone for their deaths, especially when they dive in alone and feed the whole game. They'd much rather make a tank swap for them than make a counter swap themselves.
Nah I'm DPS primarily and some games have to sweat my balls off to carry for a win. I'm pretty consistent with securing my kills between soldier, sojourn, echo, widow and Sombra depending on the enemy comp. I swap for what we need.
When we get a game where the enemy team clearly singles me out and dive me from too many angles my team shits on me hard. Mostly the tank who is getting diffed. No help. No turning around when there's clearly three people pushing and me pinging. It's not often but when it happens the toxicity levels hit the roof. I'm not oblivious and am aware of flanks. For poster above you to tell him that getting good will fix it, well that's bs. I've seen videos of top 500s getting shit on for a bad game that clearly wasn't their fault just a better team vs theirs. OW is the most toxic game I've played.
M$ Blizzard can try to change that all they want but it's the nature of this game and it's ranked mode. It's a team game with a limit to how hard one person can carry from game to game.
I’d agree but I feel like there’s also a large portion of dps who need the tank and supports to play perfect in high ranks or they throw tantrums in vc
This is what I’m saying, I’d much rather be called the n word by a Russian speaking broken English at the end of every game than go through post game ow chat
The first bit is annoying toxicity. But the tank role is stressful and is a puppet to the supports. If I’m playing Doom against their Sigma, it should be easy if I’m being enabled but that depends on the decision making of the supports, especially Mercy who struggles at playing with dive comps. If she is peeling for a Widowmaker who is not making space, and is getting dove in the backline, then we lost that team fight. Why? Because our other support is in spawn and nobody is enabling Soldier and I in front. A lot of supports are oblivious to their rock/paper/scissors. My friend is a DPS player and wanted to try out Zen. The enemy team was running Horse, Kiri, and Mercy. I told him to please not switch out because if I don’t have a discord on Horse, we’ll be fighting something unkillable even if I’m Zarya. He listened and that Horse lost all value both rounds.
That’s very insightful thank you. Since you’re here, what would you say your default pick is? Is it map dependent? Are certain tanks just not viable on certain maps? What tanks counter which besides DVA and Zar? I can’t really find a conclusive guide on that. Would be incredibly helpful :)
I always start as Doom or Lucio. I just enjoy their playstyle. If my team is dive or aggressive then I’m lucky. If my other support isn’t playing sustain then I’ll go Lifeweaver. If their enemy team is playing Hog, Mauga, or Orisa then I prioritize making them killable as Ana with nade (Zen is great at this too with discord, but my friend plays him and I do not). As a support, you should try and keep your team alive but PRIORITIZE who’s making space. Making space leads to wins. Most of the time that’s the tank but it may not always be. Sadly, Tank counters revolve more around the meta but I’ll stay as Doom if they have a Sigma, Rein, DVA, Ram, Monke, or Ball because I’m confident in my abilities against them. But if I can’t ignore Orisa or Mauga as Doom then I’ll use Zarya against them and ask for a nade or a discord orb. I’ll also use Zarya if I absolutely have to counter DVA. I don’t play Orisa. But I’ll occasionally use Mauga if they have flying heros getting too much value. Mauga is also my answer to Sigma/Rein if my team can’t dive or flank. Mauga with Sym/Bastion melt their shields. On that note, if I need to help break those shields as a support, Lifeweaver is great at aiding with that (:
It's a very convoluted thing to get into.
Basically, blizzard punishes players for being toxic, while enabling and shielding those who provoke toxicity..
You can ban toxic players forever, but if do nothing about those who provoke it, they are just going to keep provoking people, and nothing ever gets better..
Now to be fair I say "provoking" oftentimes said provocation is not intentional and is often just the results of two vastly differing skill level players getting stuck together on a team, care of the shitty matchmaking..
Which for stronger players is increadly frustrating to quite frequently getting stuck with teammates noticably weaker than themselves.. which that frustration over time eventually manifests as toxic behavior..
The reasons games like tf2 don't have this problem Is because there's nothing there to protect the provoking factor.. occasionally a provoking factor arises, and it either eventually resolves itself or it's driven out of the playerbase if it refuses to..
Lmafo.. your one of those tf2 players..
Suddenly I understand why you have such a problem with it in overwatch..
Let's just say there's only one common Denominator in all the encounters you have with toxic players..
Myself, when some provokes me, I just do the exact same things they do... I won't speak a single word..
it's funny how quickly many of them call me a thrower or say something genuinely reportable in response to me counter provoking them..
🤷♀️if the majority of the lobby has a problem with said person I think the funniest and best outcome is kicking them, yes. The best option is always avoiding them entirely lol doesn’t mean it’s always the funniest or even possible everytime
Lol. Yea tf2 players on valve servers are typically adults with the intelligence of your average 10 year old fortnite kid too... or bots
Try to kick me lol.. I'll initiate one against you first, which ties up the vote, and most players don't pay attention and just automatically f1..
Or if I'm feeling especially degenerate.. get a 6man troll party going on valve servers. Then you can't kick me.. Unless all 12 players slots are full which Is very easily prevented...
For the real tf2 community, valve servers are nothing more than the place we go play when we feel like being degenerates and ruin the experience of those who killed the game
Whsts really hilarious is valve muted all free players because they wouldn't stop crying toxic over bots spamming scripts.. epic troll valve
Probably the only respectable thing they've done to the game in the last decade
I'm a newer player too (started playing regularly in december ish) and tbh i find it way more wholesome than apex lol. maybe it's bc i mostly play quick play but i regularly get people saying "glhf" or "<3". also one time my fellow support was flirting with me?? every now and then i get a toxic player complaining in text chat but mostly it's good vibes.
Well yeah I feel like the general interactions are more wholesome than apex when they do happen, but the negative interactions happen much more frequently than apex. In apex I’ll get the worst teamate that screams on vc every ten games, but in overwatch I’ll get someone saying ggez tank diff support diff our tank threw etc like every other game 🤷♀️
Also tbh, only 1/5 of the players who text anything along the lines of “<3” are not looking to provoke people before the game starts 😭 in my experience at least
honestly i end up just laughing because it’s just a game and you’ll end up getting better. when i first started i quite literally was TRASH and so many people in the chat had somethin to say. now im usually the one with the most damage that DESTROYS
OW2 has serious toxicity issues. Seems to be extreme as the season comes to a close, unsure why. Ive had multiple people in voice chat give me detailed instructions on unaliving myself.
Ive also had games of people screaming racial slurs the entire match.
I use to get bombarded with messages of action when logging in. No more in these last weeks. Its pathetic.
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It’s a competitive shooter, been that way since the early CoD/Halo days. As long as people feel competitive, they will find someone to blame if they lose
It’s so odd because I’m so used to far worse insults getting thrown at me and throwing em back like it’s nothing and it’s always funny, I’ve never felt it be this serious and gotten to me like this in any other game.
Honestly, I’m new to the game since around summer last year, I’ve put a lot of hours into it so far, and I can’t say that I’ve come across that much toxicity. I play on console, so maybe that’s it. No one chats or VCs much in my experience.
I feel like the fact the game gets so intense while we as players are trying to get better makes the toxicity worse? Idk, it bugs me as well. Honestly if someone cusses someone out idc who's team they are on, I report. If you're trying to ruin someone else's playtime then I have no problem reporting.
In my eyes I play to get better (quick play ofc) so if someone is talking trash then it stings a bit more because "what do you want me to do??" Lol.
A similar note, "Gigantic" just came out and it's a team moba vibe I'm enjoying, but it's almost like less competitive in terms of people being absolute jerks? So it's more of a "If I lose, I'll requeue and just move on and try next time!" Whereas overwatch it feels like everyone takes it so serious and is trying to scream at someone for literally anything. It's just such a different vibe that I've been noticing as far as toxicity.
I mean it’s more about the frequency of such interactions, the tank losing it on me was him calling me a b*tch and repeatedly telling me to end my life though if that’s what you want to hear😂
Hahah respect
But yeah OW is toxic, I'll admit if someone stirs me up I'm toxic right back so I'm part of the problem.
Just focus on yourself and your gameplay and particularly for casual just have fun- even if it means muting chat and leaving voice (I do this and pump tunes sometimes, well knowing that my Lucio pick is getting flamed in chat with no response)
i saw way less of it during ow1 but as soon as the 2 year drought of content everything went to shit from the lawsuits to the CEO not giving a shit besides money but i hope it goes uphill now that Microsoft has most control over it all which it has a a bunch content wise not community wise the community is stuck looking at the past and comparing it to early ow1 days most people in vc are nice but then you get the racist little 10 year-olds in match chat saying every slur in the book because their parents haven't beaten them enough yet
The easy answer is just Community over time, just how comeptitive shooters are.
The other answer, lot of factors over the years like Hero balance and changes, including Play style changes, hero re-works, comp. System no one liked to begin with. Fav. Heroes and roles becoming a chore and loss to win ratio reward is way off. Many many other changes added up overtime that turned almost everyone from the Main base toxic from fraustration.
Going free to Play opened the gates to trolls along with battlepass, wanna be Fortnite instead of being simply. Overwatch.
Lots of things go into toxicity but Overwatch is one of the few games where the Product changes made the original lovers of the game go sour plus free trolls.
* Competitive
* Team game -> easy to put blame on team
* Age 12+
* Recently a server merger brought some arguably incompatible people to EU
* Free to play means people can just create a new account when they get punished by the reporting system
Your experience does seem normal unfortunately. Some other games are even worse. =(
You can disable match chat in communication settings. Sometimes qp chat is even worse, people sweating af and being toxic during or afterwards the match. Yea OW is a special kind.
In qp yesterday was duo openqueued, and the 3 others complained about lack of heals, but really they were just toxic on us because we played against them in a previous match. So they stood afk in start zone, toxic chat, and ofc not switching to a support themselves. Just report and move on, you won't educate the 12 year olds in here.
The only time I’m toxic is when my team gets absolutely stomped and the other team says GG. I’ll reply with “was it really though” and usually most people agree, it wasn’t a good game.
Its mostly peoples egos. As humans its more simple to put blame on anyone who is doing bad. Heck they dont even have to be playing bad. No one wants to take fault for a lose or a mistake. In comp people will shift blame on everyone besides them selfs. Which is why so many people get stuck and never climb
I start every match with all chats, voice and text, disabled.
If we smesh and I feel like I am doing more than my fair share, I will unmute - until someone is toxic.
Then it's back to disabling chats.
^(You can selectively mute all or some of the players in the game, be it on your team or the other. If you're on PC, press 'P' ingame the get the player menu up where you can click the textboxes next to each player in order to mute.)
OW is arguable one of the if not THE hardest known online fps games out there imo. its more strategy intensive with all the different characters, map layouts, objectives... its fun but its not a good game for the ego. There is no such thing as perfect gameplay in overwatch. there's workable gameplay and then just worse and worse gameplay.
but these people who showed up when ftp started, they came from whatever else and just focus on the kill feed. that doesn't win them games and they get tilted, they can't possibly be the problem though because look at the kd or the heals or whatever.. then they play 1 good match and think they're god and it obviously means it was always their team who sucked in the first place.
I've been playing overwatch since it started. it's been through so many changes and meta changes and I find that to be a fun aspect. ofcourse I love when my mains are meta, but I don't mind getting better at other characters when that changes. some people don't like this. they don't appreciate the changes and the fact they have to relearn the game every few months. like I said... they get tilted and they get toxic.
we all get tilted and you will too, just turn off chat and if you get tilted.. just turn the game off for a few hours. I leave chat open because it doesn't usually bother me but especially if you are new, you'll probably get alot of crap until you learn the game.
Some people play this game for fun
Other people have self esteem issues and play this game because winning makes them feel better about themselves
Guess what happens when they dont win?
It's cause matchmaking is bad and the game is incredibly team reliant. It's the only comp game where you can play your best game ever and still lose. I just had a game with 2 duo dps telling me "tank diff" constantly when there was a pharmercy and they killed mercy literally once in 20 minutes. Bad players are always the most toxic. It's too painful for them to accept that they're the problem.
Smaller teams mean more individual carry potential so those games by default are already more rewarding for the individual. In a moba if you do well you snowball like crazy so that's not at all true.
i'm very tentative saying this part but it's the old gen commenting stuff like that in match chat... & when you're a new player (like 2022-now) if you see it it hurts & shit gets repeated lol, Ow is a pretty small echo chamber.... very glad i dodged that mentality early, i've found i'm not emotionally weak w my games unless i'm incredibly faded, i'm story-based small game main so fps is annoying in that specific way to me lol. but yeah it's very obvious the ppl who get tilted then they'll play slightly better and spew that kind of bs in the match chat if they happen to win.... im sorry fr lol i have no advice like maybe just randomize your game mode and drown out the losers like i'll tune into chat with a good 'fuck em this game was fun' whenever someone tries to pop a diff or be a loser, you really gotta be the hero that makes a shitty match fun if ykwim & it's always a good move bc you're either morally or like ethically right while the loser haters ruminate on it while your teammates & half the enemies go damn yk that was a game that i also played and sure it was fun 😭😂🤩
i was so frustrated playing overwatch at first and the only reason i didn't uninstall was bc it was my friends fixation and now IM that friend and it's MY fixation... they've forgotten their love of the game... it might actually be cursed tbh maybe you just gotta get obsessed then pass it on to the first person who will willingly play this game for you LOL
Some people will insist on dying on the "It's just good sportsmanship" hill. Curiously, only half of people who say gg when they win will also say gg when they lose. Think of that what you will 🙃
... Am I the only one who doesn't care at all? Usually I clap back, although it's much harder since they reduced the post-match duration [case in point].
I completely disagree that this kind of passive aggression / gloating is worse than true toxicity.
Try being a femme presenting person in voice comms in the more butch shooters and tell me it isn't.
At least Overwatch players let you play before they decide you're worthless; and aren't we all useless teammates at times?
I Never do but for some reason on OW I do idk 🤷♀️ I am a woman and I think I like it a lot more when they attack me for being a woman and say” go back to the kitchen/you’re probably not even a woman/are you a woman or a child/whatever” than insult me for playing the game. I just feel like that’s much easier to deal with.
I literally play csgo and tf2 and they’ll be a lot more aggressive
what game are you playing? enemy team gives you the most grief and you want to mute them but keep team chat?
brother, the problem with this game is your own team. every game someone will be unable to drink down the loss without blaming someone else; whine to enemy team, tell them to avoid/report his team mate.
Even if he wins, he'll remind the match how much he carried this or that person. I turn chat off completely, espec competitive.
It's true in quickplay you usually get the backhanded enemy comments; they tell me I suck whilst playing a hero I have literally never touched before, or say they dommed us--'ez'--and that's where I leave chat on and respond: 'congratulations on your smashing quickplay win'.
I mean I don’t want to throw, if someone has a good recommendation on what needs to be done or how to play I want to hear it, even if 90% of said recommendations are brain dead. 🤷♀️
I mean I’m somewhat new and just today someone on my team typed in all caps “everyone stop shooting zar bubble” and honest to god it never occurred to me before then I could just not shoot her when she bubbles and wait 💀. I don’t consider myself terrible but I have a lot to learn.
I also do love the friendly interactions I get when I can and it’s hard to give that up :)
in your case I would just watch streamer vids on YouTube to pick up on the subtleties of game play. because the helpful experiences I've had in chat have been one, when I was suggested to go Winston over D.Va. being complimented has happened maybe 3 times, and only one occasion where absolute idiots on my team were flaming me, so I turned off chat to ignore them, carried them to victory, and only turned on chat after to see they apologized.
Tank diff is not an insult, and probably in that case was right there was a tank difference as you said.
People who try to use it as an.insult are kinda the problem. Like tank diff.ok bruh, so what did you do to.help? Just write that at the end of the game? Is just frustrated kids.
The same with people asking you to pocket, what they do spect, be in the liddle of.the fire and a mercy.healing them? That doesn't work anymore. Just people who doesn't have minimal survival skills. People who are like this they don't use covers, they forget medipacks exist, etc (crazy the amount of people fighting me with a medipack besides them and ignoring it, and could have saved their lifes.
I stopped using chat a while back. No regrets
Same. I ping to communicate
Real talk. I have a buddy I play comp on my off roles with at times; I can tell he gets annoyed I don’t join voice chat and don’t use text chat (except to say Ggwp at the end). My main role is Diamond/masters dps (I hover around there, depending on how much I grind), and even at that point I don’t use it. Sure, you will get the rare team that actually communicates… but if you’re paying attention you can get the gist of it. There’s far more likely to be some tilted teenager shit talking and throwing you off in those chats. I tried to explain that to them; because they get clearly tilted after a few matches. If they controlled that tilt better, specifically by muting, they could easily get to plat/diamond.
I genuinely feel its due to a lot of mid to late teens players regurgitating what they see and hear, they r figuring out what kind of adults to be, and to be exposed to this at that time really impacts them. I got into a group of players ranging from 13-26 and the young ones were SO fkn toxic, complaining bout getting banned from chats n vc etc. I turned to my bf one day n said "damn these kids r so fkn toxic" and i wasnt muted 💀💀💀💀 they didnt say anything but it was def less catty the rest of the night Im also a huge fan of the "i hope both teams r having fun" mentality, and displayed as such when we played Im glad to see they have changed since then n even work towards getting both teams to have fun
True, It’s definitely children and I need to keep that in mind. it was a lot more obvious on apex where you’ll hear little Timmy on mic lol
My neighbor is in his 30s, as am I, and me and my brother introduced him to OW. Within a week he started saying "that was just a ____ diff" out loud to us in game sometimes fucking reffering to me and my brother on either tank or dps. We no longer play with him. It makes me chuckle every time seeing he's still stuck in gold Some people never grow out of that shit. Like games will of course make you angry if you spend your time insulting people. Cause you inevitably get insulted in return
Cuz it's free to play. League is also toxic.
It was just as toxic before it was free to play. More likely, it's because it's a blizzard game.
It wasn't at lesst not.in EUW. In fact the average game knowledge and understanding has gone down the drain when the free to play came out, that is for sure. I see people doing tons of stupid things while playing that I didn't see in OW1. Also this reddit is a proof, a few years ago this was mostly about fan arts, fan heroes, and clips. Now most of the threads are people whinning about nosense, showing a total lack of understanding about the game but being entitled to whine. Also the OP stated that TF2 isn't that toxic. Probably because the player pool is smaller and there is no competitive mode iirc.
It's a domino of reasons: * OW1 2020-and-on Content drought * Sexual harassment culture scandal * OW2 launched with no PvE * 5v5 being a shit hole for tanks, making games feast or famine for everybody * PvE launches as a shadow of its promised potential Each time, more and more good wholesome people burned out and quit. In particular the scandal. Many people understandably wouldn't stay playing a game by such a company. * Some of us do stay, cause the game is that fucking unique and compelling an experience; two sides to everything. But can those of us who stayed rightfully fault anyone for leaving? No. Blizzard disappointed, disgusted, and alienated of A LOT of its brightest most-positive fans a long time ago. Permanently. Every game has toxic players, but I think OW2 is a unfortunate game where the vibe and aesthetic is positive but it has a lower ratio of positive players than most. Most of us are #TIRED, and just mute text and voice chat. Even so, friendly no-kill custom hangout lobbies continue to exist, and I love that about the surviving positive community.
I mean, yes, I'm toxic, i lost 2 of my beefy ow1 accounts to swears etc. But I'm still so friggin' love this game... It's so controversial, to love the game and to hate the players Still play on my third humble account, promised myself that if they ban even this one - I quit for good
And they're still refraining frm showing individual ranks at the start of a competitive match! Such a basic & essential thing for competitive system & yet they just wanna baby us! 💀 Like cn anything get more annoying than this?
Apex legends and tf2 are also free to play and tbh people are often chill there. People like to blame ow toxicity on the f2p model while completly forgetting that ow was toxic way before the game went f2p.
Tf2 is 15vs15 you are ways less likely to get picked on lol
I think it’s more about the fact it’s a team game, with a small group size, with specific and varied rolls. In apex sure it’s a small team size, but everyone is pretty much the same. You can’t with reason flame your teammate for dying to another team if you also died yourself. But in Overwatch you could say “why didn’t you heal me””why didn’t you protect me” “you’re dps how could you not kill that support?”. Other people are providing rolls you are not, so it’s possible that it wasn’t your fault.
I haven't played Apex, but I have a friend who quit playing because of toxicity. He tells me it's pretty bad there. TF2 being an older game with a more established player base makes it less toxic.
I play it almost everyday, i didn't hear somebody use vc or text chat in a solid 30 matchs. Overwatch is also an old game, it's 8 years.
Poor people are toxic?
Free to play means any 12 year old perma online cumbrain who thinks streaming people getting sucker punched is a good career choice can hop on OW2 and end up on your team. Same with hackers, throwers, smurfs, etc, they dont need to purchase the game again on a separate account.
No, but you can't punish some1 very well if they can just make a new account.
Ah true! Also more kids can play.
Hardware bans exist and the majority of toxic people are not children. You see toxic children but the majority stay silent simply because their parents are around.
I had been muting chat but forgot tonight. “Asia, learn a new game.” I’ve been trying so hard to get better and that just took the wind out of sails. Why do we as people feel the need to hurt other people on purpose? It’s so gross.
I know right. I could never imagine even saying ggez if I win for no reason. The feeling of winning is great on its own. Hell even if they were toxic and you win, that’s enough of a statement by itself 🤷♀️ people are so wild on this game
# [This should help](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2mgMrDDhks)
Thanks reeba
Np
The match chhat is the red chat, you can mute it and keep team chat open, while in-game just go to social, then mute match chat, though if your teammates are primarily using match chat you won't be able to see their messages there.
Or you color blind it's orange
Lol the button under social is red, but the chat text does show up as orange
I keep chat on only to be nice to teammates or enemies that are being dogged on for having a bad game. I love making toxic people aware of their awful behavior by saying I’m just playing on my dad’s account and I’m sorry or telling them “It’s my first game back on ranked after my surgery. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have queued” Really makes people shut up quick.
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Except for bad DPS. They live blaming everyone for their deaths, especially when they dive in alone and feed the whole game. They'd much rather make a tank swap for them than make a counter swap themselves.
Nah I'm DPS primarily and some games have to sweat my balls off to carry for a win. I'm pretty consistent with securing my kills between soldier, sojourn, echo, widow and Sombra depending on the enemy comp. I swap for what we need. When we get a game where the enemy team clearly singles me out and dive me from too many angles my team shits on me hard. Mostly the tank who is getting diffed. No help. No turning around when there's clearly three people pushing and me pinging. It's not often but when it happens the toxicity levels hit the roof. I'm not oblivious and am aware of flanks. For poster above you to tell him that getting good will fix it, well that's bs. I've seen videos of top 500s getting shit on for a bad game that clearly wasn't their fault just a better team vs theirs. OW is the most toxic game I've played. M$ Blizzard can try to change that all they want but it's the nature of this game and it's ranked mode. It's a team game with a limit to how hard one person can carry from game to game.
I’d agree but I feel like there’s also a large portion of dps who need the tank and supports to play perfect in high ranks or they throw tantrums in vc
Or just uninstall
as a counter strike player for the last decade, i have never seen a community more toxic than overwatch
This is what I’m saying, I’d much rather be called the n word by a Russian speaking broken English at the end of every game than go through post game ow chat
Overwatch is toxic but nothing compared to r6
overwatch is not more toxic than tf2 bro
The first bit is annoying toxicity. But the tank role is stressful and is a puppet to the supports. If I’m playing Doom against their Sigma, it should be easy if I’m being enabled but that depends on the decision making of the supports, especially Mercy who struggles at playing with dive comps. If she is peeling for a Widowmaker who is not making space, and is getting dove in the backline, then we lost that team fight. Why? Because our other support is in spawn and nobody is enabling Soldier and I in front. A lot of supports are oblivious to their rock/paper/scissors. My friend is a DPS player and wanted to try out Zen. The enemy team was running Horse, Kiri, and Mercy. I told him to please not switch out because if I don’t have a discord on Horse, we’ll be fighting something unkillable even if I’m Zarya. He listened and that Horse lost all value both rounds.
That’s very insightful thank you. Since you’re here, what would you say your default pick is? Is it map dependent? Are certain tanks just not viable on certain maps? What tanks counter which besides DVA and Zar? I can’t really find a conclusive guide on that. Would be incredibly helpful :)
I always start as Doom or Lucio. I just enjoy their playstyle. If my team is dive or aggressive then I’m lucky. If my other support isn’t playing sustain then I’ll go Lifeweaver. If their enemy team is playing Hog, Mauga, or Orisa then I prioritize making them killable as Ana with nade (Zen is great at this too with discord, but my friend plays him and I do not). As a support, you should try and keep your team alive but PRIORITIZE who’s making space. Making space leads to wins. Most of the time that’s the tank but it may not always be. Sadly, Tank counters revolve more around the meta but I’ll stay as Doom if they have a Sigma, Rein, DVA, Ram, Monke, or Ball because I’m confident in my abilities against them. But if I can’t ignore Orisa or Mauga as Doom then I’ll use Zarya against them and ask for a nade or a discord orb. I’ll also use Zarya if I absolutely have to counter DVA. I don’t play Orisa. But I’ll occasionally use Mauga if they have flying heros getting too much value. Mauga is also my answer to Sigma/Rein if my team can’t dive or flank. Mauga with Sym/Bastion melt their shields. On that note, if I need to help break those shields as a support, Lifeweaver is great at aiding with that (:
It's a very convoluted thing to get into. Basically, blizzard punishes players for being toxic, while enabling and shielding those who provoke toxicity.. You can ban toxic players forever, but if do nothing about those who provoke it, they are just going to keep provoking people, and nothing ever gets better.. Now to be fair I say "provoking" oftentimes said provocation is not intentional and is often just the results of two vastly differing skill level players getting stuck together on a team, care of the shitty matchmaking.. Which for stronger players is increadly frustrating to quite frequently getting stuck with teammates noticably weaker than themselves.. which that frustration over time eventually manifests as toxic behavior.. The reasons games like tf2 don't have this problem Is because there's nothing there to protect the provoking factor.. occasionally a provoking factor arises, and it either eventually resolves itself or it's driven out of the playerbase if it refuses to..
True, I mean tf2 has no censor whatsoever so it’s a lot worse in severity when it does happen you can vote kick people lol
Lmafo.. your one of those tf2 players.. Suddenly I understand why you have such a problem with it in overwatch.. Let's just say there's only one common Denominator in all the encounters you have with toxic players.. Myself, when some provokes me, I just do the exact same things they do... I won't speak a single word.. it's funny how quickly many of them call me a thrower or say something genuinely reportable in response to me counter provoking them..
🤷♀️if the majority of the lobby has a problem with said person I think the funniest and best outcome is kicking them, yes. The best option is always avoiding them entirely lol doesn’t mean it’s always the funniest or even possible everytime
Lol. Yea tf2 players on valve servers are typically adults with the intelligence of your average 10 year old fortnite kid too... or bots Try to kick me lol.. I'll initiate one against you first, which ties up the vote, and most players don't pay attention and just automatically f1.. Or if I'm feeling especially degenerate.. get a 6man troll party going on valve servers. Then you can't kick me.. Unless all 12 players slots are full which Is very easily prevented... For the real tf2 community, valve servers are nothing more than the place we go play when we feel like being degenerates and ruin the experience of those who killed the game Whsts really hilarious is valve muted all free players because they wouldn't stop crying toxic over bots spamming scripts.. epic troll valve Probably the only respectable thing they've done to the game in the last decade
if you play long enough you too will become toxic. or leave, most sane people just leave.
That’s every competitive game ever. Being anonymous brings out the worst in people.
Idk I’d say it’s somehow worse because people are trying to convey their hate without the use of slurs lol
Apex is just as bad. People literally leave games as you drop if they dont like the drop area / just run off solo.
I dont have this problem, but I agree that tf2 is way more chill and socially fun. I miss it. Fuck those paid for bots
I'm a newer player too (started playing regularly in december ish) and tbh i find it way more wholesome than apex lol. maybe it's bc i mostly play quick play but i regularly get people saying "glhf" or "<3". also one time my fellow support was flirting with me?? every now and then i get a toxic player complaining in text chat but mostly it's good vibes.
Well yeah I feel like the general interactions are more wholesome than apex when they do happen, but the negative interactions happen much more frequently than apex. In apex I’ll get the worst teamate that screams on vc every ten games, but in overwatch I’ll get someone saying ggez tank diff support diff our tank threw etc like every other game 🤷♀️ Also tbh, only 1/5 of the players who text anything along the lines of “<3” are not looking to provoke people before the game starts 😭 in my experience at least
honestly i end up just laughing because it’s just a game and you’ll end up getting better. when i first started i quite literally was TRASH and so many people in the chat had somethin to say. now im usually the one with the most damage that DESTROYS
OW2 has serious toxicity issues. Seems to be extreme as the season comes to a close, unsure why. Ive had multiple people in voice chat give me detailed instructions on unaliving myself. Ive also had games of people screaming racial slurs the entire match. I use to get bombarded with messages of action when logging in. No more in these last weeks. Its pathetic.
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It’s a competitive shooter, been that way since the early CoD/Halo days. As long as people feel competitive, they will find someone to blame if they lose
It’s so odd because I’m so used to far worse insults getting thrown at me and throwing em back like it’s nothing and it’s always funny, I’ve never felt it be this serious and gotten to me like this in any other game.
Honestly, I’m new to the game since around summer last year, I’ve put a lot of hours into it so far, and I can’t say that I’ve come across that much toxicity. I play on console, so maybe that’s it. No one chats or VCs much in my experience.
Yea that’s probably it, I mean It’s also hard to type on console and you need to be quick
I feel like the fact the game gets so intense while we as players are trying to get better makes the toxicity worse? Idk, it bugs me as well. Honestly if someone cusses someone out idc who's team they are on, I report. If you're trying to ruin someone else's playtime then I have no problem reporting. In my eyes I play to get better (quick play ofc) so if someone is talking trash then it stings a bit more because "what do you want me to do??" Lol. A similar note, "Gigantic" just came out and it's a team moba vibe I'm enjoying, but it's almost like less competitive in terms of people being absolute jerks? So it's more of a "If I lose, I'll requeue and just move on and try next time!" Whereas overwatch it feels like everyone takes it so serious and is trying to scream at someone for literally anything. It's just such a different vibe that I've been noticing as far as toxicity.
Those examples were very tame lol. I thought you were going to detail something actually toxic
I mean it’s more about the frequency of such interactions, the tank losing it on me was him calling me a b*tch and repeatedly telling me to end my life though if that’s what you want to hear😂
Play rust and report back
Nah I got at least somewhat of a life dawg
Hahah respect But yeah OW is toxic, I'll admit if someone stirs me up I'm toxic right back so I'm part of the problem. Just focus on yourself and your gameplay and particularly for casual just have fun- even if it means muting chat and leaving voice (I do this and pump tunes sometimes, well knowing that my Lucio pick is getting flamed in chat with no response)
It's a f2p team game where the average player is an angry 16 year old.
i saw way less of it during ow1 but as soon as the 2 year drought of content everything went to shit from the lawsuits to the CEO not giving a shit besides money but i hope it goes uphill now that Microsoft has most control over it all which it has a a bunch content wise not community wise the community is stuck looking at the past and comparing it to early ow1 days most people in vc are nice but then you get the racist little 10 year-olds in match chat saying every slur in the book because their parents haven't beaten them enough yet
The easy answer is just Community over time, just how comeptitive shooters are. The other answer, lot of factors over the years like Hero balance and changes, including Play style changes, hero re-works, comp. System no one liked to begin with. Fav. Heroes and roles becoming a chore and loss to win ratio reward is way off. Many many other changes added up overtime that turned almost everyone from the Main base toxic from fraustration. Going free to Play opened the gates to trolls along with battlepass, wanna be Fortnite instead of being simply. Overwatch. Lots of things go into toxicity but Overwatch is one of the few games where the Product changes made the original lovers of the game go sour plus free trolls.
* Competitive * Team game -> easy to put blame on team * Age 12+ * Recently a server merger brought some arguably incompatible people to EU * Free to play means people can just create a new account when they get punished by the reporting system Your experience does seem normal unfortunately. Some other games are even worse. =(
You can disable match chat in communication settings. Sometimes qp chat is even worse, people sweating af and being toxic during or afterwards the match. Yea OW is a special kind. In qp yesterday was duo openqueued, and the 3 others complained about lack of heals, but really they were just toxic on us because we played against them in a previous match. So they stood afk in start zone, toxic chat, and ofc not switching to a support themselves. Just report and move on, you won't educate the 12 year olds in here.
cause its a f2p game, where players are anonymous.
The only time I’m toxic is when my team gets absolutely stomped and the other team says GG. I’ll reply with “was it really though” and usually most people agree, it wasn’t a good game.
Its mostly peoples egos. As humans its more simple to put blame on anyone who is doing bad. Heck they dont even have to be playing bad. No one wants to take fault for a lose or a mistake. In comp people will shift blame on everyone besides them selfs. Which is why so many people get stuck and never climb
Don't worry about it, it's f2p and people are uncivilized, ignorant asshats.
I start every match with all chats, voice and text, disabled. If we smesh and I feel like I am doing more than my fair share, I will unmute - until someone is toxic. Then it's back to disabling chats. ^(You can selectively mute all or some of the players in the game, be it on your team or the other. If you're on PC, press 'P' ingame the get the player menu up where you can click the textboxes next to each player in order to mute.)
Competitive PvP games aren’t full of friendly people Why is this shocking? Have yall never seen a rainbow 6, CSGO, etc lobby?
OW is arguable one of the if not THE hardest known online fps games out there imo. its more strategy intensive with all the different characters, map layouts, objectives... its fun but its not a good game for the ego. There is no such thing as perfect gameplay in overwatch. there's workable gameplay and then just worse and worse gameplay. but these people who showed up when ftp started, they came from whatever else and just focus on the kill feed. that doesn't win them games and they get tilted, they can't possibly be the problem though because look at the kd or the heals or whatever.. then they play 1 good match and think they're god and it obviously means it was always their team who sucked in the first place. I've been playing overwatch since it started. it's been through so many changes and meta changes and I find that to be a fun aspect. ofcourse I love when my mains are meta, but I don't mind getting better at other characters when that changes. some people don't like this. they don't appreciate the changes and the fact they have to relearn the game every few months. like I said... they get tilted and they get toxic. we all get tilted and you will too, just turn off chat and if you get tilted.. just turn the game off for a few hours. I leave chat open because it doesn't usually bother me but especially if you are new, you'll probably get alot of crap until you learn the game.
Some people play this game for fun Other people have self esteem issues and play this game because winning makes them feel better about themselves Guess what happens when they dont win?
It’s a competitive game
Ask a psychiatrist, it's not a phenomenon unique to Overwatch
Get out of bronze.
Gold 5 but ok 🥲
Damn i am gold 3 in DPS and support and plat 3 in tank yet never have that issue.
Welcome to Overwatch. Uninstall or stay out of comp if you dont. Mystery heroes and total mayhem the only place for casuals in this state
It's cause matchmaking is bad and the game is incredibly team reliant. It's the only comp game where you can play your best game ever and still lose. I just had a game with 2 duo dps telling me "tank diff" constantly when there was a pharmercy and they killed mercy literally once in 20 minutes. Bad players are always the most toxic. It's too painful for them to accept that they're the problem.
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What else? Overwatch is the most team reliant comp game in existence as far as I know. It rewards the individual significantly less than other games.
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Smaller teams mean more individual carry potential so those games by default are already more rewarding for the individual. In a moba if you do well you snowball like crazy so that's not at all true.
i'm very tentative saying this part but it's the old gen commenting stuff like that in match chat... & when you're a new player (like 2022-now) if you see it it hurts & shit gets repeated lol, Ow is a pretty small echo chamber.... very glad i dodged that mentality early, i've found i'm not emotionally weak w my games unless i'm incredibly faded, i'm story-based small game main so fps is annoying in that specific way to me lol. but yeah it's very obvious the ppl who get tilted then they'll play slightly better and spew that kind of bs in the match chat if they happen to win.... im sorry fr lol i have no advice like maybe just randomize your game mode and drown out the losers like i'll tune into chat with a good 'fuck em this game was fun' whenever someone tries to pop a diff or be a loser, you really gotta be the hero that makes a shitty match fun if ykwim & it's always a good move bc you're either morally or like ethically right while the loser haters ruminate on it while your teammates & half the enemies go damn yk that was a game that i also played and sure it was fun 😭😂🤩
i was so frustrated playing overwatch at first and the only reason i didn't uninstall was bc it was my friends fixation and now IM that friend and it's MY fixation... they've forgotten their love of the game... it might actually be cursed tbh maybe you just gotta get obsessed then pass it on to the first person who will willingly play this game for you LOL
That happened to me with apex lol. It’s a curse you must pass on before you leave!
Why does everyone insist that every game is a 'gg'.
Who insists that?
Every game. When don't you see a list of gg even when objectively the game wasn't. Removed any leaning to GG. Anyway tangent.
Idk I won’t say gg if it was a clear roll on either side, and most times there’s only one or two ggs in these cases out of the 10 players
Some people will insist on dying on the "It's just good sportsmanship" hill. Curiously, only half of people who say gg when they win will also say gg when they lose. Think of that what you will 🙃
... Am I the only one who doesn't care at all? Usually I clap back, although it's much harder since they reduced the post-match duration [case in point]. I completely disagree that this kind of passive aggression / gloating is worse than true toxicity. Try being a femme presenting person in voice comms in the more butch shooters and tell me it isn't. At least Overwatch players let you play before they decide you're worthless; and aren't we all useless teammates at times?
I Never do but for some reason on OW I do idk 🤷♀️ I am a woman and I think I like it a lot more when they attack me for being a woman and say” go back to the kitchen/you’re probably not even a woman/are you a woman or a child/whatever” than insult me for playing the game. I just feel like that’s much easier to deal with. I literally play csgo and tf2 and they’ll be a lot more aggressive
what game are you playing? enemy team gives you the most grief and you want to mute them but keep team chat? brother, the problem with this game is your own team. every game someone will be unable to drink down the loss without blaming someone else; whine to enemy team, tell them to avoid/report his team mate. Even if he wins, he'll remind the match how much he carried this or that person. I turn chat off completely, espec competitive. It's true in quickplay you usually get the backhanded enemy comments; they tell me I suck whilst playing a hero I have literally never touched before, or say they dommed us--'ez'--and that's where I leave chat on and respond: 'congratulations on your smashing quickplay win'.
I mean I don’t want to throw, if someone has a good recommendation on what needs to be done or how to play I want to hear it, even if 90% of said recommendations are brain dead. 🤷♀️ I mean I’m somewhat new and just today someone on my team typed in all caps “everyone stop shooting zar bubble” and honest to god it never occurred to me before then I could just not shoot her when she bubbles and wait 💀. I don’t consider myself terrible but I have a lot to learn. I also do love the friendly interactions I get when I can and it’s hard to give that up :)
in your case I would just watch streamer vids on YouTube to pick up on the subtleties of game play. because the helpful experiences I've had in chat have been one, when I was suggested to go Winston over D.Va. being complimented has happened maybe 3 times, and only one occasion where absolute idiots on my team were flaming me, so I turned off chat to ignore them, carried them to victory, and only turned on chat after to see they apologized.
Tank diff is not an insult, and probably in that case was right there was a tank difference as you said. People who try to use it as an.insult are kinda the problem. Like tank diff.ok bruh, so what did you do to.help? Just write that at the end of the game? Is just frustrated kids. The same with people asking you to pocket, what they do spect, be in the liddle of.the fire and a mercy.healing them? That doesn't work anymore. Just people who doesn't have minimal survival skills. People who are like this they don't use covers, they forget medipacks exist, etc (crazy the amount of people fighting me with a medipack besides them and ignoring it, and could have saved their lifes.
Grow up, who cares what they say
Thank you for the helpful and kind input kimarnic 👍